Life and Literature Part 9

123

A man ashamed of his humble birth is never alone, because all good people are ashamed of him for being ashamed.

124

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soul that riseth with us, our life's star, Hath elsewhere had its setting, And cometh from afar.

--_Wordsworth._

125

YOUTH.

My birthday!--What a different sound That word had in my youthful ears!

And now each time the day comes round, Less and less white its mark appears.

--_Moore._

126

Those who bring suns.h.i.+ne to the lives of others, can not keep it from themselves.

--_Barrie._

127

_Boasters_--For boasters the world has no use; but it is always on the lookout for men who do things. Solomon said: "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own lips."

128

GOOD BOOK-KEEPERS.

Sir Walter Scott, in lending a book one day to a friend, cautioned him to be punctual in returning it. "This is really necessary," said the poet in apology; "for though many of my friends are bad _arithmeticians_, I observe almost all of them to be good _book-keepers_."

129

AN EXPERIENCE AND A MORAL.

I lent my love a book one day; She brought it back; I laid it by: 'Twas little either had to say,-- She was so strange, and I so shy.

But yet we loved indifferent things,-- The sprouting buds, the birds in tune,-- And Time stood still and wreathed his wings With rosy links from June to June.

For her, what task to dare or do?

What peril tempt? What hards.h.i.+p bear?

But with her--ah! she never knew My heart, and what was hidden there!

And she with me, so cold and coy, Seemed like a maid bereft of sense; But in the crowd, all life and joy, And full of blushful impudence.

She married,--well, a woman needs Someone, her life and love to share,-- And little cares sprang up like weeds And played around her elbow-chair.

Years rolled by--and I, content, Trimmed my own lamp, and kept it bright, Till age's touch, my hair besprent With rays and gleams of silver light.

And then it chanced I took the book Which she perused in days gone by; And as I read, such pa.s.sion shook, That, I needs must surely cry.

For, here and there, her love was writ, In old, half-faded pencil-signs, As if she yielded--bit by bit-- Her heart in dots and underlines.

Ah, silvered fool, too late you look!

I know it; but let me here record This maxim: Lend no girl a book Unless you read it afterward!

--_F. S. Cozzens._

130

We should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower; she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it.

--_Colton._

131

Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.

132

BOOKS.

If thou art borrowed by a friend, Right welcome shall he be, To read, to study, not to lend, But to return to me.

Not that imparted knowledge doth Diminish learning's store; But books, I find, if often lent, Return to me no more.

--_Murphy._

133

BOOKS.

The feeling that books are real friends is constantly present to all who love reading. "I have friends," said Petrarch, "whose society is extremely agreeable to me, they are of all ages, and of every country.

They have distinguished themselves both in the cabinet and in the field, and obtained high honors for their knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to gain access to them, for they are always at my service, and I admit them to my company, and dismiss them from it, whenever I please. They are never troublesome, but immediately answer every question I ask them.

Some relate to me the events of past ages, while others reveal to me the secrets of Nature. Some teach me how to live, and others how to die.