God will not suffer man to have the knowledge of things to come: for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless and understanding of his adversity, be would be senseless. Augustine. FUTURE-Brilliant Hopes of the. Oh! that this ceaseless current of years and !of seasons were teaching us wisdom; that we were numbering our days; that we were measuring our future by our past; that we were looking back on the twinkling rapidity of the months and the weeks which are already gone; and so improving the futurity that lies before us, that when death shall lay us in our graves, we may, on the morning of the resurrection, emerge into a scene of bliss too rapturous for conception, and too magnificent for the attempts of the loftiest eloquence. FUTURE comes from the Past. Hanna. The future does not come from before to meet us, but comes streaming up from behind over our heads. Rahel. FUTURE-Prospects of the. Interesting as has been the past history of our race, engrossing, as must ever be, the present, the future, more exciting still, mingles itself with every thought and sentiment, and casts its beams of hope, or its shadows of fear, over the stage both of active and contemplative life. In youth, we scarcely descry it in the distance. To the stripling and the man, it appears and disappears like a variable star, showing in painful succession its spots of light and of shade. In age, it looms gigantic to the eye, full of chastened hope and glorious anticipation; and at the great transition, when the outward eye is dim, the image of the future is the last picture which is effaced from the retina of the mind. Sir David Brewster. The present is a point to which but little thought appertains, while the mind hovers backwards and forwards between the past and the future, expending the store of its regret upon the one, and wasting all its wishes upon the other. James. FUTURITY-Veil of. The veil which covers the face of futurity is woven by the hand of mercy. Bulwer Lytton. G. In every garden, four things are necessary to be provided for-flowers, fruit, shade, and water; and whoever lays out a garden without all these, must not pretend to any perfection. It ought to lie to the best parts of the house, or to those of the master's commonest use; so as to be but like one of the rooms out of which you step into another. The part of your garden next your house (besides the walks that go round it), should be a parterre for flowers, or grass-plots, bordered with flowers; or if, according to the newest mode, it be cast all into grass-plots and gravel walks, the dryness of these should be relieved with fountains, and the plainness of those with statues; other wise, if large, they have an ill effect upon the eye. However, the part next the house should be open, and no other fruit but upon the walls. If this take up one-half of the garden, the other should be fruit-trees, unless some grove for shade lie in the middle: if it take up a third part only, then the next third may be dwarf trees, and the last standard fruit; or else the second part fruit-trees, and the third all sorts of winter-greens, which provide for all seasons of the year. I will not enter upon any account of flowers, having only pleased myself with seeing or smelling them, and not troubled myself with the care, which is more the ladies' part than the men's; but the success is wholly in the gardener. Sir W. Temple. GARDEN-Pleasures of a. understood), His life he to his doctrines brought, GARDENING. And in a garden's shade that sovereign pleasure sought: Whoever a true Epicure would be, May there find cheap and virtuous luxury. Cowley, GARDEN-Value of a. I hold that any farmer, who is worthy of the name, will prepare a small plot of ground for his wife and daughters, and that he will, out of love to them, make it all they can wish or desire. It is these little things that make home pleasant and happy; and it has been the lack of these that has driven many a loving heart out into the world, and away from a sterile barren home. Give the wife and daughters a place to plant, tend, and rear their flowers; help them, if needs be, although it may take an hour sometimes that is hard to spare, and you will a thousand times bless God for so ordering your mind that you did it. What husband or father, rugged though his nature may be, does not fondly linger round a home made so bright and cheerful by the fairy hands of his wife and daughters, scattering, as it were, in his way, the beauties of their little plot? What son or brother ever forgets his home, who has found his room daily perfumed with flowers, which have been raised by the hand of a fond mother or gentle loving sisters, and placed there through the promptings of their own affectionate hearts? What daughter ever forgets the home where she has cultivated her little garden, and year after year been so happy in the blossoms which have been borne upon the plants she has watered and tended with such patient care? Parents, brothers, sisters, the dear old home-all come