--QUARLES.
MELANCHOLY.--I once gave a lady two-and-twenty receipts against
melancholy: one was a bright fire; another, to remember all the
pleasant things said to her; another, to keep a box of sugar-plums on
the chimney-piece and a kettle simmering on the hob. I thought this
mere trifling at the moment, but have in after life discovered how
true it is that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better
than higher and more exalted objects; and that no means ought to be
thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or in
others.--SYDNEY SMITH.
Melancholy sees the worst of things,--things as they may be, and not
as they are. It looks upon a beautiful face, and sees but a grinning
skull.--BOVEE.
There are some people who think that they should be always mourning,
that they should put a continual constraint upon themselves, and feel
a disgust for those amusements to which they are obliged to submit.
For my own part, I confess that I know not how to conform myself to
these rigid notions. I prefer something more simple, which I also
think would be more pleasing to God.--FENELON.
MERCY.--Let us be merciful as well as just.--LONGFELLOW.
Consider this,--
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
--SHAKESPEARE.
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