The Indianapolis journal., 1884-07-12
BITS OF THOUGHT.

BITS OF THOUGHT
From "A Fashionable suIersr, . BY Augustus Hop
True poetry is emotion, and its Office is to ele-
vate humanity.
Incessant reading of indifferent poetry will in
jure character.
There are creatures who are happy; there are
May-bugs, for instance.
If there could only be more tact and less money
in the world everybody would be happier
am only one out of three millions of other
mortals who never heard of my existence.
Some thoughts. like some milk. are thin and
watery; others are loaded down with the heavy
cream of cogitation
We would much better look at life just as we
find it than be always imagining it to be what It
is not.
There is nothing mean about the sum- if every
body would copy him and mind his own business
we should all be the happier.
Tomorrow becomes to-day, and to day yester-
day, almost while we are looking from the lat
tice over the glowing landscape
In this age of telephone and phonograph it
hardly pays to shut ones eyes for fear that
something wonderful will take place between
the winks.
According to popular creed, success is life;
non-success, death. To succeed, a man must be
without heart. To fail, he has only to possess
one
We are bundles of incongruities and the
truth of the matter is that people are good
deal better and good deal deal worse than 9TH
Or people think they are.
There are only two sorts of ministers, as there
are only two sorts Of women in the world; those
that are worth everything and those that are
Different seasons of the year produce differ
ent sensations; new life in spring. Incidence in
summer, accumulated strength in autumn, and
sturdy resistance in winter.
1t is incumbent on the influential members of
society-those that are fully able to indulge
themselves to the utmost-to set a noble exam
pie to the rest of the world
As the world is both larger and smaller than
we realize it to be, there are persons ia 1t who
take narrower and broader views of the ques-
tions of the day than we naturally expect they
would.
Specialists of any sort scientific, artistic or
asthetic are likely to become little less than en-
thusiasts: enthusiasts are m danger of becom-
ing deranged people, and deranged people, after
while get crazy.
One charm of life is disagreement The curse
of it is when this disagreement carries raneor
and personality. Expurgated of these baleful
elements, existence would resemble a bouquet OF
varied and exquisite flowers
Allowance must be made for certain amount
Of what we call humbug Human nature de-
mands it 1t is like the chit-chat and little tat
tie of society which serve to take the strain off
Of the mind, which might otherwise break down
under a continued pressure of the prosaic
fact is a fact, whatever else is false For
instance that beauty will attract is fact per
fectly incontrovertible. Fascination and natural
affinity between two people will, under certain
conditions, inevitably produce certain results
The constant reading of the modern novel puts
us in false sphere; and this it is which units a
man to cope with the ugly realities Of life about
him. Give me the truth, the Immortal truth,
bitter or sweet; then | know jnst where am
There is a certain form of modern poetry
which is pure bosh 1t miseads instead of in
strncting anybody; it de grades instead of ele-
waiting ones SOUL and it is as inappropriate to
the needs of the age as high necked apron
would be to the wants of Zulu
If we had finally proved either that molecules
moved themselves. or that there was an active,
Intelligent force behind them, pushing them on,
what effect would the settlement of these ques-
tons have upon the welfare of the world2
Happy is the man between whom and his 'iown
self there is no variance, for the skies are
bright and the grass is green. His heart throbs
with CHEEKY pulse, and the whole hue of life is
the color of the rose Trouble begins only when
the paths of these two individuals diverge.
The Rev. George Faxon is model priest,