Danger is the very basis of superstition. It produces a searching after help supernaturally when human means are no longer supposed to be available. 5255 B. R. Haydon: Table Talk. Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable. 5256 Joubert: Pensées. No. 27. Pascal: Thoughts. (Attwell, Translator.) To carry piety to the The heretics reproach It is doing what they Ch. xiv. iii. (Wight, Louandre edition.) Superstition, in all times and among all nations, is the fear of a spirit whose passions are those of a man, whose acts are the acts of a man; who is present in some places, not in others; who makes some places holy, and not others; who is kind to one person, unkind to another; who is pleased or angry according to the degree of attention you pay him, or praise you refuse to him; who is hostile generally to human pleasure, but may be bribed by sacrifice of a part of that pleasure into permitting the rest. This, whatever form of faith it colors, is the essence of superstition. 5258 Ruskin: The Study of Architecture. Superstition is related to this life, religion to the next; superstition is allied to fatality, religion to virtue; it is by the vivacity of earthly desires that we become superstitious; it is, on the contrary, by the sacrifice of these desires that we become religious. 5259 Mme. de Staël: Life of Mme. de Staël, by Abel Stevens. Ch. 34. Superstition moulds nature into an arbitrary semblance of the supernatural, and then bows down to the work of its own hands. 5260 SURF, THE. John Sterling: Essays and Tales. Thoughts. The sea knows the brevity of that glad bound along the beach. 5261 George William Curtis: Lotus-Eating. Nahant. SUSPICION - see Deceit. Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight. 5262 Bacon Essays. Of Suspicion. There is nothing that makes a man suspect much, more than to know little; and, therefore, men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not to keep their sus picions to smother. 5263 Bacon: Essays. Of Suspicion. 5264 Suspicion is no less an enemy to virtue than to happiness. 5265 Johnson: Boswell's Life of Johnson. III. 135. (George Birkbeck Hill, Editor, 1887.) are weeds of the mind which grow of themselves, and most rapidly when least wanted. Suspicions 5266 SWEARING. Lew Wallace: Ben-Hur. Bk. vii. Ch. 2. And then a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him, and might not spend them at my pleasure. 5267 Shakespeare: Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 1. But if you swear by that that is not, you are not forsworn: no more was this knight, swearing by his honor, for he never had any. 5268 Shakespeare: As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths. Shakespeare: Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 1. 5269 The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever. 5270 Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy. Vol. vi. Ch. 8. (Original Edition.) SYMBOLS. There is nothing so great or so goodly in creation, but that it is a mean symbol of the Gospel of Christ, and of the things he has prepared for them that love him. 5271 Ruskin: The Stones of Venice. The Fall. SYMPATHY - see Humanity. Strengthen me by sympathizing with my strength, not my weakness. 5272 A. Bronson Alcott: Table Talk. Sympathy. The sympathy of sorrow is stronger than the sympathy of prosperity. 5273 Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield): Endymion. Ch. 16. More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us. 5274 George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss. Bk. vii. Ch. 1. Sympathetic people are often uncommunicative about themselves; they give back reflected images which hide their own depths. 5275 George Eliot: Leaves from a Note-Book. Birth of Tolerance. We owe to man higher succors than food and fire. We owe to man, man. 5276 Emerson: Society and Solitude. Domestic Life. Love and death are the two great hinges on which all human sympathies turn. B. R. Haydon: Table Talk. Nothing precludes sympathy so much as a perfect indifference to it. 5278 5277 Hazlitt: Characteristics. No. 42. We are governed by sympathy; and the extent of our sympathy is determined by that of our sensibility. Hazlitt: Characteristics. No. 410. 5279 It is only kindred griefs that draw forth our tears, and each weeps really for himself. 5280 Heine: Wit, Wisdom, and Pathos. Travel- Sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load. 3281 Charles H. Parkhurst: Sermons. XIII. The A face which is always serene possesses a mysterious and powerful attraction; sad hearts come to it as to the sun to warm themselves again. 