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Article COLLECTANEA. ← Page 3 of 3
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Collectanea.
own minds the intermediate steps by which they have been led to their conclusions , are too apt to conceive other men to be in the same situation with themselves ; and when they mean to instruct are mortified to find that they are only regarded as paradoxical and visionary . It is but rarely that we find a man of very splendid and various conversation to be possessed of profound judgment , or of great originality of genius . "
THE man of mind is the happiest of men . To him all the pleasures of life are doubled , and for him all its evils are softened . Within himself he contains the root of all the joys for which meaner minds must seek abroad . For those he can feel only compassion , —for himself , while contemplating his own lofty dower , only respect . Fate may throw him into the arena of busy life , there to struggle for existence with the low and the little mind , but she cannot debase him
to their level . You will see him , strong in his great intellect , beautiful by the light of genius , and ever young in face and heart , always preeminent , always proud , always in the main successful—his intellect , his beauty were God-given—they will not wither beneath the assaults of man—his youth is the unfading youth of the spirit—of the spirit that shall return unstained to the bright throne from which it was commissioned to descend . —Mrs . Ponsonby .
BOOKS . —In the best books great men talk to us , with us , and give us their most precious thoughts . Books are the voices of the distant and the dead . Books are the true levellers . They give to all who will faithfully use them , the society and the presence of the best and greatest of our race . No matter how poor I am , no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling , if learned men and poets will enter and take up their abode under my roof—if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of paradiseand Shakspeare
, open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart , and Franklin enrich me with his practical wisdom—I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship , and I may become a cultivated man , though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live . —Channing .
" IT is wonderful how soon and how completely a finely-organized mind adapts itself to inevitable circumstances of reverse which would lead a blunted intellect to despair . The rough blasts of suffering are requisite to clear away the romantic haze through which the world is viewed . Nothing renders us so independent in mind as to have been ruined in fortune . We then learn the feeble hold we have on the mere sympathetic feelings of our kind , aud that much which has appeared to spring from such causes , in fact , has only been the result of mutual interests . "
MOTHER AND CHILD . — " The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength , as never to be violated , except by those whose feelings are withered by the refining of vitiated society . Holy , simple , and beautiful in its construction is the emblem of all we can imagine of fidelity and truth—is the blessed tie whose value we feel in the cradle , and whose loss we lament on the verge of the very grave where our mother moulders in dust and ashes . In all our trials , amid all our afflictions , she is our friend . Let the world forsake us , she is still by our side . If we sin , she reproves more in sorrow than in anger ; nor can she tear us from her bosom , nor forget we are her child . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Collectanea.
own minds the intermediate steps by which they have been led to their conclusions , are too apt to conceive other men to be in the same situation with themselves ; and when they mean to instruct are mortified to find that they are only regarded as paradoxical and visionary . It is but rarely that we find a man of very splendid and various conversation to be possessed of profound judgment , or of great originality of genius . "
THE man of mind is the happiest of men . To him all the pleasures of life are doubled , and for him all its evils are softened . Within himself he contains the root of all the joys for which meaner minds must seek abroad . For those he can feel only compassion , —for himself , while contemplating his own lofty dower , only respect . Fate may throw him into the arena of busy life , there to struggle for existence with the low and the little mind , but she cannot debase him
to their level . You will see him , strong in his great intellect , beautiful by the light of genius , and ever young in face and heart , always preeminent , always proud , always in the main successful—his intellect , his beauty were God-given—they will not wither beneath the assaults of man—his youth is the unfading youth of the spirit—of the spirit that shall return unstained to the bright throne from which it was commissioned to descend . —Mrs . Ponsonby .
BOOKS . —In the best books great men talk to us , with us , and give us their most precious thoughts . Books are the voices of the distant and the dead . Books are the true levellers . They give to all who will faithfully use them , the society and the presence of the best and greatest of our race . No matter how poor I am , no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling , if learned men and poets will enter and take up their abode under my roof—if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of paradiseand Shakspeare
, open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart , and Franklin enrich me with his practical wisdom—I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship , and I may become a cultivated man , though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live . —Channing .
" IT is wonderful how soon and how completely a finely-organized mind adapts itself to inevitable circumstances of reverse which would lead a blunted intellect to despair . The rough blasts of suffering are requisite to clear away the romantic haze through which the world is viewed . Nothing renders us so independent in mind as to have been ruined in fortune . We then learn the feeble hold we have on the mere sympathetic feelings of our kind , aud that much which has appeared to spring from such causes , in fact , has only been the result of mutual interests . "
MOTHER AND CHILD . — " The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength , as never to be violated , except by those whose feelings are withered by the refining of vitiated society . Holy , simple , and beautiful in its construction is the emblem of all we can imagine of fidelity and truth—is the blessed tie whose value we feel in the cradle , and whose loss we lament on the verge of the very grave where our mother moulders in dust and ashes . In all our trials , amid all our afflictions , she is our friend . Let the world forsake us , she is still by our side . If we sin , she reproves more in sorrow than in anger ; nor can she tear us from her bosom , nor forget we are her child . "