Across the Plains,R. L. Stevenson.
Growing Old
DECEMBER 27
"To grow old is more difficult than to die, because to renounce a good once and for all, costs less than to renew the sacrifice day by day and in detail. To bear with one's own decay, to accept one's own lessening capacity, is a harder and rarer virtue than to face death. There is a halo round tragic and premature death; there is but a long sadness in declining strength. But look closer: so studied, a resigned and religious old age will often move us more than the heroic ardour of young years. The maturity of the soul is worth more than the first brilliance of its faculties, or the plenitude of its strength, and the eternal in us can but profit from all the ravages made by time. There is comfort in this thought."
Amiel's Journal.
"To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living."
Amiel's Journal.
Old Age
DECEMBER 28
"We must not take the faults of our youth into our old age; for old age brings with it its own faults."
Goethe.
"It is only to the finest natures that age gives an added beauty and distinction; for the most persistent self has then worked its way to the surface, having modified the expression, and to some extent, the features, to its own likeness."
Mathilde Blind.
"The most beautiful existence, it seems to me, would be that of a river which should get through all its rapids and waterfalls not far from its rising, and should then in its widening course form a succession of rich valleys, and in each of them a lake equally but diversely beautiful, to end, after the plains of age were past, in the ocean where all that is weary and heavy-laden comes to seek for rest."
Amiel's Journal.
The Love and Grace and Tenderness of Life
DECEMBER 29
"Neither toil, nor the end of toil in oneself or in the world, is all vanity, in spite of the preacher; but there is enough vanity in both to make one sit loose to them. What seems to grow fairer to me as life goes by is the love and grace and tenderness of it; not its wit and cleverness and grandeur of knowledge—grand as knowledge is—but just the laughter of little children and the friendship of friends, the cosy talk by the fireside, the sight of flowers and the sound of music."
J. R. Green.
"Life is sweet, brother.... There's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise the wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?"
Borrow.
A Prayer
DECEMBER 30
"Be patient still; suffer us yet a while longer; with our broken purposes of good, with our idle endeavours against evil, suffer us a while longer to endure, and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, brace us to play the man under affliction. Be with our friends; be with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest; if any dream, be their dreams quiet; if any awake, temper to them the dark hours of watching; and when the day returns, return to us our sun and comforter, and call us up with morning faces and with morning hearts—eager to labour—eager to be happy, if happiness shall be our portion—and if the day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure it."
Vailima Prayers,R. L. Stevenson.
New Year's Eve
DECEMBER 31
"Ring out, wild bells, to the wild skyThe flying cloud, the frosty light:The year is dying in the night;Ring out, wild bells, and let him die."Ring out the old, ring in the new,Ring, happy bells, across the snow:The year is going, let him go;Ring out the false, ring in the true."Ring out the grief that saps the mind,For those that here we see no more;Ring out the feud of rich and poor,Ring in redress to all mankind."Ring out a slowly dying cause,And ancient forms of party strife;Ring in the nobler modes of life,With sweeter manners, purer laws."Ring out the want, the care, the sin,The faithless coldness of the times;Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,But ring the fuller minstrel in."Ring out false pride in place and blood,The civic slander and the spite;Ring in the love of truth and right,Ring in the common love of good."Ring out old shapes of foul disease;Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;Ring out the thousand wars of old,Ring in the thousand years of peace."Ring in the valiant man and free,The larger heart, the kindlier hand;Ring out the darkness of the land,Ring in the Christ that is to be."
Tennyson.
