--EPICTETUS.
It is thy duty oftentimes to do what thou wouldst not; thy duty, too,
to leave undone that thou wouldst do.--THOMAS A KEMPIS.
There is no evil that we cannot either face or fly from but the
consciousness of duty disregarded. A sense of duty pursues us ever. It
is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of
the morning, and dwell in the utmost parts of the seas, duty
performed, or duty violated, is still with us, for our happiness or
our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as
in the light our obligations are yet with us. We cannot escape their
power, nor fly from their presence. They are with us in this life,
will be with us at its close, and in that scene of inconceivable
solemnity which lies yet further onward we shall still find ourselves
surrounded by the consciousness of duty, to pain us wherever it has
been violated, and to console us so far as God may have given us grace
to perform it.--WEBSTER.
EARLY RISING.--Whoever has tasted the breath of morning, knows that
the most invigorating and most delightful hours of the day are
commonly spent in bed; though it is the evident intention of Nature
that we should enjoy and profit by them.--SOUTHEY.
Who would in such a gloomy state remain
Longer than nature craves; when ev'ry muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To bless the wildly devious morning walk?
--THOMSON.
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