APRIL 29..

Crowds and centuries of books are only echoes and weakeners of the few great voices of Time.

Of immortality the soul when well employed is incurious. It is so well, it is sure it will be well. It asks no questions of the Supreme Power. Higher than the question of enduring is the question of deserving. It is higher to confide that if better we should live, we shall live, than to have lease of centuries and milleniums. Our dissatisfaction with every other solution is the blazing evidence of our immortality.

R. W. Emerson, died April 27, 1882, aged 79.

APRIL 30.

Early habits of self-restraint, total abstinence from all excess, diligence in business, attention to our duties, and tranquillity of mind, would do more to abate disease than all physicians, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked than all Poor Laws and charitable institutions.

Thomas Guthrie, died Feb. 24, 1873, aged 70.

2

MAY 1.

It must be so-Plato, thou reasonest well-
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread and inward horror
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;

'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates Eternity to man.

Joseph Addison, born May 1, 1672.

MAY 2.

Evedy other quality is subordinate to wisdom, as the mason who lays the brick and stones in a building is subordinate to the architect who drew the plan and superintends the work. There is no faculty we exert, no skill we apply, but requires a superintending hand, and looks to some higher principle, as a maid to her mistress, for direction; and this universal superintendent is Wisdom. Hence Wisdom is to be considered as the top and summit of perfection. Robert Hall, born May 2, 1764.

MAY 3.

What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. What is soul? It is immaterial.

Thomas Hood, died May 3, 1845, aged 47.

Lilies of a day are fair and sweet in May;
Although they fall and die that night,
They are plants and flowers of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measure life may perfect be.

MAY 4.

My theory of life is no indolence theory. I have worked hard and mean to work hard on things which have a worthy end and use. What I protest against is asceticism, blindness to what is beautiful and pleasurable, a preference for the disagreeable, above all, a parting of life into this element and that, and a contempt of half the life we have to live as if it hindered us from living the other half. Mind, soul, and body, I would harmoniously develop togetherneither intellectualism, nor spiritualism, nor sensualism, but a broad humanity.

John Richard Green, died March 9, 1883, aged 46.

MAY 5.

Napoleon (died May 5, 1821) was a great legislator. Few enactments have had a more potent effect in moulding social and political life than the provision of the Code for the compulsory division of property. It checks population, enforces equality, constitutes the most powerful and conservative of landed interests.

Rosebery, born Sept. 19, 1847.

MAY 6.

If there's a Power above us,

And that there is, all nature cries aloud
Through all her works, He must delight in virtue.

The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the wars of elements,

The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
Joseph Addison.

MAY 7.

This world is no blot for us,

Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good.
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.

Robert Browning, born May 7, 1812.

Browning's temper is that of a philosopher rather than poet. His versification and grammar are hard. He interprets human nature in its sadness as well as grotesqueness. With less of beauty in his writings than in other poets, there is more to be learnt from him. He said he wished to put as much thought as possible into his poetry, that Sophocles and other poets are full of difficulty. His reputation would have stood higher if he had published nothing during his last twenty years.

Benjamin Jowett, 1817-1898.

MAY 8.

There is no man who is leading a good life who is far from the kingdom of heaven. We must allow for differences of character, for dislike of forms, for reaction against early education, and not demand of every one that they conform to the same pattern. He who has the love of God and man in his soul has the root of the matter in him; he who has any true love of man is not far from the love of God. B. Jowett.