THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 89 



tured by the color and character of his world. 

 I often find her sitting in the library or before 

 the open fire place thinking and planning and 

 enjoying. This art of meditation is one of 

 life's rarest arts; not brooding, nor castle-build- 

 ing, nor drifting idly and aimlessly but rumi- 

 nating, calling up what we will of the past, its 

 blessings and privileges and purposes, looking 

 at them anew and turning them about in 

 stronger light and getting from them an extra 

 good of inspiration. 



This taking wise outlook and inlook, care- 

 fully surveying conditions, solving needed prob- 

 lems, as best we can, marking well the great 

 headlands that one may know surely the safest 

 course of pursuit and just how we may prove 

 the most generous almoners of the bounty He 

 has given us, — this is that art of meditation so 

 much needed in the hurry of the life of to-day. 

 For is not to-day's life pitched on a high key, 

 is it not over-strenuous and over-insistent, and 

 does it not breed discontent and exhaustion? 

 Does it grasp and enjoy life's prizes? Nay; it 

 is a restless activity, as if activity were all and 

 meditation a lost and useless art ! Pythagoras 

 insisted on an hour of solitude to meet his own 

 mind and learn what oracle it had to impart. 



