raised conception that we have of God is, that ACTION-Speech the Reflex of. ACTION-Perseverance in. South If we hope to instruct others, we should familiarize our own minds to some fixed and determinate principles of action. The world is a vast labyrinth, in which almost every one is running a different way, and almost every one manifesting hatred to those who do not run the same way. A few indeed stand motionless, and, not seeking to lead themselves or others out of the maze, laugh at the failures of their brethren, yet with little reason; for more grossly than the most bewildered wanderer does he err who never aims to go right. It is more honourable to the head, as well as to the heart, to be misled by our eagerness in the pursuit of truth, than to be safe from blundering by contempt of it. The happiness of mankind is the end of virtue, and truth is the knowledge of the means; which he will never seriously attempt to discover who has not habitually interested himself in the welfare of others. Action hangs, as it were, "dissolved" in speech, in thoughts whereof speech is the shadow; and precipitates itself therefrom. The kind of speech in a man betokens the kind of action you will get from him. Carlyle. ACTION-Strength of. Strong reasons make strong actions. ACTIONS-Conduct in. Shakspeare. Young men in the conduct and management of actions embrace more than they can hold, stir more than they can quiet, fly to the end without consideration of the means and degrees, pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly, care not to be innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first, and that which doubleth all errors will not acknowledge or retract them. Bacon. ACTIONS-Consequences of. Our actions are our own; their consequences Francis. belong to Heaven. ACTIONS-Construction of. There is no word or action, but may be taken with two hands; either with the right hand of charitable construction, or the sinister interpretation of malice and suspicion: and all things do succeed as they are taken. To construe an evil action well, is but a pleasing and profitable deceit to myself: but to misconstrue a good thing, is a treble wrong; to myself, the action, and the author. Bishop Hall. ACTIONS-Good and Evil. The evil that men do lives after them; ACTIONS-Great. It behoves the high The searcher after truth must love For their own sake to do things worthily. and be beloved; for general benevolence is a necessary motive to constancy of pursuit; and this general benevolence is begotten and rendered permanent by social and domestic affections. Let us beware of that proud philosophy which affects to inculcate philanthropy while it denounces every home-born feeling by which it is produced and nurtured. The paternal and filial duties discipline the heart, and prepare it for the love of all mankind. The intensity of private attachments encourages, not prevents, universal benevolence. The nearer we approach the sun, the more intense his heat yet what corner of the system does he not cheer and vivify. Coleridge. Ben Jonson. All our actions take William Thompson Bacon. ACTIONS-Independent. What I must do is all that concerns me, and not what people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It ACTIONS-Unselfish. ACTIONS-Justice in. Emerson. The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves: but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others; and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice. Swift. ACTIONS-Qualities of. For good and evil must in our actions meet; ACTIONS-Religious. Donne. Go! let your deeds His praises prove; ACTIONS-Responsibility of. Unselfish and noble acts are the most radiant epochs in the biography of souls. When wrought in earliest youth, they lie in the memory of age like the coral islands, green and sunny, amidst the melancholy waste of ocean. Thomas. ACTIONS-Value of. The manner of saying or of doing anything goes a great way in the value of the thing itself. It was well said of him that called a good office that was done harshly, and with an ill-will, a stony piece of bread; it is necessary for him that is hungry to receive it, but it almost chokes a man in the going down. Seneca. ACTIONS (Good)-Immortality of. Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity. Lavater. ACTIONS (Good)-Influence of. A right act strikes a cord that extends through the whole universe, touches all moral intelligence, visits every world, vibrates along its whole extent, and conveys its vibrations to the very bosom of God! Pray learn to understand how all work has in it a spiritual element; how the meanest thing on earth has a divine side; how all temporary forms include essences that are to be eternal. Whatever be the meanness of a man's occupation, he may discharge and prosecute it on principles common to him with Michael, or Gabriel, or any of the highest spirits of heaven. Binney. ACTIONS (Little)-Power of. It is little : But in these sharp extremities of fortune, scatter Have their own season. "Tis a little thing It behoves us always to bear in mind, that while actions are always to be judged by the immutable standard of right and wrong, the judgments which we pass upon men must be qualified by considerations of age, country, station, and other accidental circumstances; and it will then be found that he who is most charitable in his judgment is generally the least unjust. Southey. ACTIONS. ACTIONS (Wicked)-Eulogizing. The guilt of eulogizing or apologizing for wicked actions is second only to that of committing them. Southey. ACTIVITY-Importance of. Let's take the instant by the forward top; ADVENTURE. ADMIRATION-Indulgence in. It is a good thing to believe; it is a good thing to admire. By continually looking upwards, our minds will themselves grow upwards; and as a man, by indulging in habits of scorn and contempt for others, is sure to descend to the level of what he despises, so the opposite habits of admiration and enthusiastic reverence for excellence impart to ourShakspeare.selves a portion of the qualities we admire. Here, as in everything else, humility is the surest path to exaltation. Dr. Arnold. ADMIRATION-Novelty necessary for. Admiration must be continued by that novelty which first produced it; and how much soever is given, there must always be reason to imagine that more remains. Johnson. ADMIRATION-Pleasures of. Activity is liable to commit some injuries; but indolence is sure to do no good. Zimmerman. ACTIVITY-Moderation in. Run if you like, but try to keep your breath; Work like a man, but don't be worked to death. Holmes. ACTIVITY-Rustic. For he was one in all their idle sport, Though a pleader or preacher is hoarse or awkward, the weight of their matter commands respect and attention; but in theatrical speaking, if the performer is not exactly proper and graceful, he is utterly ridiculous. In cases where there is little expected but the pleasure of the ears and eyes, the least diminution of that pleasure is the highest offence. In acting, barely to perform the part is not commendable; but to be the least out is contemptible. Steele. ACUTENESS-Characteristics of. There is a pleasure in admiration; and this is that which properly causeth admiration, when we discover a great deal in an object which we understand to be excellent; and yet we see (we know not how much) more beyond that, which our understandings cannot fully reach and comprehend. Tillotson. ADMONITION-should be Gentle. We must consult the gentlest manner and softest seasons of address; our advice must not fall like a violent storm, bearing down and making those to droop whom it is meant to cherish and refresh. It must descend, as the dew upon the tender herb, or like melting flakes of snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon and the deeper it sinks into the mind. If there are few who have the humility to receive advice as they ought, it is often because there are few who have the discretion to convey it in a proper vehicle, and to qualify the harshness and bitterness of reproof, against which corrupt nature is apt to revolt, by an artful mixture of sweetening and agreeable ingredients. To probe the wound to the bottom with all the boldness and resolution of a good spiritual surgeon, and yet with all the delicacy and tenderness of a friend, requires a very dexterous and masterly hand. An affable deportment and a complacency of behaviour will disarm the most obstinate; whereas, if instead of calmly pointing out their mistake, we break out into unseemly sallies of passion, we cease to have any influence. Seed. ADVENTURE-Spirit of. Yet who but he undaunted could explore Rogers. When all was still in the destroying hour- ADVERSITY-Benefits of. It is good for man to suffer the adversity of this earthly life: for it brings him back to the sacred retirement of the heart, where only he finds he is an exile from his native home, and ought not to place his trust in any worldly enjoyment. It is good for him also to meet with contradiction and reproach: and to be evil thought of, and evil spoken of, even when his intentions are upright, and his actions blameless: for this keeps him humble, and is a powerful antidote to the poison of vainglory; and then chiefly it is that we have recourse to the witness within us which is God; when we are outwardly despised, and held in no degree of esteem and favour among men. Our dependence upon God ought to be so entire and absolute, that we should never think it necessary, in any