REFLECTIONS. 
CHARLES 
(er 
MARBLE, 
Vice often epitomizes ancestry. 
The wisest are not so wise as silence. 
Experience is the grave of enthusi- 
asm, 
Experience is the enemy of dogma- 
tism. 
Our faith is often nothing more than 
our hope. 
Should we despise anything that God 
has made? 
In bestowing benefits we imperil 
friendship. 
Innocence and guilt are alike suf- 
fused with blushes. 
If vice did not exist wisdom could 
not predicate itself. 
Disappointment leaves a scar which 
hope cannot remove. 
Success is an excellent proof of the 
wisdom which achieved it. 
The vices of some men are more en- 
durable than the virtues of others. 
Beauty is a reproach without vir- 
tue, while virtue is itself the highest 
beauty. 
The sun at noon gives no more light 
than at morn, but its glow has more 
warmth and power. 
Without the accessories life were of 
little worth, and hope gives it its per- 
manence and serenity. 
Marriage should be in harmony with 
nature, in which what is seemingly dis- 
cordant but illuminates and purifies it. 
Our conduct toward one another 
should be based upon a conception of 
the infinite mischances of life and the 
exquisite poignancy of regret. 
Misfortune seeks consolation in com- 
municating itself. . But when it no 
longer needs sympathy it is silent, and 
ashamed of its former volubility. 
We.can overcome even our preju- 
dices where some interest is subserved 
by it. So much stronger is self-inter- 
est than color, social status, or educa- 
tion. 
169 
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 man 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. 
