Part 77

Counsel is not so sacred a thing as praise, since the former is only useful among men, but the latter is for the most part reserved for the gods.--Pythagoras.

Praise undeserved is satire in disguise.--Broadhurst.

One good deed, dying tongueless, slaughters a thousand waiting upon that. Our praises are our wages.--Shakespeare.

~Prayer.~--The Lord's Prayer contains the sum total of religion and morals.--Wellington.

Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.--Shakespeare.

'Tis heaven alone that is given away; 'tis only God may be had for the asking.--Lowell.

Let our prayers, like the ancient sacrifices, ascend morning and evening. Let our days begin and end with God.--Channing.

The few that pray at all pray oft amiss.--Cowper.

Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear.--Dryden.

What are men better than sheep or goats, that nourish a blind life within the brain, if, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friends!--Tennyson.

Prayer ardent opens heaven.--Young.

Solicitude is the audience-chamber of God.--Landor.

The best answer to all objections urged against prayer is the fact that man cannot help praying; for we may be sure that that which is so spontaneous and ineradicable in human nature has its fitting objects and methods in the arrangements of a boundless Providence.--Chapin.

He prayeth best who loveth best.--Coleridge.

~Preaching.~--Preachers say, do as I say, not as I do. But if a physician had the same disease upon him that I have, and he should bid me do one thing and he do quite another, could I believe him?--~Selden.~

~Preface.~--Your opening promises some great design.--Horace.

A preface, being the entrance of a book, should invite by its beauty. An elegant porch announces the splendor of the interior.--Disraeli.

A good preface is as essential to put the reader into good humor, as a good prologue is to a play, or a fine symphony is to an opera, containing something analogous to the work itself; so that we may feel its want as a desire not elsewhere to be gratified. The Italians call the preface--La salsa del libro--the sauce of the book; and, if well-seasoned, it creates an appetite in the reader to devour the book itself.--Disraeli.

~Prejudice.~--He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.--J. Stuart Mill.

Prejudice, which sees what it pleases, cannot see what is plain.--Aubrey de Vere.

All looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.--Pope.

Prejudice is the reason of fools.--Voltaire.

Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.--Diderot.

~Present, The.~--Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing.--Goethe.

Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the over-mastering present.--Schiller.

'Tis but a short journey across the isthmus of Now.--Bovée.

The present hour is always wealthiest when it is poorer than the future ones, as that is the pleasantest site which affords the pleasantest prospect.--Thoreau.

Let us enjoy the fugitive hour. Man has no harbor, time has no shore, it rushes on and carries us with it.--Lamartine.