The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 987, November 26, 1898Various
General
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 987, November 26, 1898
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
"Hours have wings, fly up to the author of time and carry news of our
usage. All our prayers cannot entreat one of them either to return
or slacken his pace. The misspents of every minute are a new record
against us in heaven. Sure if we thought thus, we should dismiss them
with better reports and not suffer them to fly away empty or laden with
dangerous intelligence. How happy is it when they carry up not only the
message, but the fruits of good, and stay with the Ancient of Days to
speak for us before His glorious throne."
Sir James Y. Simpson, the celebrated surgeon, was very fond of speaking
to the students on the duty of saving the moments and letting the
minutes look after themselves. But in his estimate, as it should ever
be in ours, the quality of the work was the all-important element in
life. And of a hard-working thoughtful doctor who died young, he said,
"He was older than some of us who are twice his age!"
Kingsley had the same thought in his mind when he wrote those
well-known lines--
"Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever;
Do lovely things, not dream them, all day long,
And so make Life, and Death, and that For Ever
One grand sweet song."
He did not intend to deprecate cleverness and learning, but to point
out that our first endeavour should be to be good and live a noble
life, and if we could accomplish that, not to fret or be grieved if
outstripped in intellectual attainments by others; because whilst "to
do lovely things" lies in everybody's power, the higher intellectual
acquirements are not within the reach of all. With due arrangement
of time it is marvellous how much can be accomplished. You will be
surprised to find how many books you can read in a year if you devote
one hour a day to them. It is often said that it is the busiest people
who can always find time to undertake yet some more work or do a
service for others, while idle people never have time for anything,
and the truth of this paradox is proved by the vast amount of reading
accomplished and the intense interest taken in extraneous matters by
our very busiest statesmen, surgeons and clergymen. Try then, all
of you, to acquire such habits of regularity and punctuality whilst
at school, that they may remain with you afterwards and make it an
easy and pleasant task for you to apportion your time to the best
advantage, when freed from the rules necessary in scholastic life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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