Part 36

Friendship survives death better than absence.--J. Petit Senn.

This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys and cutteth griefs in half: for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less.--Bacon.

Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the declining sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.--Washington Irving.

It may be worth noticing as a curious circumstance, when persons past forty before they were at all acquainted form together a very close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of old wood to take, there must be a wonderful congeniality between the trees.--Whately.

An old friend is not always the person whom it is easiest to make a confidant of.--George Eliot.

~Fun.~--There is nothing like fun, is there? I haven't any myself, and I do like it in others. Oh, we need it,--we need all the counter-weights we can muster to balance the sad relations of life. God has made sunny spots in the heart; why should we exclude the light from them?--Haliburton.

~Futurity.~--The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to, the last duty done.--George MacDonald.

We always live prospectively, never retrospectively, and there is no abiding moment.--Jacobi.

Another life, if it were not better than this, would be less a promise than a threat.--J. Petit Senn.

The spirit of man, which God inspired, cannot together perish with this corporeal clod.--Milton.

~Gambling.~--Gaming is a kind of tacit confession that the company engaged therein do, in general, exceed the bounds of their respective fortunes, and therefore they cast lots to determine upon whom the ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may be saved a little longer.--Blackstone.

A mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.--Johnson.

~Gems.~--How very beautiful these gems are! It is strange how deeply colors seem to penetrate one, like scent. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as spiritual emblems in the Revelation of St. John. They look like fragments of heaven.--George Eliot.

~Generosity.~--A friend to everybody is often a friend to nobody, or else in his simplicity he robs his family to help strangers, and becomes brother to a beggar. There is wisdom in generosity as in everything else.--Spurgeon.

Generosity is the accompaniment of high birth; pity and gratitude are its attendants.--Corneille.

It is good to be unselfish and generous; but don't carry that too far. It will not do to give yourself to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow-trade; you must know where to find yourself.--George Eliot.

If cruelty has its expiations and its remorses, generosity has its chances and its turns of good fortune; as if Providence reserved them for fitting occasions, that noble hearts may not be discouraged.--Lamartine.

~Genius.~--Genius is rarely found without some mixture of eccentricity, as the strength of spirit is proved by the bubbles on its surface.--Mrs. Balfour.

All great men are in some degree inspired.--Cicero.

This is the highest miracle of genius: that things which are not should be as though they were; that the imaginations of one mind should become the personal recollections of another.--Macaulay.

The path of genius is not less obstructed with disappointment than that of ambition.--Voltaire.

One misfortune of extraordinary geniuses is that their very friends are more apt to admire than love them.--Pope.

Genius speaks only to genius.--Stanislaus.

A nation does wisely, if not well, in starving her men of genius. Fatten them, and they are done for.--Charles Buxton.

Genius has no brother.--Bulwer-Lytton.

Genius never grows old; young to-day, mature yesterday, vigorous to-morrow: always immortal. It is peculiar to no sex or condition, and is the divine gift to woman no less than to man.--Juan Lewis.

~Gentleman.~--A gentleman's first characteristic is that fineness of structure in the body which renders it capable of the most delicate sensation; and of structure in the mind which renders it capable of the most delicate sympathies; one may say, simply, "fineness of nature." This is of course compatible with heroic bodily strength and mental firmness; in fact, heroic strength is not conceivable without such delicacy.--Ruskin.

It is a grand old name, that of gentleman, and has been recognized as a rank and power in all stages of society. To possess this character is a dignity of itself, commanding the instinctive homage of every generous mind, and those who will not bow to titular rank will yet do homage to the gentleman. His qualities depend not upon fashion or manners, but upon moral worth; not on personal possessions, but on personal qualities. The Psalmist briefly describes him as one "that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart."--Samuel Smiles.