Many Thoughts of Many Minds | Page 5

who herds with literary pedants.--LAVATER.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.--SOLOMON.
If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to
limp.--FROM THE LATIN.
If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only
who are estimable.--LA BRUYÈRE.
Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of
thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy
superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is
the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst
there.--QUARLES.
A companion of fools shall be destroyed.--PROVERBS 13:20.
Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have
it.--LORD CHESTERFIELD.
I set it down as a maxim, that it is good for a man to live where he can
meet his betters, intellectual and 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