THE SCRAP BOOK

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 38, 27 February 1930, Page 11

THE SCRAP BOOK

THE GRIME OF BEING YOUNG

The Atrocious crime of being a young' man I shall neither attempt. to palliate nor deny;,but content myself with wish-. ing that I may be ■ one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number- who are ignorant in spite of experience. Whether youth, can be imputed to any man as a reproach I will not assume the province of determining; but surely, age may justly become contemptible if the opprtunities which it brings have passed away without improvement.—William. Pitt. THE MAN'S WORLD & HIS DOG'S When a man of taste or science climbs a mountain on a bright, transparent* day he rejoices in its goodly prospects or curious spoils; but his dog feels 110 interest in them. >• ■ \ ..;■>■ '. - . He sees the " philosopher peering through his telescope or exploring for the little plants that grow near the summit, or splintering the rocks and putting fragments in the bag; but it never occurs to the spaniel so much as to marvel what his master is finding there. He sits yawning and panting on a sunny knoll, or snaps at the' mountain bee as" it comes sailing past him, or chases the conies back to their holes and scampers, down, with noisy glee, as soon as the hungry sojourn is ended. The disparity between the philosopher and his irrational friend is hardly greater than it is between the believer and the wd riding when'you bring them together into the domain of faith.—James Hamilton. .. ' : ." •--.■■.• H ||*!|t A MASTER'S FAREWELL TO HIS . PUPIL , Both at Oxford and afterwards remember how much Shrewsbury has done for j'ou, and do all you can for her. I. wast your school to be a kind of. minor religion with you, ranked by the side of patriotism.' Make it a sort of bond, a * freemasonary, between you and all those who have been here. Always help Old; Salopians, wherever, whoever they may be, when you are able; and never let any one of them be your enemy.—-From a Shrewsbury Master's Letter. . ON THE MANTLEPIEOE ■ Ah, take care 1 You see*, what that oldlooking saucer is, with the handle to it? It is a venerable piece.of earthenware, which may have been worth to an Athenian about twopence; but to'an author is worth a great deal more. It will fetch his imagination more than it will ever fetch potter -or pennymakers. Its little . shallow circle overflows for him with the milk and honey of a thousand pleasnt associations. Thu^ is .one of the uses of Tiaving mantelpieces. You may often see on no very rich mantlepieee a representative body of all the .elements, physical and intellectual —a shell for the sea, a stuffed bird or some feathers for the air, a curious piece of mineral for the Earth, a glass of water with some flowers in it for the visible process' of Creation; a cast from sculpture fox the mind of man; and underneath all is the blight and ev-er-spring fire, running up through them heavenwards, like hope through materiality.—Leigh Hunt. \ FLOWER IN A CRANNIED ROAD I saw a delicate flower.had grown up, two feet; high between the -horses 7 path and the wheel-track. An inch more to right or left had sealed its fate, or an inch higher; and yet it lived to'flourish as much as if it-had a thousand acres of untrodden spajce aroundi it, and. never know the danger it incurred, it did not borrow trouble, nor invite an evil fate by apprehending it..- —Thoreau.