Mothers who force their daughters into interested marriage, are worse than the Ammonites who sacrificed their children to Moloch--the latter undergoing a speedy death, the former suffering years of torture, but too frequently leading to the same result.--LORD ROCHESTER.

Let us no more contend, nor blame Each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive In offices of love, how we may lighten Each other's burden, in our share of woe.

--MILTON.

The world well tried, the sweetest thing in life Is the unclouded welcome of a wife.

--WILLIS.

A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.--GOETHE.

Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.--ANDREW JACKSON.

If you wish to ruin yourself, marry a rich wife.--MICHELET.

Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity; and he must expect to be wretched, who pays to beauty, riches, or politeness that regard which only virtue and piety can claim.--DR. JOHNSON.

When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.--SHAKESPEARE.

The good wife is none of our dainty dames, who love to appear in a variety of suits every day new; as if a good gown, like a stratagem in war, were to be used but once. But our good wife sets up a sail according to the keel of her husband's estate; and if of high parentage, she doth not so remember what she was by birth, that she forgets what she is by match.--FULLER.

Of earthly goods the best, is a good wife.--SIMONIDES.

Take the daughter of a good mother.--FULLER.

Jars concealed are half reconciled; 'tis a double task, to stop the breach at home and men's mouths abroad. To this end, a good husband never publicly reproves his wife. An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present; after which, many study rather revenge than reformation.--FULLER.

Every effort is made in forming matrimonial alliances to reconcile matters relating to fortune, but very little is paid to the congeniality of dispositions, or to the accordance of hearts.--Ma.s.sILLON.

A good wife is heaven's last best gift to man; his angel and minister of graces innumerable; his gem of many virtues; his casket of jewels; her voice his sweet music; her smiles his brightest day; her kiss the guardian of his innocence; her arms the pale of his safety, the balm of his health, the balsam of his life; her industry, his surest wealth; her economy, his safest steward; her lips, his faithful counselors; her bosom, the softest pillow of his cares; and her prayers, the ablest advocates of heaven's blessings on his head.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

A married man has many cares, but a bachelor no pleasures.--DR. JOHNSON.

MEDITATION.--Meditation is the soul's perspective gla.s.s, whereby, in her long removes, she discerneth G.o.d, as if He were near at hand.

--FELTHAM.

Meditation is the life of the soul; action is the soul of meditation; honor is the reward of action; so meditate, that thou mayst do; so do, that thou mayst purchase honor; for which purchase, give G.o.d the glory.

--QUARLES.

MELANCHOLY.--I once gave a lady two-and-twenty receipts against melancholy: one was a bright fire; another, to remember all the pleasant things said to her; another, to keep a box of sugar-plums on the chimney-piece and a kettle simmering on the hob. I thought this mere trifling at the moment, but have in after life discovered how true it is that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better than higher and more exalted objects; and that no means ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or in others.--SYDNEY SMITH.

Melancholy sees the worst of things,--things as they may be, and not as they are. It looks upon a beautiful face, and sees but a grinning skull.--BOVEE.

There are some people who think that they should be always mourning, that they should put a continual constraint upon themselves, and feel a disgust for those amus.e.m.e.nts to which they are obliged to submit.

For my own part, I confess that I know not how to conform myself to these rigid notions. I prefer something more simple, which I also think would be more pleasing to G.o.d.--FeNELON.

MERCY.--Let us be merciful as well as just.--LONGFELLOW.

Consider this,-- That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Among the attributes of G.o.d, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy than justice.--CERVANTES.

G.o.d's mercy is a holy mercy, which knows how to pardon sin, not to protect it; it is a sanctuary for the penitent, not for the presumptuous.--BISHOP REYNOLDS.

It is enthroned in the heart of kings, It is an attribute to G.o.d himself; And earthly power doth then show likest G.o.d's When mercy seasons justice.

--SHAKESPEARE.

There is no better rule to try a doctrine by than the question, Is it merciful, or is it unmerciful? If its character is that of mercy, it has the image of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

--HOSEA BALLOU.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes; 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Lenity will operate with greater force, in some instances, than rigor.

It is therefore my first wish to have my whole conduct distinguished by it.--WASHINGTON.

Teach me to feel another's woe, To hide the fault I see; That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me.

--POPE.

Underneath the wings of the seraphim are stretched the arms of the divine mercy, ever ready to receive sinners.--THE TALMUD.

Sweet mercy is n.o.bility's true badge.--SHAKESPEARE.

MERIT.--There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Distinguished merit will ever rise to oppression, and will draw l.u.s.tre from reproach. The vapors which gather round the rising sun, and follow him in his course, seldom fail at the close of it to form a magnificent theatre for his reception, and to invest with variegated tints and with a softened effulgence the luminary which they cannot hide.--ROBERT HALL.

On their own merits modest men are dumb.--GEORGE COLMAN.

The art of being able to make a good use of moderate abilities wins esteem and often confers more reputation than real merit.--LA BRUYeRE.

The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

METHOD.--Method is essential, and enables a larger amount of work to be got through with satisfaction. "Method," said Cecil (afterward Lord Burleigh), "is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much again as a bad one." Cecil's despatch of business was extraordinary; his maxim being, "The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once."--SAMUEL SMILES.

MIND.--Our minds are like certain vehicles,--when they have little to carry they make much noise about it, but when heavily loaded they run quietly.--ELIHU BURRITT.

We ought, in humanity, no more to despise a man for the misfortunes of the mind than for those of the body, when they are such as he cannot help; were this thoroughly considered we should no more laugh at a man for having his brains cracked than for having his head broke.--POPE.

It is the mind that makes the body rich.--SHAKESPEARE.

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.--CHESTERFIELD.

Were I so tall to reach the pole, Or grasp the ocean with my span, I must be measur'd by my soul: The mind's the standard of the man.