Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-02-18
CHOICE EXCERPTS.


carry the old fellow on his back.
CHOICE EXCERPTS.
BREvITY and conciseness are the
parents of conviction. The leaden bui
let is more fatal than when multiplied
into shot.
WE make provisions for this life as il
1t were never to have an end, and fol
the other life as though it were never to
have beginning.
MosT men spend too much time II
signing for the earth. and too little in
cultivating the little patch that legiti
mately belongs to them.
As a mans 'yes" or no." so his char
acter. A prompt yes or no marks the
firm, the quick, the decided character
and the slow, the cautious or timid.
By loves delightful influence all the
injuries of the world are alienated, the
bitter cup of affection is sweetness, and
fragrant flowers are strewn along the
most thorny path of life.
THE art of forgetting is the hardest to
learn where it is most in request. 1t is
the happy past that makes happy pres
ent, and together they give pledge of a
happy future-a threefold cord not east
ly broken.
LET us beware of losing our enthusi-
asm. Let US ever glory in something,
and strive to maintain our admiration
for all that would ennoble, and our in
terest in all that would enrich and beau
tify our life.
THERE is generally no such thing as
duty to the people who do it. They sim
ply take life as it comes, meeting, not
shirking its demands, whether pleasant
or unpleasant; and that is pretty much
ali there is of it.
WHY destroy present happiness by a
distant misery, which may never come
at all, or you may never live to see it?
For every substantial grief has twenty
shadows, and most of them shadows of
your own making.
To do simply what we ought is higher,
diviner and more creative than to write
the grandest poem, paint the most beau
tiful picture, build the most worshj ful
temple, or dream out the most enchant-
ing melodious composition.
HABIT, if wisely and skillfully formed,
becomes truly a second nature, as the
common saying is; but unskillfully and
unmethodically directed, it will be, as it
were, the ape of Nature, which initiates
nothing to the life, but only clumsily
and awkwardly.
AVOID unpunctual people. Make it
your own rule not only to be punctual,
but little beforehand. Such habit
secures a composure which is essential
to happiness; for wan. of it many peo-
pie live in constant fever, and put all
about them in fever too.
IN politeness, as in many other things
connected with the formation of charac-
ter, people in general begin outside,
when they should begin inside; instead
Of beginning with the heart, and trust
ing that to form the manners, they be-
gin with the manners, and trust the
heart to chance influences.
MANS great actions are performed in
minor struggles. There are obstinate
and unknown braves who defend them
selves inch by inch in the shadows
against the fatal invasion of want and
turpitude. There are noble and mystic
rious triumphs which no eye sees, no re-
nown rewards, and no flourish of trum-
pets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation,
abandonment and poverty are battlefields
which have their heroes.
Or no use are the men who study to
do exactly as was done before, who can
never.understand that to-day is new
day. We want men of original percep-
tion aEd original action, who can open
their eyes wider than to nationality
namely, to considerations of benefit to
the human race-can act in the inter
ests of civilization; men of elastic, men
of moral mind, who can live in the mo-
ment and take step forward.
COMPASSION is an emotion of which
we ought never to be ashamed. Ever
graceful. particularly in youth, it is the
star of sympathy; and noble is the heart
that melts at the tale of woe. We should
nor permit ease and indulgence to con-
tract our affections and wrap us up in
selfish enjoyment; but we should accus-
tom ourselves to think of the distresses
of human life, of the solitary sufferer,
the sick couch; and with tender hands
and voice alleviate, as far as we may,
1he ills and sorrows or our common hu
manity.
THERE are two lives to each of US,
gliding on at the same time, scarcely
connected with each other-the life of
oar actions, the life of our minds; the
external and the inward history; the
movements of the frame-the deep and
ever restless workings of the heart.
They whobave loved know that there is
diary the affections which we might
keep for years without having occasion
even to touch upon the exterior surface
of life, or busy occupations, the mechan-
ical progress of our existencs; yet by
the last we are judged-the frst Is never
known.