Pearls of Thought

Maturin Ballou

Ballou Maturin Murray

Pearls of Thought

Writers of an abler sort,

Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style,

Give Truth a lustre, and make Wisdom smile.

В В В В Cowper.

General observations drawn from particulars are the jewels of knowledge, comprehending great store in a little room.

В В В В Locke.

Out of monuments, names, wordes, proverbs, traditions, private recordes, and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of bookes, and the like, we doe save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.

В В В В Bacon.

I would fain coin wisdom, – mould it, I mean, into maxims, proverbs, sentences, that can easily be retained and transmitted.

В В В В Joubert.

PREFACE

A verse may find him whom a sermon flies.

В В В В George Herbert.

The volume herewith presented is the natural result of the compiler's habit of transferring and classifying significant passages from known authors. No special course of reading has been pursued, the thoughts being culled from foreign and native tongues – from the moss-grown tomes of ancient literature and the verdant fields of to-day. The terse periods of others, appropriately quoted, become in a degree our own; and a just estimation is very nearly allied to originality, or, as the author of Vanity Fair tells us, "Next to excellence is the appreciation of it." Without indorsing the idea of a modern authority that the multiplicity of facts and writings is becoming so great that every available book must soon be composed of extracts only, still it is believed that such a volume as "Pearls of Thought" will serve the interest of general literature, and especially stimulate the mind of the thoughtful reader to further research. The pleasant duty of the compiler has been to follow the expressive idea of Colton, and he has made the same use of books as a bee does of flowers, – she steals the sweets from them, but does not injure them.

To the observant reader many familiar quotations will naturally occur, the absence of which may seem a singular omission in such a connection and classification, but doubtless such excerpts will be found in the "Treasury of Thought," a much more extended work by the same author, to which this volume is properly a supplement. Of course care has been taken not to repeat any portion of the previous collection.

В В В В M. M. B.

PEARLS OF THOUGHT

A

Ability.– Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities. —Schopenhaufer.

Words must be fitted to a man's mouth, – 'twas well said of the fellow that was to make a speech for my Lord Mayor, when he desired to take measure of his lordship's mouth. —Selden.

Absence.– Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it. —Hannah More.

Absence from those we love is self from self! A deadly banishment. —Shakespeare.

Short retirement urges sweet return. —Milton.

Whatever is genuine in social relations endures despite of time, error, absence, and destiny; and that which has no inherent vitality had better die at once. A great poet has truly declared that constancy is no virtue, but a fact. —Tuckerman.

Frozen by distance. —Wordsworth.

Short absence quickens love, long absence kills it. —Mirabeau.

We often wish most for our friends when they are absent. Even in married life love is not diminished by distance. A man, like a burning-glass, should be placed at a certain distance from the object he wishes to dissolve, in order that the proper focus may be obtained. —Richter.

Abstinence.– Refrain to-night, and that shall lend a hand of easiness to the next abstinence; the next more easy; for use almost can change the stamp of nature, and either curb the devil, or throw him out with wondrous potency. —Shakespeare.

Abuse.– Abuse is not so dangerous when there is no vehicle of wit or delicacy, no subtle conveyance. The difference between coarse and refined abuse is as the difference between being bru