75 



Random Readings from the Reviews. 



SeLF-LdVE VLKSl .S SiCI.KlSllNF.SS. 



The tluty of self-love is a strangely misunderstood 

 and widely neglected duty. Self-iove is commonly 

 used as a synonym for selfishness. But this common 

 use of the term is an entire perversion of it. For 

 self-love and selfishness, far from being identical or 

 interchangeable terms, are terms essentially antagon- 

 istic. The truly self-loving man is always unselfish. 

 The selfish man i-- always deficient in self-love, 

 or even in proper respect. It is only when a 

 man confuses a part of himself with his whole self, 

 and. loves one i>art excessively instead of loving all 

 ])arts in their due proportion, that seif-love is degraded 

 into selfishness. Selfishness is fractional self-love : 

 and self-love is the destruction of selfishness by the 

 conviction that the whole is greater than any of its 

 parts. Selfishness is a nian"s devotion to one part of 

 himself to the exclusion of the other parts, while self- 

 love is his devotion to his whole self in all its parts 

 taken in combination. Selfishness is a partial, self- 

 love is an integral affection. — The Bishop of Car- 

 lisle, in the Exposidir. 



SiMi'LE Fare at a Feast. 



In the December Forum Horace Traubel quotes a 

 story from Walt \\ hitman about Andrew Jackson. A 

 swell political dinner was given to him, and a friend 

 drew him aside and said : — 



" Now, Jackson, this is an claliorate ilinner : we want lo do 

 ihe best we can by you : have you any flelicacy, any favorite 

 (li>b — anything which ymi particularly alleci or desire ' What 

 we will yet for you is sulmiiite<l lo your own choice." Jackson 

 hesitates— thinks— finally s.iys simply: "I don't know: what 

 can I specify ? Pcrhaiis some rice and milk." " Rice ;ind 

 milk !— of all things to be thought of, if thouijhl of at all," W . 

 remarked : "the last thin),', wiih that elaborate kitchen in the 

 rear— the ijucsts about — the ixpectatioii — would be the rice and 

 milk ! " 



WiiM A Law ok Natlki. is and is Nor. 



A Law of Nature is not a command, but a state- 

 ment of conditions. A I,aw of Nature is an invariable 

 se<iuence. If you do not like the result, change the 

 preceding conditions. Ignorant, you are heljiless, at 

 the mercy of Nature's hurtling forces ; wise, you are 

 master, and her forces serve yoti obediently. {•",very 

 Law of Nature is an enabling, not a compelling force, 

 but knowledge is necessary for utilising her powers. — 

 .Mrs. Besani', in the Tluospphist for December. 



The Resemblance Between Iniha and Ireland. 



The "Sons of India" are paralleled by the 

 " Daughters of Erin." 



It seems to me that it is because the Indians and 

 tiic Iri.sh have similar national defects that the same 

 power is being used by the great karmic 'lime-Siiirit 

 to |)erfect utir peoples. When Ireland was called the 

 "Island of Saints and Scholars" she gave of her 

 holiness to other lands, and was a centre of missionary 

 -•ilerprise for l'>urope, as India was of Buddhism 



for the eastern world. — Mar<;aket E. Cousins, 

 in the Theosophisl for December. 



William Tindali; : The Maker of the English 



BiBI.K. 



The Englishman who translated the New Testament 

 into English was " so skilled in seven languages — 

 Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, 

 French — that, whichever he spoke, you would suppose 

 it his native tongue. He was a man without any 

 spot or blemisli of rancour or malice, full of mercy 

 and compassion, so that no man living was able to 

 reprove him of any sin or crime." In .\ugust, 1536, 

 Tindale was strangled and his body burned at the 

 stake. Foxe reports that his last words were, " Lord, 

 open the King of England's eyes." — J. H. Gardiner, 

 in the North American Review for December. 

 The Crowd on Blackpool Beach. 



The crowd forever writhing, forever worming, 

 squirming, up and down at Blackpool looked like 

 some immeasurable organism, some monster of the 

 geologic prime, never still, but creeping with one side 

 this way and the other that. Near by it resolved 

 itself into men, women, and children : farther off it 

 was mere human mass with those opposite bilateral 

 movements which I have tried. to suggest, and there 

 were miles of it. Dreadful enough to look at, the 

 mammoth mass became terrible when you fused your- 

 self in its bulk It seemed the same in bulk by night 

 and by day ; it must have slept sometinio, perhaps 

 not in bulk, but in detail, each atom that sank away 

 to slumber replaced by another atom fresh for the 

 vigil ; or if it slept in bulk, it was in .some som- 

 nambulent sort, with the sense of a bat! dream, a 

 writhing and twisting nightmare. It was always 

 awful to look upon, but awfullest at high noon, when 

 it had swollen to its hugest, and was imaginably 

 famishing for lunch with the hunger of some con- 

 suming in.sect horde. — W. 1). Howells. in the North 

 AiiitriMit A'a'iew for December. 



Charles Dicke.ns : His Gospel 

 111 the Quiver for January Morley Adams says that 

 his gospel above all things was a gospel of humour. 

 He was not merely the greatest, but the best humorist 

 of his times. He gave the highest expression to this 

 most rare gift, which Thackeray describes by saying, 

 " Its business is to awaken and direct our love, our 

 pity, our kindness, our scorn for imjjosture, our tender- 

 ness for the weak, to comment on the actions and 

 passions of life, to be the week-day preacher." 

 Dickens also preached the gospel of compensation : 

 vice always suffered, virtue was triumphant. Purity 

 was another iiuality. He felt strongly on the subject 

 of religion ; was not only a religious man but an 

 evangelist. His pillorying of Siiggins, Uriah Heap, 

 and Chadband only attested his deep love for the 

 genuine article. Diekens glorified unselfish love, 

 and displayed the spiritual glory of womanhood. 



