Amusing and Instructive.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 342, 18 January 1866, Page 1

Amusing and Instructive.

Quaeeels. —One of the most easy, the moat common, and most perfectly foolish things in the ■world, is—to quarrel, no matter with whom, man, woman, or child; or upon what pretence, provocation, or occasion whatsoever. There is no kind of necessity in it, no manner of use in it, and no species or degree of benefit to be gained by it. And yet, strange as the fact may be, theologians quarrel, and politicians, lawyers, doctors, and princes quarrel; the Church quarrels, and the State quarrels ; nations, and tribes, and corporations, men, women, and children, dogs and cats, birds and beasts, quarrel about all manner of things, and on all manner of occasions. If there is anything in the world that will make a man feel bad, it is unquestionably a quarrel. No man ever fails to think less of himself after than he did before one—rit degrades him in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others —and, what is worse, blunts his sensibility to disgrace on the hand, and increases the power of passionate irritability on the other. The reason people quarrel about religion is, because they have so little of it; and the harder they quarrel, the more abundantly do they prove it. A man has a right to stand fast by his religious faith—a right to insist upon it, a right to present it respectfully, on all proper occasions, to the consideration of others—but he has no right to quarrel: and any man that will quarrel about these things has not much to quarrel about. Politicians need not quarrel. Whosoever quarrels with a man for his political opinions, is himself denying the first principle of freedom—freedom of thought—moral liberty; without which there is nothing in politics worth a groat: it is therefore wrong upon principle. You have on this subject a right to your own opinions—so have others; you have a right to convince them, if you can—they have the same. Exercise your rights; but again we say—don’t quarrel. The truth is, the more quietly and peaceably we get on, the better —the better for ourselves, the better for our neighbors. In nine cases out of ten, the wisest policy is, if a man cheats you, to quit dealing with him ; if he is abusive, quit his company ; if he slanders you, take care to live so that nobody will believe him, no matter who he is, or how he misuses you, the wisest way is generally to let him alone; for there is nothing better than this cool, calm, quiet way of dealing with the wrongs wo meet with.

Men and Animals. —Animals in civilized countries, increase the laboring and productive powers of man to four and a half times what man could perform alone.

Sound. —ln a balloon, the barking of fogs on the ground may be heard at an elevation of three or four miles. On Table Mountain, on mile above Cape Town, every noise in it and even words, may be heard distinctly.

Obesity.— A priest, who was very large and fat, coming late in the evening to a city, and meeting with a countryman, asked him if he could get in at the gate. I believe so,” says the peasant, looking at him jocosely; “for I saw a waggon of hay go in there this morning.”

Humanity. —The strength, happiness, and true civilization of a community are determined by nothing more than by fraternal union among all conditions of men. Eor the sake of the rich as well as the poor, there should be mutual interest binding them together, There should be but one casie —that of a humanity.

The Speed op Bieds. —lt is said that the speed of swallows, when emigrating, is not less than fifty miles an hour; so that when aided by the wind, they soon reach warmer latitudes. It has also been calculated that the swallow can fly at the rate of ninety-two miles an hour, and that of hawks and sexeral other tribes to be one hundred and fifty miles an hour.

The Rational.— Universal reason is the immortal heritage of humanity; it cannot die out of the human soul any more than it can die out of human traditions ; but it ebbs and flows from age to age, and it sometimes recedes so far from living contact with the transient movements around us that, though.we hear remote the murmur of its waters, yjet we do not see the joyful and abounding onrush of its wares.