Part 79

~Progress.~--All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance.--Gibbon.

What matters it? say some, a little more knowledge for man, a little more liberty, a little more general development. Life is so short! He is a being so limited! But it is precisely because his days are few, and he cannot attain to all, that a little more culture is of importance to him. The ignorance in which God leaves man is divine; the ignorance in which man leaves himself is a crime and a shame.--X. Doudan.

Revolutions never go backwards.--Emerson.

What pains and tears the slightest steps of man's progress have cost! Every hair-breadth forward has been in the agony of some soul, and humanity has reached blessing after blessing of all its vast achievement of good with bleeding feet.--Bartol.

Progress is lame.--St. Bueve.

We know what a masquerade all development is, and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos. In fact, the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities.--George Eliot.

The pathway of progress will still, as of old, bear the traces of martyrdom, but the advance is inevitable.--G. H. Lewes.

Nations are educated through suffering, mankind is purified through sorrow. The power of creating obstacles to progress is human and partial. Omnipotence is with the ages.--Mazzini.

Every age has its problem, by solving which, humanity is helped forward.--Heinrich Heine.

Men of great genius and large heart sow the seeds of a new degree of progress in the world, but they bear fruit only after many years.--Mazzini.

It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought. Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide themselves.--Longfellow.

The activity of to-day and the assurance of to-morrow.--Emerson.

The moral law of the universe is progress. Every generation that passes idly over the earth without adding to that progress by one degree remains uninscribed upon the register of humanity, and the succeeding generation tramples its ashes as dust.--Mazzini.

A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when it becomes to-day.--Bulwer-Lytton.

~Promise.~--Promises hold men faster than benefits: hope is a cable and gratitude a thread.--J. Petit Senn.

~Proof.~--In the eyes of a wise judge proofs by reasoning are of more value than witnesses.--Cicero.

Give me the ocular proof; make me see't; or at the least, so prove it, that the probation bear no hinge, no loop, to hang a doubt upon.--Shakespeare.

~Prosperity.~--Prosperity makes some friends and many enemies.--Vauvenargues.

That fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptation, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned.--Johnson.

Alas for the fate of men! Even in the midst of the highest prosperity a shadow may overturn them; but if they be in adverse fortune a moistened sponge can blot out the picture.--Æschylus.

Prosperity lets go the bridle.--George Herbert.

~Proverbs.~--Proverbs are somewhat analogous to those medical formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready made up in the chemists' shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct prescription.--Bishop Whately.

The study of proverbs may be more instructive and comprehensive than the most elaborate scheme of philosophy.--Motherwell.

The proverbial wisdom of the populace in the street, on the roads, and in the markets, instructs the ear of him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously displayed.--Lavater.

~Prudence.~--There is no amount of praise which is not heaped on prudence; yet there is not the most insignificant event of which it can make us sure.--Rochefoucauld.

Too many, through want of prudence, are golden apprentices, silver journeymen, and copper masters.--Whitfield.

Men of sense often learn from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learned from a friend, but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties.--Aristophanes.

~Punctuality.~--The most indispensable qualification of a cook is punctuality. The same must be said of guests.--Brillat Savarin.