Many Thoughts of Many Minds | Page 5

social.--THACKERAY.
Keep good company, and you shall be of the number.--GEORGE HERBERT.
It is best to be with those in time that we hope to be with in eternity.--FULLER.
ASTRONOMY.--The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.--CICERO.
The sun rejoicing round the earth, announced Daily the wisdom, power and love of God. The moon awoke, and from her maiden face, Shedding her cloudy locks, looked meekly forth, And with her virgin stars walked in the heavens,-- Walked nightly there, conversing as she walked, Of purity, and holiness, and God. --ROBERT POLLOK.
I love to rove amidst the starry height, To leave the little scenes of Earth behind, And let Imagination wing her flight On eagle pinions swifter than the wind. I love the planets in their course to trace; To mark the comets speeding to the sun, Then launch into immeasurable space, Where, lost to human sight, remote they run. I love to view the moon, when high she rides Amidst the heav'ns, in borrowed lustre bright; To fathom how she rules the subject tides, And how she borrows from the sun her light. O! these are wonders of th' Almighty hand, Whose wisdom first the circling orbits planned. --T. RODD.
ATHEISM.--I should like to see a man sober in his habits, moderate, chaste, just in his dealings, assert that there is no God; he would speak at least without interested motives; but such a man is not to be found.--LA BRUYèRE.
An Atheist-laugh's a poor exchange For Deity offended! --BURNS.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.--PSALM 14:1.
Kircher, the astronomer, having an acquaintance who denied the existence of a Supreme Being, took the following method to convince him of his error. Expecting him on a visit, he placed a handsome celestial globe in a part of the room where it could not escape the notice of his friend, who, on observing it, inquired whence it came, and who was the maker.
"It was not made by any person," said the astronomer.
"That is impossible," replied the sceptic; "you surely jest."
Kircher then took occasion to reason with his friend upon his own atheistical principles, explaining to him that he had adopted this plan with a design to show him the fallacy of his scepticism.
"You will not," said he, "admit that this small body originated in mere chance, and yet you contend that those heavenly bodies, to which it bears only a faint and diminutive resemblance, came into existence without author or design."
He pursued this chain of reasoning till his friend was totally confounded, and cordially acknowledged the absurdity of his notions.
By night an atheist half believes a God.--YOUNG.
No one is so much alone in the world as a denier of God.--RICHTER.
When men live as if there were no God, it becomes expedient for them that there should be none; and then they endeavor to persuade themselves so.--TILLOTSON.
Atheism is the result of ignorance and pride, of strong sense and feeble reasons, of good eating and ill living.--JEREMY COLLIER.
Atheism can benefit no class of people,--neither the unfortunate, whom it bereaves of hope, nor the prosperous, whose joys it renders insipid.--CHATEAUBRIAND.
AUTHORITY.--Self-possession is the backbone of authority.--HALIBURTON.
Man, proud man! Dressed in a little brief authority: Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd. His glassy essence--like an angry ape Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep. --SHAKESPEARE.
Though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold.--SHAKESPEARE.
AUTHORS.--Choose an author as you choose a friend.--EARL OF ROSCOMMON.
The motives and purposes of authors are not always so pure and high, as, in the enthusiasm of youth, we sometimes imagine. To many the trumpet of fame is nothing but a tin horn to call them home, like laborers from the field, at dinner-time, and they think themselves lucky to get the dinner.--LONGFELLOW.
It is a doubt whether mankind are most indebted to those who, like Bacon and Butler, dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it currency and utility.--COLTON.
Twenty to one offend more in writing too much than too little.--ROGER ASCHAM.
He who proposes to be an author should first be a student.--DRYDEN.
Nothing is so beneficial to a young author as the advice of a man whose judgment stands constitutionally at the freezing-point.--DOUGLAS JERROLD.
No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.--CERVANTES.
There are three difficulties in authorship--to write anything worth the publishing, to find honest men to publish it, and to get sensible men to read it.--COLTON.
An author! 'Tis a venerable name! How few deserve it, and what numbers claim! Unblest with sense above their peers refin'd, Who shall stand