What shadows we are! what shadows we pursue! 1758 THE LOST SHEEP. "Oh, gentle Shepherd, climbing rugged mountains, And crossing waters deep, How long wouldst Thou be willing to go homeless, To find a wandering sheep?" "I count not time," the Shepherd gently answered, "As thou dost count and bind The days in the weeks, the weeks in months; My count is just until I find. And that should be the limit of my journey, I'd cross the waters deep, And climb the hill-slopes with untiring patience, Until I found my sheep." --_Luke xv, 4v._ 1759 Sickness is every man's master. --_From the Danish._ 1760 No duns outside, and no doctors within. (Absence of sickness and debt.) --_Chinese._ 1761 Out of sight, out of mind. 1762 Silence is the safest response for all the contradiction that arises from impertinence, vulgarity, or envy. --_Zimmerman._ 1763 Silence is the best resolve for him who distrusts himself. --_Rochefoucauld._ 1764 Silence is the consummate eloquence of sorrow. 1765 Of keeping silence few have paid the cost; Of having said too much, a countless host. 1766 Silence is often an answer. 1767 The silence often of pure innocence, Persuades, when speaking fails. --_Shakespeare._ 1768 There is a sure reward for faithful silence. --_Horace._ 1769 He knows much who knows how, and when, to be silent. --_Scotch._ 1770 Plated silver. (Sarcastically applied to pretenders.) 1771 Most rare is now our old simplicity. 1772 Commit a sin twice, it will seem a sin no longer. --_From The Talmud._ 1773 Men's sins are before our eyes: our own, behind our backs. --_Seneca._ 1774 Many a man will give another man a letter of recommendation, though he would hardly lend the applicant a dollar. 1775 A HAPPY USE OF SINGING. An excellent clergyman, possessing much knowledge of human nature, instructed his large family of daughters in the theory and practice of music. They were all observed to be exceedingly amiable and happy. A friend inquired if there was any secret in his mode of education. He replied--"When anything disturbs their temper, I say to them _sing_, and if I hear them speaking against any person, I call them to sing to me; and so they have sung away all causes of discontent, and every disposition to scandal." --_Arvine._ 1776 He who stands still in mud,--sinks. 1777