Life and Literature Part 59

815

Habit with him was all the test of truth, "It must be right: I've done it from my youth."

--_Crabbe._

816

INNOCENCE AND GUILT.

A painter, desiring to paint a picture of Innocence, found a beautiful boy playing at the side of a stream, who became his model. He painted him kneeling, with his hands clasped in prayer. The picture was prized as a very beautiful one. Years pa.s.sed away, and the artist became an old man. He had often thought of painting a counterpart, the picture of guilt, as a companion to the other; and at last he executed it. He went to a neighboring prison, and there selected the most degraded and repulsive man he could find. His body and eye were wasted; vice was visible in his very face. But what was the artist's surprise when, on questioning the man as to his history, he found that it was he who, as a lovely boy, had kneeled for him as the model of Innocence! Evil habits had gradually changed him, not only in heart and mind, but in face and form.

817

All habits gather by unseen degrees.

As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

--_Dryden: Ovid._

818

Old habits are hard to break; new habits are hard to make.

819

Taste may change; our inclinations never change.

820

Habits are soon a.s.sumed--acquired--but when we strive to strip them off,--if of long standing--'tis being flayed alive!

--_Cowper._

821

To stop the hand, is the way to stop the mouth.

(If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.)

--_Chinese._

822

ELOQUENCE OF THE HANDS.

The hands are, by the very instincts of humanity, raised in prayer; clasped in affection; wrung in despair; pressed on the forehead when the soul is "perplexed in the extreme;" drawn inward, to invite; thrust forth objectively, to repel; the fingers point to indicate, and are snapped in disdain; the palm is laid upon the heart, in invocation of subdued feeling, and on the brow of the compa.s.sioned in benediction. The expressive capacity of the hands was never more strikingly displayed than in the orisons (prayer) of the deaf and dumb. Their teacher stood with closed eyes, and addressing the Deity by those signs made with the fingers which const.i.tute a language for the speechless. Around him were grouped more than a hundred mutes, following with reverent glances every motion. It was a visible, but not an audible, worship.

823

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HAND.

A dispute arose among three ladies as to which had the most beautiful hands. One sat by a stream, and dipped her hand into the water and held it up; another plucked strawberries until the ends of her fingers were pink; and a third gathered violets until her hands were fragrant. An old, haggard woman, pa.s.sing by, asked, "Who will give me a gift, for I am poor?" all three denied her; but another who sat near, unwashed in the stream, unstained with fruit, unadorned with flowers or perfume, gave her a little gift, and satisfied the poor woman. Then the woman asked them what was the subject of their dispute; and they told her, and lifted up before her their beautiful hands. "Beautiful indeed!" she exclaimed, as she saw them. But when they asked her which was the most beautiful, she said: "It is not the hand that is washed clean in the brook; it is not the hand that is coloured with crimson tints; it is not the hand that is perfumed with fragrant flowers; but the hand that gives to the poor, that is the most beautiful."

824

TRUE HAPPINESS.

True happiness Consists not in the mult.i.tude of friends, But in the worth and choice: nor would I have Them popular: Let them be good that love me, though but few.

--_Ben Jonson._

825

Happiness consists in being perfectly satisfied with what we have got, and with what we haven't got.

826

Happiness consists not in possessing much, but in being content with what we possess. He who wants little, always has enough.

827

A cottage will hold as much happiness as would stock a palace.

--_Hamilton._

828

With "gentleness" his own character, "comfort" in his house, and "good temper" in his wife, the earthly felicity of man may be said to be complete.

--_From the German._

829

What dangers threaten a great reputation!

Far happier the man of lowly station.