Before me on the mantel-block, There ticks a busy little clock-- The measurer of time. It never stops or tries to shirk; Unceasingly it plies its work With zeal almost sublime. Oh could I work as steadily, Oh could I just as faithful be, As this minute machine-- My life would be filled with success, with industry, with usefulness, and happiness serene. _M. in Hampden-Sidney Magazine._ 332 I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life. --_Dr. Johnson._ 333 A clergyman should never come tired before his people, but rather like an engine when it leaves the round-house, oiled, equipped with fuel and water, and with all its strength waiting to be put forth. 334 In his last annual report, President Eliot states that the average age of students entering Harvard is eighteen years of age and ten months. He then intimates that if students could be induced to enter college earlier, as they did in Emerson's time, there would be fewer failures. 335 When musing on companions gone We doubly feel ourselves alone. 336 "Aye gang (always go) wi' them that's better than yerself." --_Old Scotch Saying._ If this was done generally, there would be a levelling up, instead of a levelling down. 337 Pleasant company shortens the miles. 338 COMPENSATION. Mothers of many, with envious eyes, Gaze as I drive through the evening cool, Swift as I pass them, we mingle our sighs, For my arms are empty--and theirs over-full. "See her," they say, "with her laces and pearls! All for the rich! 'Tis the world's common rule. We have but rags for our boys and our girls; Empty our pockets--her coffers are full." Mothers! To yours, tender voices reply, Little ones' hands at your skirts softly pull; Widowed and lonely and childless am I, Empty my heart--though my coffers are full. --_Gus Gordon._ 339 POOR AND RICH. Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? O sweet content! Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed? O punishment! 340 Every one must see daily instances of people who complain, from a mere habit of complaining. --_Graves._ 341 A compliment is usually accompanied with a bow, as if to beg pardon for paying it. --_J. C. Hare._ 342 Illuminate me with a ray of your intelligence! 343 Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. 344