The Irish standard., 1898-02-12

life miserable. We find ourselves where
we seek ourselves in matter or in mind,
in lust or in love, in the low world of
mere sensation and base desire or ir
that where souls are transtigured and
illumined by eternal truth.
Perfection is indeed beyond the
reach of man, but they who strive seri-
ously to become perfect will acquire
excellence and virtues, will taste a
peace and a Joy of which the many have
hardly conception. When we move
forward in the light of the ideal Of hui
man perfection all the ways of life be-
come plain, and opportunity is forever
present and appealing. We find it in
youth and age, in glad days and in
sad days, in health, and in sickness, in
poverty, in wealth, in the panorama
of nature, with its change of seasons,
its sunsets and dawns, its mountains,
and oceans, its plains and rivers, and
in the scarcely less marvellous world of
books.
There is nothing great as there is
nothing small which a wise man will
not turn to his own improvement.
What are senses but permanent op-
portunities, inviting us to look that we
may see and know, to listen that we
may hear and understand? What is
success but command to attempt still
better things? What is failure but an
appeal to the all-hcping heart of man to
make another venture? At whatsoever
moment we awaken to the worth and
meaning of life there is work for us to
do. There may be no one who is willing
to pay us for our work, but God and
nature are forever with us, upholding
and assisting us in all our efforts to be-
come wise, strong and virtuous.
III we cannot do great things there
is ever present opportunity OF doing
little things well, and great occasions
come only to those who make habitual
use of the hundred daily minor oppor-
tunities which occur to all. If we fail
in the dangers and temptations which
none escape it is because there is some
fault or weakness in our daily life, in
our habitual state. If we are true and
high in the common affairs nothing
shall have power to turn lis from the
straight way.
Honesty is the best policy, because
an honest man, whether or not he gets
place or money is true man, approved
of himself and Of God In poverty he
is rich, in prison he is free. Whatever
his outward fate and fortune failure
cannot touch him, for to be a genuine
man is to be the highest we may know
on earth.
There are few who have to work
more than 10 hours in "a. Allow eight
for sleep and two for meals and there
still remain four for self-improvement
You ask how is it possible to do without
amusement. Find it in the work by
which you upbuld your own being, and
kings do not taste the pleasure and JOY
which shall be yours There is scarcely
anything which is more important to
learn than how to live on little and be
content Herewith; for the less we need
what is without, the more leisure shall
we have to live within. Economy o.
time is less common and far more i'm
portant than economy of money, for
though time is money, it is
also the means of attaining infinitely
greater and higher things. All else
may be made good, but wasted time is
lost forever. Learn to think and you
need never lack employment. The
TRANSMISSION cf thought is more quicken
ing than the TRANSMISSION of blood
IF you have ambition then choose
the kind of life which gives the best
opportunities for the development of
your higher nature, which is most fav-
orable to the play of the nobler facul-
ties and more generous impulses, the
life which will best help you to become
a man we'll rounded and complete"