5282 Joseph Roux: Meditations of a Parish Priest. The secret of language is the secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle. 5283 Ruskin: Lectures on Art. Lecture iii. Sec. 68. How much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping. 5284 Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1. Sympathy is in great degree a result of the mood we are in at the moment: anger forbids the emotion. On the other hand, it is easiest taken on when we are in a state of most absolute self-satisfaction. 5285 Lew Wallace: Ben-Hur. Bk. iv. Ch. 6. TABLE TALK. T. Table talk, to be perfect, should be sincere without bigotry, differing without discord, sometimes grave, always agreeable, touching on deep points, dwelling most on seasonable ones, and letting everybody speak and be heard. 5286 TACT. Leigh Hunt: Table Talk. Kindness is the principle of tact, and respect for others the first condition of savoir-vivre. 5287 Amiel Journal, Nov. 18, 1851. (Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Translator.) Without tact you can learn nothing. Tact teaches you when to be silent. Inquirers who are always inquiring never learn anything. 5288 Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield): Endymion. Ch.61. TALENT -see Authors, Genius, Nature. To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. 5289 Amiel: Journal, Oct. 27, 1856. (Mrs. Humphrey Talent is that which is in a man's power. 5290 Lowell: Among My Books. Rousseau and the Talent repeats; Genius creates. Talent is a cistern; Genius a fountain. Talent deals with the actual, with discovered and realized truths, analyzing, arranging, combining, applying positive knowledge, and in action looking to precedents; Genius deals with the possible, creates new combinations, discovers new laws, and acts from an insight into principles. Talent jogs to conclusions to which Genius takes giant leaps. Talent accumulates knowledge, and has it packed up in the memory; Genius assimilates it with its own substance, grows with every new accession, and converts knowledge into power. Talent gives out what it has taken in; Genius what has risen from its unsounded wells of living thought. Talent, in difficult situations, strives to untie knots, which Genius instantly cuts with one swift decision. Talent is full of thoughts, Genius of thought; one has definite acquisitions, the other indefinite power. 5291 TALK E. P. Whipple: Literature and Life. Genius. see Conversation, Table Talk, Talkativeness. Egotists cannot converse, they talk to themselves only. 5292 A. Bronson Alcott: Concord Days. May, Conversation. Talk often, but never long; in that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers. Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company; this being one of the few cases in which people do not care to be treated, every one being fully convinced that he has wherewithal to pay. 5293 Lord Chesterfield: Letters to His Son. Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact. 5294 George Eliot: Theophrastus Such. Ch. 6. No one would talk much in society if he only knew how often he misunderstands others. 5295 Goethe: Elective Affinities. Pt. ii. Ch. 4. (Bohn edition.) To talk without effort is, after all, the great charm of talking. 5296 J. C. and A. W. Hare: Guesses at Truth. A person who talks with equal vivacity on every subject, excites no interest in any. 5297 Hazlitt: Characteristics. No. 179. We talk little if we do not talk about ourselves. 5298 Hazlitt: Characteristics. No. 172. Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hands on the strings to stop their vibrations, as in twanging them to bring out their music. 5299 Holmes: The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Ch. 1. Talking is one of the fine arts, - the noblest, the most important, the most difficult, and its fluent harmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a single harsh note. 5300 Holmes: The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Ch. 3. A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you. 5301 Johnson: Boswell's Life of Johnson. III. 247. (George Birkbeck Hill, Editor, 1887.) Drawing is speaking to the eye, talking is painting to the ear. 5302 Joubert: Pensées. No. 36. (Attwell, Translator.) It is a sad thing when men have neither wit to speak well nor judgment to hold their tongues. 5303 La Bruyere: Characters. Of the Heart. (Rowe, Translator.) We seldom repent talking too little, but very often talking too much. 5304 La Bruyère: Characters. Of Man. (Rowe, Evil tongues never want a whet. 5305 Le Sage: Gil Blas. Bk. iii. Ch. 1. (Smollett, Trans.) Nor is drunkenness censured for anything so much as its intemperate and endless talk. 5306 Plutarch: Morals. On Talkativeness. (Shilleto, Translator.) Long talking begets short hearing, for people go away. 5307 Richter: Levana. Sixth Fragment. Ch. 4, Sec. 120. Length of saying makes languor of hearing. 5308 Joseph Roux: Meditations of a Parish Priest. |