Editor’s Table: Notes

It is best to be ourselves. To ape the mannerism of another is not the wise way to grow. If we devote ourselves to the cultivation of a right spirit within, our outward ways will have truest attractiveness. Hope is a duty as well as a comfort. He who ceases to look forward to the future with hope ceases to work with a will in the present. As long as we have work to do or burdens to carry, let us hope for something better than is now in our possession. We ought not to be satisfied with, though we have to be contented in, that which the present gives us. It is a beautiful world once we learn how to live. There is beauty in every menial duty, there is inspiration in every hardship and sacrifice, if only once we learn that each hardship and each sacrifice form but one more stepping-stone that lifts us up above the level of the commonplace and nearer the heights of divine endurance that makes life a glorification of the spirit. Those who push themselves forward, recounting their own deeds and successes, and claiming the applause and gratitude of the world, are by no means the greatest benefactors of their race. Often indeed they are wearing the stolen plumage of their more modest brothers who have done great deeds without notice or eclat, and are contented to be what the others greatly wish to appear. When it comes to be realized by the great majority of the universe that severity and harshness are usually the result of a poverty of intellect that fails to comprehend human nature, and that charity, sympathy, gentleness, and good feeling are the sure fruits, not only of a kindly heart, but of an educated brain, a long step will have been taken towards the increase of human welfare and happiness. The lesson, not of stoicism, but of quiet manly endurance, is one which is much needed in this sympathetic age. Especially is this the case in all the smaller miseries of life. Every one has petty vexations, annoyances, disappointments, hindrances, aches of both body and mind, some of which can be remedied and others only endured, but none of which he has any right to add to the load which his neighbor has to carry. A due regard to the comfort of others and also to his own dignity demand that such things be relegated to silence, and not suffered to intrude upon and spoil seasons of intercourse which might otherwise be gladdening and elevating.