Part 27

The education of life perfects the thinking mind, but depraves the frivolous.--Mme. de Staël.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, and the hero,--the wise, the good, and the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred and brought to light.--Addison.

Very few men are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching; for he that was only taught by himself had a fool to his master.--Ben Jonson.

I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning, for that is sure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards.--Johnson.

The essential difference between a good and a bad education is this, that the former draws on the child to learn by making it sweet to him; the latter drives the child to learn, by making it sour to him if he does not.--Charles Buxton.

Nothing so good as a university education, nor worse than a university without its education.--Bulwer-Lytton.

Education is all paint: it does not alter the nature of the wood that is under it, it only improves its appearance a little. Why I dislike education so much is that it makes all people alike, until you have examined into them; and it is sometimes so long before you get to see under the varnish!--Lady Hester Stanhope.

~Eloquence.~--The poetry of speech.--Byron.

This is that eloquence the ancients represented as lightning, bearing down every opposer; this the power which has turned whole assemblies into astonishment, admiration, and awe; that is described by the torrent, the flame, and every other instance of irresistible impetuosity.--Goldsmith.

~Eminence.~--I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power from an obscure condition ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The Temple of Honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.--Burke.

~Emotions.~--All loving emotions, like plants, shoot up most rapidly in the tempestuous atmosphere of life.--Richter.

Emotion has no value in the Christian system save as it stands connected with right conduct as the cause of it. Emotion is the bud, not the flower, and never is it of value until it expands into a flower. Every religious sentiment; every act of devotion which does not produce a corresponding elevation of life, is worse than useless; it is absolutely pernicious, because it ministers to self-deception and tends to lower the line of personal morals.--W. H. H. Murray.

There are three orders of emotions: those of pleasure, which refer to the senses; those of harmony, which refer to the mind; and those of happiness, which are the natural result of a union between harmony and pleasure.--Chapone.

Emotion, whether of ridicule, anger, or sorrow; whether raised at a puppet-show, a funeral, or a battle, is your grandest of levelers. The man who would be always superior should be always apathetic.--Bulwer-Lytton.

~Employment.~--The wise prove, and the foolish confess, by their conduct, that a life of employment is the only life worth leading.--Paley.

Life will frequently languish, even in the hands of the busy, if they have not some employment subsidiary to that which forms their main pursuit.--Blair.

~Emulation.~--Emulation embalms the dead; envy, the vampire, blasts the living.--Fuseli.

~Enemies.~--It is the enemy whom we do not suspect who is the most dangerous.--Rojas.

~Energy.~--The longer I live, the more deeply am I convinced that that which makes the difference between one man and another--between the weak and powerful, the great and insignificant--is energy, invincible determination; a purpose once formed, and then death or victory. This quality will do anything that is to be done in the world; and no two-legged creature can become a man without it.--Charles Buxton.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.--Napoleon.

To think we are able is almost to be so; to determine upon attainment is frequently attainment itself. Thus earnest resolution has often seemed to have about it almost a savor of omnipotence.--Samuel Smiles.

Oh! for a forty parson power.--Byron.

Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.--Sydney Smith.

This world belongs to the energetic.--Emerson.

~Enjoyment.~--Whatever advantage we snatch beyond the certain portion allotted us by nature is like money spent before it is due, which at the time of regular payment will be missed and regretted.--Johnson.

~Ennui.~--I have also seen the world, and after long experience have discovered that ennui is our greatest enemy, and remunerative labor our most lasting friend.--Möser.

I am wrapped in dismal thinking.--Shakespeare.

~Enthusiasm.~--Enthusiasts soon understand each other.--Washington Irving.