Items of Interest.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 22 September 1904, Page 7

Items of Interest.

(HAVE lived to know that the secret of happiness is never to allow your energies to stagnate.—Adam Clarke. The wealth <<bf a man is the number of things which he loves and blesses, which he is loved and blessed by.—Carlyle. Culture aims at developing the natural man into strength and subtlety, till ho is able to rise above his surroundings. Example is more powerful than precept: whereof you reprove another be unblameablo yourself.—George Washington. He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a very long head, or a very short creed.—C. C. Colton. He who lives for others will have friendSj but he who lives for himself must not complain when he finds the world forsaking him.

The fact that things do not meet with our approval does not seem to disturb them as mnch as it does us.

We ought to be as cheorful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others. There is no doubt some selfish satisfaction in yielding to melancholy; in brooding over grievances, especially if more or less imaginary ; in fancying that we are victims of fate. To be bright and cheerful often requires ah effort; there is a certain art in keeping ourselves happy; in this respect, as in others, wo require to watch over and manage ourselves almost as if we were somebody elso.—Sir John Lubbock.

' Chief among tKjlftauses which bring positive failure or portion, of half success to thousands of honest stragglers is vacillation,' said Thomas B. Bryan. ' The young men who keep their eyes fixed on a definite goal, never yielding an inch till their efforts are attended with absolute success, are not as common, types, as we might wish. Indomitable will is a quality of character that the young men of to-day may well ailord to consider and cultivate.'

There is not a little generalship and stratagem required in the managing and marshalling of our pleasxires, so that each shall not mutually encroach to the destruction of all; for pleasures are very veracious, too apt to worry one another, and each, like Aaron's serpent, is prone to swallow up the rest; thus, drinking will soon destroy the power, gaming the means, and sensuality the taste, for other pleasures less seductive, but far more salubrious and permanent, as they are pure.—Colton.

A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five-pound note. He .or she is a radiating focus of good-will; and their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been lighted. We need not care whether they could prove the fortyseventh proposition ; they do a bettor thing' than that—they practically demonstrate the great theorem of the Liveableness of Life. —R. L. Stevenson.

There are so many new ideas of various kinds floating about in the mental and moral atmosphere of our intelligent, active, busy community that it becomes a serious problem with the thoughtful man or woman what to do with them. Life is too short and its claims too engrossing to permit us to examine them all, or even to investigate those which may come under our own special notice We must be content in many cases to hold our judgment in suspense when we have neither time nor power to test them ; nor should more be required of us.

Words of cheer are words of help. Words of gloom are words of harm. There is a bright side and a dark side to every phase of lite and to every hour of time. If we speak of the bright side, we bring the brightness into prominence ; if we speak of the dark side, we deepen its shadows. It is in our power to help or to hinder by a word any and every person with whom we have, any dealings. A look or a word can help or can harm our fellows. It is for us to give cheer or gloom as we pass on our way through life: and we are accordingly responsible for the results of our influence.

A mass of unsightly clay, as it comes moist and ragged from the pit, is devoid of character. The potter places it upon his wheel; it is -spun round with lightning rapidity; he presses his thumb now here, now there, upon the whirling mass, and when the wheel stops he takes from it the shapely vase or useful bowl. The clay now has character. So in one sense is character in man formed. Life is a stamping machine. Thought, deed, word, feeling, combine in moulding us. In every man wo may see an impress either good or bad, according as his mental, moral and spiritual powers have been under the stamp of goodness or badness, both of which leave their indelible mark.—Donald Guthrie.

Not all hearts are alike. Not every soul is similar to every, other in the way of expressing feeling, or in showing unsought, an interest in those whom one meets. Sometimes this difference is a national one ; sometimes it is a local characteristic. The difference between the French and the English in giving- expression to ordinary feeling is very marked, and this is commonly understood. Sometimes this difference is purely individual, yet it is very real. Ordinarily, the feeling which is readiest to show itself on the surface is likely to be least abiding, while the feeling which, has to be sought for is more permanent when secured. Deep waters noiseless are; and this we know, That chiding streams betray small depths •below. The shallow brook murmurs over its pebbly bed, never stopping to confine its caresses to a favoured one. But this is not the way with deepest wells or souls. There are some hearts like wells, green, mossed and deep As ever summer saw ; And cool their water is—yea, cool and sweet, But you must come and draw.