Part 5

"What men want is not talent, it is purpose; not the power to achieve, but the will to labour."

BULWER LYTTON.

"'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' This is the principle with which we should look forth upon the world and our own life at the beginning of this year. We look upon the world; it seems as if it were sleeping still, like Rome, as if it needed as much as ever to hear the shout, 'Awake, thou that sleepest.'"

STOPFORD BROOKE.

Present Circumstances

JANUARY 12

"Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about thee, and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing shall steal into them without being well examined."

MARCUS AURELIUS.

"Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with a continuous series of such thoughts as these: for instance, that where a man can live, there he can also live well. But he must live in a palace;--well then, he can also live well in a palace."

MARCUS AURELIUS.

"Of nothing can we be more sure than this: that, if we cannot sanctify our present lot, we could sanctify no other."

MARTINEAU.

Circumstances

JANUARY 13

"Occasion is the father of most that is good in us. As you have seen the awkward fingers and clumsy tools of a prisoner cut and fashion the most delicate little pieces of carved work; or achieve the most prodigious underground labours, and cut through walls of masonry, and saw iron bars and fetters; 'tis misfortune that awakens ingenuity, or fortitude or endurance, in hearts where these qualities had never come to life but for the circumstance which gave them a being."

Esmond, W. M. THACKERAY.

"It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstances would have been less strong against us."

G. ELIOT.

"A consideration of petty circumstances is the tomb of great things."

VOLTAIRE.

The Ifs of Life

JANUARY 14

"If it were--if it might be--if it could be--if it had been. One portion of mankind go through life always regretting, always whining, always imagining. As it is--this is the way in which the other class of people look at the conditions in which they find themselves. I venture to say that if one should count the ifs and the ases in the conversation of his acquaintances, he would find the more able and important persons among them--statesmen, generals, men of business--among the ases, and the majority of conspicuous failures among the ifs."

Over the Teacups, O. W. HOLMES.

"It is sad, indeed, to see how man wastes his opportunities. How many could be made happy, with the blessings which are recklessly wasted or thrown away! Happiness is a condition of Mind, not a result of circumstances; and, in the words of Dugald Stewart, the great secret of happiness is to accommodate ourselves to things external, rather than to struggle to accommodate external things to ourselves. Hume wisely said that a happy disposition was better than an estate of L10,000 a year. Try to realise all the blessings you have, and you will find perhaps that they are more than you suppose. Many a blessing has been recognised too late."

Lord AVEBURY.

"The pleasure of life is according to the man that lives it, and not according to the work or the place."

EMERSON.