back to her, though years may have passed away in the scent or bloom of every flower. The family is seldom unhappy whose dwelling is surrounded with shady trees, and whose garden is gay with cultivated plants. Do not, then, I beseech you, forget the little flower-garden. GARDENING-English. Peter. The taste of the English in the cultivation of land, and in what is called landscape gardening, is unrivalled. They have studied nature intently, and discover an exquisite sense of her beautiful forms and harmonious combinations. Those charms, which in other countries she lavishes in wild solitudes, are here assembled round the haunts of domestic life. They seem to have caught her coy and furtive graces, and spread them, like witchery, about their rural abodes. Washington Ircing. GARDENING-Pleasures of. As gardening has been the inclination of kings and the choice of philosophers, so it has been the common favourite of public and GENEROSITY-Wisdom of. private men; a pleasure of the greatest, and The truly generous is the truly wise; the care of the meanest; and, indeed, an And he who loves not others, lives unblest. employment and a possession, for which no Home. man is too high nor too low. Sir W. Temple. The royal captain of this ruin'd band, GENIUS-Alliance of. Genius is allied to a warm and inflammable constitution, delicacy of taste to calmness Hence it is common to find and sedateness. genius in one who is a prey to every passion; but seldom delicacy of taste. Upon a man possessed of this blessing, the moral duties, no less than the fine arts, make a deep impression, and counterbalance every irregular desire; at the same time, a temper calm and sedate is not easily moved, even by a strong temptation. Lord Kaimes. GENIUS-Attributes of. The three indispensables of genius are understanding, feeling, and perseverance. The three things that enrich genius are contentment of mind, the cherishing of good thoughts, and exercising the memory. Southey. Nothing is a surer proof of genius than the Walking from watch to watch, from tent to choice of a subject at once new and natural; tent, Let them cry-Praise and glory on his head! Upon his royal face there is no note, How dread an army hath enrounded bim; GENERALS-Skill of. Shakspeare. He in the shock of charging hosts unmoved, GENEROSITY-Unbounded. For his bounty, There was no winter in 't; an autumn 'twas. That grew the more by reaping. Shakspeare. and The Loves of the Poets is of that character. There is no such thing as chance in the spiritual world. A bagman may find on the road a pocket-book full of bank-notes, which had nearly upset his gig, or a ditcher dig up a hoard of gold guineas; but no blockhead ever yet stumbled upon a fine thought, either on the royal roads or by-ways of imagination. If you find one in his possession, you may be sure that he has purloined it from the braintreasury of a rich man, or received it in charity. He does not know its value, and he offers it in exchange for the most worthless articles, such as beads or small beer. You see blockheads labouring all life long to say something good, or fine, or rich, or rare; and sometimes you are surprised to notice productions of theirs not by any means so very much amiss in a small way. But it won't do; a certain air of stupidity, however slight, breathes over every paragraph; their gaudiest compositions are but a bed of indifferent poppies; one anemone, or auricula, or ranunculus, or pink, or carnation, or violet, to say nothing of the lily or the rose, is worth the whole flaunting show,-nay, you sigh even for the dandelion. Genius, however mild and moderate, if true, produces ever and anon some sweet tame or wild flower or another, and presents you with a small bouquet, which you place in your button-hole, or in a jar on the chimneypiece. Professor Wilson. GENIUS. GENIUS-Communicativeness of. It is the prerogative of genius to confer a measure of itself upon inferior intelligences. In reading the works of Milton, Bacon, and Newton, thoughts greater than the growth of our own minds are transplanted into them; and feelings more profound, sublime, or comprehensive are insinuated amidst our ordinary train; while, in the eloquence with which they are clothed, we learn a new language, worthy of the new ideas created in us. By habitual communion with superior spirits, we are not only enabled to think their thoughts, speak their dialect, feel their emotions, but our own thoughts are refined, our scanty language is enriched, our common feelings are elevated; and though we may never attain their standard, yet by keeping company with them, we shall rise above our own; as trees growing in the society of a forest are said to draw each other up into shapely and stately proportion, while field and hedge-row stragglers, exposed to all weathers, never reach their full stature, luxuriance, or beauty. James Montgomery. GENIUS-Consciousness of. Many talk of the vanity of genius selfsufficient, thinking itself above every thing. It is not so. Without a certain