Notes

NOTES.

Purpose is good, pluck better, but perseverance wins the day.

People often lose their patience just when they need it the most.

Whoever would succeed in business must be there and see to it

himself.

"We never find out how much joy there is in light and sunshine until we have been for a little while in the dark."

There is such a thing as a worldly spirit, and there is such a thing as an unworldly spirit; and, according as we partake of the one or the other, the savor of the sacrifice of our lives is ordinary, commonplace, poor and base, or elevating, invigorating, useful, noble and holy. Dean - Stanley.

Bishop Simpson thus wrote to his wife: "Be careful of your health; be cheerful. Look aloft. The stars display their beauty to us only when we look at them. — Be resolved to be happy today to be joyful now and out of every fleeting moment draw all possible pure and lasting pleasure."

The future is lighted for us with the radient colors of hope. Strife and sorrow shall disappear. Peace and love shall reign supreme. The dream of poets, the lesson of priest and prophet, the inspiration of the great musician, is confirmed in the light of modern knowledge; and as we gird ourselves up for the work of life, we may look forward to the time when in the truest sense the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of Christ.—John Fiske.

Mother brought me up to do all kinds of housework —sweeping, dish- washing, bed making, cooking, etc., just as father taught me all sorts of work about the farm. For a boy or girl to thus be able to do thoroughly everything about the home or farm, while also getting fundamentals of book learning at public schools, is the best possible preparation for after life. To know at eight or ten years of age how to work, as well as how to read and write— then to carry along such "learning by doing" from at sixteen or twenty the youth is as full of energy year to year until

and health as of knowledge and judgment; this is true education. Don't

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050 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

grumble, my boy or girl friend, if you have to work before and after school or during vacation. Ere many years you'll be as thankful for

having had such training as I am now. Not what's done for us, but what we do for ourselves, fits us for success in life! Farm and Home.

A few years ago a certain Indiana farmer became tired of having two or three hired men around, and concluded to give his two boys an interest in the live stock and let them feed and care for it. The sons, since having an interest in the stock, take better care of it than the hired he?p did. These boys, once discontented with farm life, are becoming more interested year by year in farming. The father's

failing health compels him to take life more easily. He can now con- tentedly do this, knowing that the boys are able and willing to manage the farm. Isn't this course better than the usual one of having the boys work for father until they are ready to be married —never knowing, until they leave home, what it is to be independent? It is, indeed. Farm Journal.

I know boys and girls who, a week after reading a book, could re- call scarcely an item of its contents. They read with listless minds, like sponges, which let the clear water through and retain all the dirt. A great many people scarcely exercise their minds at all in reading. They let the words filter through the brain, leaving almost nothing behind. They might be called "impression" readers. The impression, the exhila- ration, the excitement, is all they want. They do not try to remember or to do any vigorous thinking while they are reading. They read just for the pleasure it gives them. It is mental dissipation.

Such lazy readers not only get no permanent benefit from their reading, but they also demoralize their minds by constant passivity, so that they become almost totally unfit for any strong mental action. Instead of strengthening their minds, they weaken them. The superficial reading of even good things will injure the mind's efficiency for doing good work. The habit of skimming over newspapers, glancing through books, catching a heading here and a sentence there, destroys the focusing power of the mind. No good reading can be ac- complished without concentrated thought. The mind, in a receptive and responsible mood, must be focused with power, and every conflicting in- fluence must be cut off. It must be ready to grasp a principle, fro hold a new thought, to reflect, to analyze, to compare. Svccess.