Items of Interest.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 18 August 1904, Page 3

Items of Interest.

WHEN life seems to be continuous, every day deriving much from all previous days, and adding something to their meaning and merit, and every day, too, predisposing all future days with decisions for good or evil, a seriousness of purpose helps the judgment and counsels the will. All our knowledge is, ourselves to know. —Alex. Pope. . It is well to put off until to-morrow what you ought not to do at all. Character—souh—can only be got by selfsurrender.—Mrs. Humphry Ward. Freedom is not to do as we like, it is the capacity of doing as we ought.—Westcott. The man who docs things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all—doing nothing. Self-righteousness.—The deep delusion of In which misleads him into admiring his posed excellence, and regarding his ral conduct as fully satisfying the rercments of the moral law.—J. Miller, io night is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, VhenDuty whispers low, Thou must, The Youth replies, ' I can !' —Emerson. Jl things arc engaged' in writing their k>ry. Every act of man inscribes itself :he memories of his own manners and }. The air is full of sounds ; the sky of Lis ; the ground is all memoranda and Kures, and every object covered with speak to the intelligent,—

Sorrow must come some time to everybody, and those who scarcely taste it in their youth often have a more brimming and bitter cup to drain in after life; whereas, those who exhaust the dregs early, who drink the lees before the wine, may reasonably hope for more palatable draughts to succeed.

Pool! all that is at all Lasts ever, past recall I Earth changes, but thy Soul and God stands sure; What entered into thee, That was, is, and shall be ; Time's wheel runs back or stops Potter and clay endure.

—Browning.

_ You will say, 'Charity is greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater ; it is the summit of justice—it is the temple of which justice is the foundation. But you can't have the top without the bottom ; you cannot build upon charity. You must build upaii justice, for this main reason, that you have not at first charity to build with. It is the last reward of good work. Do justice to your brother (you can do that, whether you love him or not), and you will come to love him. But do injustice to him because you don't love him, and you will come to hate him.— liuskin.

There are few things so exhilarating to the spirits especially in the sense of ardent and buoyant youth, as the first visit to a foreign land. Amongst things purely pleasurable, it is perhaps one of the most unalloyed gratifications which occur in the course of our life. But, like all other pleasures, it may be made accordingly as we use it, a source of present vanity and future regret, or; on the other hand, of lasting and solid improvement. Our object should be, not to gratify curiosity, and seek mere temporary amusement, but to learn and to venerate—to improve the heart and understanding.—Grisley.

Do you not agree with Keats that— To one who has been so long in city pent, 'Tis very sweet to look into the fair And open face of heaven—to breathe a prayer Pull in the smile of the blue firmament ? And do you not begin to think as Wordsworth thought when he said— To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears?

If enthusiasm makes enthusiasts, we pray for more of them. There is a wild and -noble enthusiasm. The former is dangerous ; the latter a loyal gift. It is regulated force; heart and sense combined; eagerness and foresight prosecuting sublime purposes. Those endowed with it are not blind to difficulties, but brave to meet them; they measure dangers, recognise the chances of failure, but venture where duty calls, expecting to conquer by success.-. There is fire in their bones and wisdom in their heads, and the more the fire burns the clearer the mind becomes; resources are developed as difficulties accumulate, and the 'one chance in ten' for success. is the one they expect to grasp, by dint of energy and skill, and usually do it.

I am in thorough sympathy with Professor Henslow in the fundamentals of his lecture; but I cannot admit that, with regard to the origin of life, science neither affirms nor denies Creative Power. Science positively affirms Creative Power. It is not in dead matter that we live and move and have our being, but in the Creating and Directing Power which science compels us to accept as an article of belief. We cannot escape from that conclusion when we study the physics and dynamics of living and dead matter all around. Modern biologists are coming, I believe, once more to a firm acceptance of something beyond mere gravitational, chemical, and physical forces ; and that unknown thing is a vital principle. We have an unknown object put before us in science. In thinking of that object we are all agnostics. We only know God in His works, but we are absolutely forced by science to believe with perfect confidence in a Directive Power—in an influence other than physical, or dynamical, or electrical forces.—Lord Kelvin. - '

STRANGE PUNISHMENT-

The Jewish colony of South Nor walk u Connecticut, U.S.A., has a unique law, relative to punishment of petty thieves. A visitor there noticed a man walking about with two hats on his head, one over the other. ' What's he doing that for?' asked the visitor. 'That,' replied a native, 'is our way of punishing petty thievery. He has been condemned to wear two hats wherever he goes for two weeks, and every one there knows what the two hats on his head signify. We don't have much trouble of that character; if a man persists in transgressing the laws we simply drive him out of the community.' The colony now numbers fully four hundred. PAT'S ASTONISHMENT. Pat had come to town, and brought his money with him. He tipped liberally, and a railway porter was almost staggered with his munificence. He looked at the two shillings thoughtfully a moment, then, bending down to Pat, exclaimed : ' You've tipped me royally, sir, and in return I give you a tip. Never ride in the last carriage of the train, for that always comes off worst in a collision.'

' Indade ! Then why the blazes don't yer lave it off ?'

MINDING MIS OWN BUSINESS

' I have made it a rule through life,' he said, at the lunch-table the other day, to the man at his left, ' never to meddle with another man's business.' 'That's right—perfectly right,' was the reply. ' But I see you have anew confidential clerk.' ' Yes, sir —yes.' 'He's a hard-looking case. I've seen him drunk a dozen times, and I wouldn't trust him out of my sight with a button. Took him in out of charity, eh ? ' ' Well, not altogether, you know. He happens to be my eldest son!' Then there was a period of silence, so painful that both wished some one would yell 'firel' to break it| '' Where the Work Comes In.—Minister's Wife : ' You haven't been out of your study an hour this week. What is the matter ?' Minister : ' Some of the congregation say my sermons are too long, and I've been trying to write a short one.' He: ' Kitty, I've heard it. said that a kiss without a moustache is like an egg without salt. Is that so ?' ' She : ' Well, really, I don't know—l can't tell—for in my life I never ' He : ' Now, now, Kitty I' Shej ' Never ate an egg without salt.' Young Wife (at the fancy ball) : ' You're improving wonderfully as a dancer. Don't you remember how you used to tear my dresses V Young Husband: 'Y-e-s; I wasn't buying 'cm then.' Sentimental Maiden: ' There goes Jack's wife; she is never happy when Jack it out of her sight. It is because she loves him so much?' Experienced Widow : ' No» It's because she knows him bo well.'