consciousness of innate talent, a man would be unequal to any great attempt; his very soul would sink within him, thinking of his weakness and inferiority. As well might a lovely woman look daily in her mirror, yet not be aware of her beauty, as a great soul be unconscious of the powers with which heaven has gifted him; not so much for himself, as to enlighten others; a messenger from God Himself, with a high and glorious mission to perform. Woe unto him who abuses that mission! Chambers. GENIUS. GENIUS-Eccentricity of. Your friend is passionate; perhaps unfit But underneath this rough uncouth disguise Almost all poets of a first-rate excellencedramatic poets above all-have been nearly as remarkable for the quantity as the quality of their compositions; nor has the first injuriously: Witness the seventy affected the second. dramas of Eschylus, the more than ninety of Euripides, the hundred and thirteen of Sophocles. And if we consider the few years during which Shakspeare wrote, his fruitfulness is not less extraordinary. The vein bas been a large and a copious one, and has flowed freely forth, keeping itself free and clear by the very act of its constant ebullition. And the fact is very explicable; it is not so much they that have spoken, as their nation that has spoken by them. Treach GENIUS-Generosity of. Genius always gives its best at first, prudence at last. Lavater. His genius quite obscured the brightest ray Of human thought, as Sol's effulgent beams, At morn's approach, extinguish all the stars. R. Wynne. GENIUS-Haunts of. Some writer has remarked, with equal force and beauty, that, by a visit to those places which we know to have been the haunt of genius, we are more affected than when we hear of their actions or read their works; and this remark is founded on a thorough know ledge of human nature. The room where Newton was born at Wynford, and the cham It is no uncommon thing for some, who excel in one thing, to imagine they may excel in everything, and, not content with that share of merit which every one allows them, are still catching at that which doth not belong to them. Why should a good orator affect to be a poet? Why must a celebrated divine set up for a politician? or a statesman affect the philosopher? or a mechanic the scholar or a wise man labour to be thought a wit? This is a weakness that flows from self-ignorance, and is incident to the greatest men. Nature seldom forms an universal genius, bat deals out her favours in the present state with a parsimonious hand. Many a man, by this foible, hath weakened a well-established reputation. Mason. GENIUS-Divine Plan concerning. To regard the appearance of men of genius as mere chance, or dependent on material causes alone, will be impossible to any one who views man's history, not as a vast chaos, but as the scheme of an intelligent superintending Power. There remains, then, only this alternative: to refer the appearance of every single individual to a special act of divine will and creative energy; or to recognize, in the whole succession of such individuals, one great act of the same will, expressed in an eternal, inviolable law. Each supposition has much on its side; the former seems, at first, more honourable to God, as well as to men of genius, who thus appear to derive their being more directly from an act of free will on His part; the other corresponds more to the general course of Providence, and suggests more clearly the idea of a great spiritual choir, extending in harmonious succession, through the whole history of human progress. If, however, we examine more closely, we shall find that the two sides of the dilemma are not contradictions, but different views of one great truth. Free will and necessity are, when used of God, two ways of expressing the same idea. Looking, according to our imperfect conceptions, at each separate manifestation of the Divine will, we may truly say, that by a special exercise of creative power, the heaven-born gift of genius has been bestowed on the world at such a period and among such a people. But we must guard well against representing to our minds the Divine will as a series of unconnected resolutions; it is, on the contrary, an all-embracing plan, eternal, unchanging: and thus the idea of a law, by which the periodical appearance of men of genius is regulated and fore-appointed, and the progressive intellectual development of the human race secured, harmonizes fully with what our previous conceptions would lead us to expect. GENIUS-Different Qualities of. Allman. Every man should examine his own genius, and advise with himself what is proper to apply himself to; for nothing can be more distant from tranquillity and happiness, than to be engaged in a course of life for which nature has rendered thee unfit; for an active life is not to be undertaken by an unactive person; nor an unactive life by an active person; to one, rest is quiet and action labour; to another, rest is labour and action quiet; & mild and timorous man should avoid a military |