Character and Conduct.

by Various.

PREFACE

This collection of n.o.ble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it, is similar in arrangement and purpose to my former volume "Being and Doing"; and has been compiled at the request of several readers who have found that book helpful.

It is obvious that without the kindly co-operation of many authors and publishers such books could not exist, and I tender sincere and hearty thanks to those who have made the work possible. All have treated me with unfailing courtesy and generosity.

Where I have occasionally used short quotations without permission I ask forgiveness.

It would be impossible to name separately each one to whom I am a grateful debtor, so special mention must only be made of the more heavily taxed, and of those who have asked for a formal acknowledgment, namely:--

The Literary Executors of the late Mr. Ruskin, _per_ Mr. George Allen, for extracts from Mr. Ruskin's works.

Mr. Edward Arnold for those from _Red Pottage_, by Mary Cholmondeley.

Canon Barnett for those from _The Service of G.o.d_.

Messrs. Deighton Bell & Co. for those from _Pastor Pastorum_, by the Rev. Henry Latham.

Mr. James Drummond for those from the writings of Professor Henry Drummond.

Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. for those from Sir Edwin Arnold's _Light of Asia_.

Miss May Kendall for those from _Turkish Bonds_, &c.

Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. for those from the works of Bishop Paget, and from Canon MacColl's _Here and Hereafter_.

Professor MacCunn for those from _The Making of Character_.

Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for those from the works of Bishop Westcott, Mrs. Bernard Bosanquet; Tennyson's Poems; from the present Lord Tennyson's Life of his father; from the _Mettle of the Pasture_, by James Lane Allen; and from Mrs. Humphry Ward's translation of _Amiel's Journal_.

Messrs. Methuen & Co. for one from the _Life of R. L. Stevenson_.

Mr. Lloyd Osbourne for those from R. L. Stevenson's works.

Messrs. Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co. for those from Bishop Winnington Ingram's _Under the Dome_ and _Friends of the Master_.

Dr. John Watson for those from his writings.

Permission was kindly given me before by Messrs. Macmillan to quote from the works of the late Archbishop Temple and of Matthew Arnold. By Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. for quotations from Robert Browning. By Mr.

C. Lewes for quotations from George Eliot; and from Lord Avebury and the Rev. Stopford Brooke for those from their works.

In my experience the reading of extracts often leads to the reading of the books from which they were taken, and I hope and believe many of these gleanings will serve as introductions.

CONSTANCE M. WHISHAW.

SUNNY BANK, ARNSIDE, CARNFORTH.

New Year's Day

JANUARY 1

"Here you stand at the parting of the ways; some road you are to take; and as you stand here, consider and know how it is that you intend to live. Carry no bad habits, no corrupting a.s.sociations, no enmities and strifes into this New Year. Leave these behind, and let the Dead Past bury its Dead; leave them behind, and thank G.o.d that you are able to leave them."

EPHRAIM PEABODY.

"WOULD'ST shape a n.o.ble life? Then cast No backward glances toward the past, And though somewhat be lost and gone, Yet do thou act as one new-born; What each day needs, that shalt thou ask, Each day will set its proper task."

GOETHE.

"No aim is too high, no task too great, no sin too strong, no trial too hard for those who patiently and humbly rest upon G.o.d's grace: who wait on Him that He may renew their strength."

_Faculties and Difficulties for Belief and Disbelief_, BISHOP PAGET.

Purpose

JANUARY 2

"You did not come into this world by chance, you were not born by accident. You all came charged with a mission to use your best efforts to extend the frontier of your Master's Kingdom by purifying your own hearts and leavening for good the hearts of all who come within the sphere of your influence. Your business here is not to enjoy yourselves in those fleeting pleasures which perish in the using; not to sip as many dainties as you can from the moments as they fly; not to gather as many flowers as you can pluck from the garden of this perishing earth; not even to rest in the enjoyment of those n.o.bler delights which come from the exercise of the intellect in the investigation of the works of G.o.d and man; but rather to do your best to fit yourselves and others for the new heavens and new earth, which G.o.d has prepared for those who love Him."

_Life Here and Hereafter_, CANON MACCOLL.

"Do not despise your situation; in it you must act, suffer, and conquer.

From every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the infinite."

_Amiel's Journal._

A n.o.ble Life

JANUARY 3

"A man's greatness lies not in wealth and station, as the vulgar believe, nor yet in his intellectual capacity, which is often a.s.sociated with the meanest moral character, the most abject servility to those in high places, and arrogance to the poor and lowly; but a man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent self-examination, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not do that which he thinks and says and does."

GEORGE LONG.

"Whether a life is n.o.ble or ign.o.ble depends not on the calling which is adopted, but on the spirit in which it is followed."

_The Pleasures of Life_, LORD AVEBURY.