Volume Ii Part 60 (1/2)

300.

”THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.”-If we are clever, the one thing we need is to have joy in our hearts. ”Ah,” adds some one, ”if we are clever, the best thing we can do is to be wise.”

301.

A SIGN OF LOVE.-Some one said, ”There are two persons about whom I have never thought deeply. That is a sign of my love for them.”

302.

HOW WE SEEK TO IMPROVE BAD ARGUMENTS.-Many a man adds a bit of his personality to his bad arguments, as if they would thus go better and change into straight and good arguments. In the same way, players at skittles, even after a throw, try to give a direction to the ball by turns and gestures.

303.

HONESTY.-It is but a small thing to be a pattern sort of man with regard to rights and property-for instance (to name trifling points, which of course give a better proof of this sort of pattern nature than great examples), if as a boy one never steals fruit from another's orchard, and as a man never walks on unmown fields. It is but little; you are then still only a ”law-abiding person,” with just that degree of morality of which a ”society,” a group of human beings, is capable.

304.

”MAN!”-What is the vanity of the vainest individual as compared with the vanity which the most modest person feels when he thinks of his position in nature and in the world as ”Man!”

305.

THE MOST NECESSARY GYMNASTIC.-Through deficiency in self-control in small matters a similar deficiency on great occasions slowly arises. Every day on which we have not at least once denied ourselves some _trifle_ is turned to bad use and a danger to the next day. This gymnastic is indispensable if we wish to maintain the joy of being our own master.

306.