’Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours And ask them what report they bore to heaven. --_Young’s Night Thoughts._ For the will and not the gift makes the giver.--_Lessing._ Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.--_Emerson._ If I shoot at the sun I may hit a star.--_P. T. Barnum._ The highest point of achievement of yesterday is the starting point of to-day.--_Motto of Paulist Fathers._ I look upon that man as happy, who, when there is a question of success, looks into his work for a reply; not into the market, not into opinion, not into patronage. Work is victory. You want but one verdict; if you have your own, you are secure of the rest.--_Emerson._ There is ever a song somewhere, my dear, Be the skies above or dark or fair, There is ever a song that our hearts may hear-- There is ever a song somewhere, my dear-- There is ever a song somewhere! --_James Whitcomb Riley._ “The Present, the Present is all thou hast For thy sure possessing; Like the Patriarch’s angel, hold it fast Till it gives its blessing.” What a sublime doctrine it is that goodness cherished _now_, is eternal life already entered upon!--_William Ellery Channing._ He who feels contempt For any living thing, hath faculties That he has never used: And thought with him Is in its infancy. --_Phillips Brooks._ “‘This one thing I do,’ or, ‘These forty things I dabble in,’--which shall it be?” I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there is any kindness I can show, or any good I can do to any fellow-being, let me do it now, let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.--_Mrs. A. B. Hegeman._ We get no good by being ungenerous, even to a book.--_E. B. Browning._ Build a little fence of trust around to-day, Fill the space with loving deeds and therein stay; Look not through the sheltering bars upon to-morrow, God will help thee bear what comes of joy or sorrow. --_Mary Frances Butts._ A wide-spreading, hopeful disposition is the best umbrella for this vale of tears.--_Wm. D. Howells._ He who meets life as though it meant something worth finding out, and who expresses his best self, is the one who has the permanent basis of happiness.--_H. W. Dresser._ Conscience is nothing else but the echo of God’s voice within the soul.--_E. B. Hall._ We prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good or evil, that gradually determines character.--_George Eliot._ To be courteous to one’s peers is all very well, but it is fairness and courtesy and consideration to those in dependent or limited conditions that constitute the true test of the gentleman or lady.--_Lilian Whiting._ I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. The realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.--_George Eliot._