Accidie,95,96,97,98,99,100Accuracy,185Age,361,362Appetite for Condolence, The,310Argument,195,196,197Art of Being Quiet, The,30,31As Light enters Darkness departs,297Aspiration,306Back-biting,190Balance,170,171Bearing Criticism,155Bearing Sorrow,256,257,258,259Bearing Trouble,322Beauties of Nature,333Beautiful, Sense of,334Beauty, The Gospel of,335Being and Doing,24,25Bereavement,246,247Blessed are the Happiness-makers,134Books,339,340Business-like Habits,36By their Works,272Calamity, Sharp Ferule of,311Calumny,158,159Causes of Thankfulness,324,325Celestial Surgeon, The,18Character,138Character—Childlike-ness,136Negative Virtues,137Our Echoes roll from Soul to Soul,139The Right Atmosphere,135Character and Service,11Character of Henry Drummond,22—— R. L. Stevenson,23Cheerfulness,330Childhood, A Happy,344Christian Law, The,262,263Christianity, Programme of,275Christmas Day,359Christmas Eve,358Circumstances,12,13Code of Society, The,165Comfort's Art,92Commune with your own Heart and be Still,33Conceit,162Concentration,38,39Condolence, Appetite for,310Confession of Sin,288Conscience,150Contemptuousness,181Contentment,318,319Conversation,193,194Courage,58Courage to be Poor,355Courtesy,203,204,205Creed, A New,274Creeds,267Criticism,155Crossing the Bar,254Culture,202Day by Day,301,302Dead, The,249,250,251,252Death,253Death of Young Children,248Discontent,316,320Dissension,242Doing more than Feeling,62Doing our Best,64Duty,46,47,48Duty of Giving Happiness,132,133Duty of Happiness, The,315Duty of Physical Health, The,84,85Duty to my Neighbour,131Education, The Object of,342,343—— Moral,345,346,347Egotism,164,192Endurance,43Essentials of Happiness, The,312Evil is Wrought by Want of Thought,69Evil of Brooding, The,305Example,350Expenditure,353Faith,273False Impressions,182Falterers,57Family Life,128Fasting,268,269Faults,156Fear of Failure,55,56Flattery,160Foot-path to Peace, The,8Forgiveness,115Friendship,216-235Gaining or Losing Ground,303God, Manifestations of,278,279,280God's Children,77Gossip,189,191Growing Old,361Grumblers,329Grumbling,326,327,328Habit,140,141Habit of Admiration, The,21Hallowing of Work, The,70Happiness,132,133,134,312,315Happiness Makers,134Harmony,15,16Health, Duty of,84,85Heart, Commune with,33Heredity,152,153,154Holidays,338Holiness,4Holy Spirit,5Hospitality,356,357Humility,163Humour,331,332Hypochondriacs,90,91Ideal Guest-chamber, An,75Ideal Level, An,50Ideals,17Idleness,53,54Ifs of Life, The,14Ill-nature,118Indifference, Sin of,60Influence,210,211,214,215Influence of Great Men,19,20Interruptions,73Introspection,290Introspectiveness,289Invalids,87,88Inward Stillness,32Iron Chains of Duty, The,48Irritability,93,94Jealousy,236,237,238Judging,176,178,180Judgment, Biassed,177Judgment, Harsh,175Judgment, Sound,172,173,174Justice and Mercy,179Law of Love, The Great,270Lessons of Suffering,89Life, Ifs of,14Life a School,10Life after Death,255Life-giver, not Deed-doer,26Limit of Luxury, The,352Living in the Present,300Lord's Supper, The,276Love,126,130,243Love, Grace, and Tenderness of Life, The,363Love and Remorse,239,240,241Love Unrequited,244,245Love, Law of,270Luxury,352Magnifying Troubles,321Manifestation of God,278,279,280Manners,206,207,208,209Mechanical Work,74Memory,110,111Mens Sana in Corpore Sano,83Mental Hygiene,296Mercy,179Method,37Mile-marks,360Money,354Morality, Physical,86Morbid Introspectiveness,289My Duty to my Neighbour,131Nature,333,336,337Never Lose a Battle,299New Year's Day,1New Year's Eve,365Noble Life, A,3Nominal Christians,277"Not to Destroy, but to Fulfil,"265Obstinacy,157Oil and Wine,127Old Age,362One by One,71,72Open Mind, An,198Order,41Our true Selves and our traditional Selves,291Patience,124,309Patience with Ourselves,7Peace,8Perseverance,44Pessimism,79Physical Morality,86Pleasure in Work,45Poverty,355Power,49Power of the Holy Spirit, The,5Prayer,281-286Prayer, A,364Present Circumstances,12Pressing Forward,304Pride,161Programme of Christianity, The,275Public Opinion,166,167Punishment,348Purpose,2,9Quarrels,106,107"Quench not the Smoking Flax,"212,213Quiet,30,31Raw Material,78Readiness,40Reading,341Rebuking,349Receptive Side of Life, The,34Reconciliation,113,114Regulation of Time,35Religion—The Meaning of,260Pure,261In Daily Life,266Reparation,116Repentance,151Resolves,287Responsibility,59Rest,314Revenge,108Right Use of Speech,200Sacredness of Work, The,63Satan's Opportunities,68Science of Social Life, The,119,120,121,122Secret of the Joy of Living, The,323Secret of Thrift, The,42Seeing one's Life in Perspective,27Self-centred People,317Self-examination,287Selfishness,125Sense of the Beautiful,334Sermon on the Mount,274Service,80,81,82Sharp Ferule of Calamity, The,311Silence a great Peacemaker,112Sin,144,145,146,148,149,288Sin has its Pedigree,142Sin of Idleness, The,53Sin of Indifference, The,60Sins of the Spirit,147Sociability,122Society,165Soldiers of the Same Army,271Sorrow,256,257,258,259Spectrum of Love, The,130Spiritual Balance and Proportion,168Stepping-Stones,298Struggling,308Sympathy,123Symphony, A,6Temper,101,102,103,104,105Temperance,169Temptation,143Thankfulness,324,325There shall never be one lost Good,307Thoughts,201Thrift,42Time,35Time and Method,37To be Trusted is to be Saved,76Tolerance,199Touchiness,109Triviality,28,29Trouble,321,322True Patience,309Trustees,264Truth,183Truthfulness,184,186,187,188Unamiable, The,117Unbalanced Memory,110,111Unfelt Creeds,267Ungraciousness,129Unrest,313Un-self-consciousness,292,293Wasted Emotions,61Wealth,351Where Love is, God is,126Work,45,51Work—Effective Reforms,65,66Special, For each,52To Cure is the Voice of the Past,67Sacredness of,63Works,272