kind of distress, to have recourse to human consolations. Thomas à Kempis. ADVERSITY-Consolation in. The noble nature of man's gen'rous heart To close th' oppressive splendour of his day, ADVERSITY-Merit of. Ask the man of adversity how other men act towards him; ask those others how he arts towards them. Adversity is the true touchstone of merit in both; happy if it does not produce the dishonesty of meanness in Sweet are the uses of adversity, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. As adversity leads us to think properly of our state, it is most beneficial to us. Johnson. ADVICE-Conjugal. Come near me, wife, I fare the better far, A virtuous woman's counsel: her wing'd spirit ADVICE-With bad Example. ADVICE-Experienced. Let no man presume to give advice to others, that has not first given good counsel to himself. Seneca. ADVICE-given by a Friend. Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy; One day, as an ancient king of Tartary was riding with his officers of state, they met a dervise, crying aloud, "To him that will give me a hundred dinars, I will give a piece of good advice." The king, attracted by this strange declaration, stopped, and said to the dervise, "What advice is this that you offer for a hundred dinars ?" "Sire," replied the dervise, "I shall be most thankful to tell you, as soon as you order the money to be paid me." The king, expecting to hear something extraordinary, ordered the money to be given to the dervise at once. On receiving which, he said, "Sire, my advice is, begin nothing without considering what the end may be." The officers of state, smiling at what they thought ridiculous advice, looked at the king, who they expected would be so enraged at this insult, as to order the dervise to be severely punished. The king, seeing the amusement and surprise which this advice had occasioned, said, "I see nothing to laugh at in the advice of this dervise, but, on the contrary, I am persuaded, that if it were more frequently practised, men would escape many calamities. Indeed, so convinced am I of the wisdom of this maxim, that I shall have it engraved on my plate, and written on the wails of my palace, so that it may be ever before me." ADVICE. The king, having thanked the dervise for his advice, proceeded towards his palace; and, on his arrival, he ordered the chief bey to see that the maxim was engraved on his plate, and on the walls of his palace. An Sometime after this occurrence, one of the nobles of the court, a proud, ambitious mau, resolved to destroy the king, and place himself on the throne. In order to accomplish his diabolical purpose, he secured the confidence of one of the king's surgeons, to whom he gave a poisoned lancet, saying. "If you will bleed the king with this lancet, I will give you ten thousand pieces of gold; and, when I ascend the throne, you shall be my vizier. This base surgeon, dazzled by such brilliant prospects, wickedly assented to the proposal. opportunity of effecting his evil design soon occurred. The king sent for this man to bleed him he put the poisoned lancet into a side pocket, and hastened into the king's presence. The arm was tied, and the fatal lancet was about to be plunged into the vein, when suddenly the surgeon's eye read this maxim at the bottom of the bason-"Begin nothing without considering what the end may be.' He immediately paused, as he thought within himself, "If I bleed the king with this lancet, he will die, and I shall be seized and put to a cruel death; then of what use will all the gold in the world be to me?" Then, returning the lancet to his pocket, he drew forth another. The king, observing this, and perceiving that he was much embarrassed, asked why he changed his lancet so suddenly. He stated that the point was broken; but the king. doubting his statement, commanded him to show it. This so agitated him, that the king felt assured all was not right. He said, "There is treachery in this; tell me instantly what it means, or your head shall be severed from your body." The surgeon, trembling with fear, promised to relate all to the king, if he would only pardon his guilt. The king assented, and the surgeon related the whole matter, and acknowledged that had it not been for the words in the bason, he should have used the fatal lancet. The king summoned his court, and ordered the traitor to be executed. Then, turning to his officers of state, he said, "You now see that the advice of the dervise, at which you laughed, is most valuable it has saved my life. Search out this dervise, that I may amply reward him for his wise maxim. Lady M. W. Montague. Learn to be wise, and practise how to thrive : That I would have thee do; and not to spend Your coin on every bauble that you fancy, |