Part 1 (1/2)

The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford

Author: Mark Rutherford

PREFACE

The present edition is a reprint of the first, with corrections of several mistakes which had been overlooked

There is one observation which Iafter soraphy Rutherford, at any rate in his earlier life, was an exahts and reading books to which he was not equal, and which tend to make a man lonely

It is all very well that remarkable persons should occupy themselves with exalted subjects, which are out of the ordinary road which ordinary hureatto do with thee men and women, as most of us have to live, we must learn to take an interest in the topics which concern average ht not to sacrifice a singlewhich is too big for us, and as a rule,for the men out of a hundred, or perhaps ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a hundred thousand, the wholesome healthy doctrine is, ”Don't bother yourselves hat is beyond you; try to lead a sweet, clean, wholeso, stick to your work, and when your day is done amuse and refresh yourselves”

It is not only a duty to ourselves, but it is a duty to others to take this course Great ood, but not without so ourselves with their dreast persons to whooes into his study, shuts hiy, co what he has read, is miserable because he cannot find anybody hoenuine joy which he could have obtained fro to what his wife had to tell hihbours

”Lor, miss, you haven't looked at your new bonnet to-day,” said a servant girl to her young o out”

”Oh, how can you? why, I get ht”

She was happy for a whole fortnight with a happiness cheap at a very high price

That sa mistress was very caustic upon the women who block the pavement outside drapers' shops, but surely she was unjust They always see themselves intensely and ner concert

Many persons with refined minds are apt to depreciate happiness, especially if it is of ”a low type” Broadly speaking, it is the one thing worth having, and low or high, if it does no mischief, is better than the y, including all speculations on the why and the wherefore, optimism, pessimism, freedom, necessity, causality, and so forth, are not only for the most part loss of time, but frequently ruinous It is no answer to say that these things force theive or try to give an answer It is true, although strange, that there arequestions which we et their existence; and it is not e, after all, than many other facts in this wonderfully mysterious and defective existence of ours One fourth of life is intelligible, the other three-fourths is unintelligible darkness; and our earliest duty is to cultivate the habit of not looking round the corner

”Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy ith a merry heart; for God hath already accepted thy works Let thy garments be alhite, and let not thy head lack ointment Live joyfully with the hom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in life”

R S

This is the night when I lory overhead: He'll set just after I arave: Orion walketh o'er the wave: Down in the dark damp earth I lie, While he dothwill coht array put on Of daisy and of priht

And soet that you could play Beethoven; let us hear a strain Froain”

And so she'll play thatthe worms do lie; Dead to them all, for ever dead; The churchyard clay dense overhead

I once did think there ht be mine One friendshi+p perfect and divine; Alas! that dream dissolved in tears Before I'd counted twenty years

For I was ever cohts the world have never fed, Mere echoes of the book last read

Those whom I knew I cannot blame: If they are cold, I am the same: How could they ever show to me More than a common courtesy?

There is no deed which I have done; There is no love which I have won, To ht their earthat the break of day, A man upon his deathbed lay; AStar came o'er the hill

But when the dawn lay on his face, It kindled an irace; As if in death that Life were shown Which lives not in the great alone