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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 37

Gleanings

Gleanings.

Plato predicted that if a perfectly righteous man ever appeared on earth he would be scourged, tortured, bound, deprived of his sight, and after having suffered all possible injuries nailed to a post.

Subtract from a great man all that he owes to opportunity and all that he owes to chance, all that he has gained by the wisdom of his friends and by the folly of his enemies, and the giant will often be left a pigmy.

Mary Queen of Scots said that she feared John Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand. Did not Felix and Drusilla tremble in the presence of the prisoner Paul?

Lord Chatham declared that "not a shot shall be fired in Europe without my permission."

Whatever remains of worth amongst men in political life is evoked by the sight of men in humbler stations doing what they are conscious they ought themselves to do.

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Lord Liverpool (1818) said that the Russians must be made to feel that we had a Parliament and a Public, to which we are responsible.

It is no use talking to me. I know no more of diplomatic matters than—a member of the House of Commons. Speak to Lord Aberdeen; if he agrees I am ready to concur. Thus confessed Earl Derby, many years Premier!

Disraeli's career has been a wonder, and his life a sneer. He has raised himself as a chimneysweep does—his feet against one wall, his back against the other. The one wall was Lord Palmerston, the other of two successive kinds of masonry—the first Sir Robert Peel, the second Lord Derby.

Cheerfulness is an unfailing characteristic of true believers. Cheerlessness is often the precursor of spiritual death, and should therefore be guarded against. It is the parent of scepticism and infidelity. Faith and joy are twin sisters that never part.

The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never excuses himself.

The girls! May they add charity to beauty, subtract envy from friendship, multiply genial affections, divide time by industry and recreation, reduce scandal to its lowest denomination, and raise virtue to its highest power.

If you want to see what men will do in the way of conformity take an European hat for your subject of meditation. There are 22,000,000 of people at this moment, each wearing one of these hats to please the rest.

Opinion is a medium between knowledge and ignorance.

'Pray, of what did your brother die?' said the Marquis Spinola to Sir Horace Vere. 'He died, sir,' replied he, 'of having nothing to do.' ' Alas, sir,' said Spinola, ' that is enough to kill any general of us all.'

A teacher was asked the reason of his success in teaching and retaining young men.—' Putting my arms around them.'

"Knowledge is proud that she hath learned so much,

Wisdom is humble that she knows no mors."