REFLECTIONS. 



CHARLES C. MARBLE. 



Vice often epitomizes ancestry. 



The wisest are not so wise as silence. 



Experience is the grave of enthusi- 

 sm. 



Expedience is the enemy of dogma- 

 ism. 



Our faith is often nothing more than 

 ur hope. 



Should we despise anything that God 

 as made? 



In bestowing benefits we imperil 

 riendship. 



Innocence and guilt are alike suf- 

 used with blushes. 



If vice did not exist wisdom could 

 ot predicate itself. 



Disappointment leaves *a scar which 

 ope cannot remove. 



Success is an excellent proof of the 

 nsdom which achieved it. 



The vices of some men are more en- 

 urable than the virtues of others. 



Beauty is a reproach without vir- 

 ue, while virtue is itself the highest 

 icauty. 



The sun at noon gives no more light 

 han at morn, but its glow has more 

 /armth and power. 



Without the accessories life were of 

 ittle worth, and hope gives it its per- 

 nanence and serenity. 



Marriage should be in harmony with 

 lature, in which what is seemingly dis- 

 urdant but illuminates and purifies it. 



Our conduct toward one another 

 hould be based upon a conception of 

 he infinite mischances of life and the 

 :xquisite poignancy of regret. 



Misfortune seeks consolation in com- 

 nunicating itself. But when it no 

 onger needs sympathy it is silent, and 

 .shamed of its former volubility. 



We can overcome even our preju- 

 lices where some interest is subserved 

 >y it. So much stronger is self-inter- 

 :st than color, social status, or educa- 

 ion. 



The poet should know, better than 

 another, his limitations. Parnassus is 

 always higher than our dreams, and his 

 summit more radiant than the vision 

 of any mortal. 



The lily of the valley, which hides 

 its chaste head in dewy leaflets, is a 

 thousand times less modest than the 

 maiden whose conscious blush reveals 

 the innocence of reason. 



If we were to judge all men by what 

 they seem to have achieved, we would 

 be harsh and unjust. We cannot always 

 see the scar left by a heroic deed, and 

 modesty conceals it. 



Complete benevolence implies sim 

 plicity of living. The Christian can 

 not have if he knows that others 

 have not. Thoreau was perhaps the 

 wisest ma,n of his time; he practiced 

 what he preached; and there are few 

 examples of simplicity to compare 

 with his. 



Nothing, perhaps, is more humili 

 ating than to observe the precocious 

 development of the negative virtues, 

 especially prudence. There is a subtle 

 suspiciousness in early prudence which 

 is at war with all generous impulses. 

 Think of the pinched heart of a little 

 miser. 



There is a selfishness which deals 

 generously with its own: my wife, my 

 child shall be arrayed in the richest, 

 shall feed upon the daintiest; my 

 servant, my handmaid they are 

 naught to me. Nature hath made 

 nothing better than my desert; she 

 hath made nothing poor enough for 

 thee and thine. 



In an old man conceit may be so 

 comprehensive as to include the race. 

 Has he been reasonably successful with 

 the fair sex, all are the subjects of his 

 whim or desire; and he will senten- 

 tiously and confidently repel any claim 

 of virtue or purity. So blind is he to 

 the centuries made splendid by her 

 virtue and self-sacrifice, and so little 

 is his judgment affected by objects un 

 connected with self. 



