THE 
 VALUE OF SIMPLICITY
 
 M
 
 VALUE o 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Edited by 
 
 Ma.ry Minerva. Borrows 
 
 Introduction by 
 
 J \i 1 i a. Wa.rd Howe 
 
 H. M. CALDWELL CO. 
 BOSTON & MCMV 
 
 /rl
 
 Copyright, 1905 
 BY H. M. CALDWELL Co. 
 
 COLONIAL PRESS 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &> Cc. 
 Boston, U.S.A.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 We are living in an. age of show and splendour. 
 The ambitions of society have grown with its 
 achievements, and a spirit of excess has come 
 to prevail among us which is likely to bring with 
 it a deterioration of public taste and sentiment. 
 There is need to bring to our remembrance the 
 examples of a life less cumbered with exaggera- 
 tion than that of our own time. If our Republic 
 is to continue, we who form it must be republi- 
 can in our judgment and feeling. Neither the 
 manly nor the womanly virtues will thrive in an 
 atmosphere that breeds perpetual unrest. 
 
 We, children of the Puritans, are surely not 
 altogether made for a career of fuss and feathers. 
 Our living must come out of the plain earth. Our 
 spiritual growth is maintained by certain vital 
 principles, which cannot be discerned in the ex- 
 citement of perpetual pleasure-seeking. 
 
 In order to ascertain where we stand and 
 whither we tend, we must put aside the show and 
 glitter of mere frivolity, and give ourselves room 
 and leisure for the lessons of deeper thought. 
 
 It sometimes seems as if the opposing elements
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 human nature took shape in periods of plus 
 and minus. The history of art shows us genera- 
 tions which desire and seek exuberance in orna- 
 ment and in style. We Americans have passed 
 through a season of wearisome adornment, in 
 which some sort of aesthetic disguise was in- 
 vented for the familiar pieces of household furni- 
 ture. We hung embroidered scarfs on easel and 
 mantelpiece, and made portieres take the place 
 of doors. I have even heard of places remote 
 from centres of civilization in which well-mean- 
 ing housewives adorned or disfigured the walls 
 of their houses with strips of cotton cloth, 
 worked in gaudy crewels. A change of feeling 
 takes place, and these superfluities are swept 
 away, pleasing no more. 
 
 The thesis which I advance is this. Human 
 beings of normal character and condition are 
 satisfied only with enjoyments which exercise 
 their best faculties, to wit, the perception of 
 beauty and harmony, and of the high ideals of 
 thought and conduct to which humanity is able to 
 aspire. To these noble satisfactions luxury pre- 
 sents a bar. It will have us occupied with itself, 
 and so diverts our attention from what we should 
 most covet to enjoy. 
 
 Let us take for an instance the pleasure which 
 good music ought to give. This pleasure is of so 
 high a grade that one should bring to it calm 
 thought and concentrated attention.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Fashionables at an opera regard little the fine 
 harmonies presented. They chatter, flirt, and 
 gossip. The artists feel this neglect and can 
 derive no inspiration from an audience so be- 
 having. Dress, personal ambition and restless 
 activity fill the minds of their hearers, and the 
 divine lesson of high contentment is not learned. 
 
 Life is full of oracles, sources of delight and 
 instruction which can lift it with a fine inspira- 
 tion. But in order to profit by the oracles we 
 must listen to them, and not to the noise of the 
 streets. 
 
 We claim to derive our ideas of beauty from 
 ancient Greece. We should remember that sim- 
 plicity was a ruling element in Greek art. We 
 shall find it in the structure of their temples, in 
 the perfection of their sculpture, in the stern 
 majesty of their drama, and not less in their im- 
 mortal philosophy. Greece in time lost her hold 
 upon these great possessions, but they became 
 the property of the human world for all ages. 
 In the literature of Rome, we find traces of the 
 great inheritance. Virgil takes up the tale of 
 Troy where Homer left it. Cicero quotes and 
 expounds Aristotle. The poet Horace, proud 
 of imitating the metres of Greek poetry, pre- 
 serves also something of its spirit. Let us 
 quote, for example, the ode beginning with this 
 line: 
 
 " Persicos odi, puer, apparatus,"
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Mr. Thackeray has left us an amusing 
 paraphrase. 
 
 Well might the poet deprecate the Oriental 
 luxury which was destined to undermine the 
 splendid edifice of Roman supremacy. Horace 
 was no ascetic, and the element of pleasure has 
 full scope in his verse. But he finds this pleasure 
 in simplicity of life, and his appreciation of it 
 constantly finds expression in his poems. He 
 invites one friend to share his frugal repast and 
 indifferent wine. 
 
 " Vile potabis modi cis Sabinum cantharis." 
 
 He admonishes another that the miser's treasure, 
 buried in the earth, neither shines nor delights. 
 He once boasts: 
 
 " Pauperum me dives petit." 
 
 " The rich man visits me, the poor man " well 
 content to be poor in this world's goods while 
 he is rich in what he values far more. The 
 luxury of congenial work, of simple and sincere 
 companionship, the view of the snow-crowned 
 hills, the glow of his winter fire, above all, the 
 atmosphere of mental calm and equilibrium, these 
 are the delights that prompt his song. Well 
 does he say of this last that it will be heard " as 
 long as the high priest and silent vestal shall
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ascend the steps of the Capitol." Yes, and how 
 much longer? 
 
 This simplicity, beloved of the ancients, has 
 not altogether lacked votaries in modern times. 
 Prominent among these appears the poet Words- 
 worth, who has sung of his retired life and rural 
 surroundings like a true lover of nature. Where 
 but in the grandeur and solitude of the hills 
 could he have had the vision which embodied 
 itself in the Ode to Immortality, by far his great- 
 est achievement? 
 
 What is it that consecrates the village of Con- 
 cord in Massachusetts, so that pilgrims from all 
 parts of this country and of Europe are fain to 
 visit it? The question is easy to answer. It is 
 the memory of certain men of superior mind 
 who made it their home. All of them lived 
 simply, some of them poorly. Alcott, Thoreau, 
 Hawthorne, Emerson. I name them in the as- 
 cending scale of their eminence. The air of 
 Concord still seems bright with their presence. 
 The stones which their feet trod are holy ground. 
 The human world is radiant with their thoughts 
 and example. 
 
 Philosophers and aesthetes agree to adopt the 
 Greek motto, MijSev &yav, "not too much" of 
 anything, however praiseworthy and pleasurable 
 in itself. The New Testament saying that one 
 cannot at the same time serve God and mammon 
 is a simple statement of a fact. Our intellectual
 
 life cannot proceed in two opposite directions 
 at the same time. The diversity of objects which 
 multiplies our sensations tends to confuse our 
 perceptions. Drawn hither and thither by illu- 
 sive attractions, we may easily lose sight of 
 the lodestar which should guide each of us to the 
 attainment of " our being's end and way," to wit, 
 the obligation which rests upon each of us to do 
 his best for his own day and generation. 
 
 Cowper pictures for us a Roman of the Repub- 
 lican time who " enjoyed, spare feast, an apple 
 and an egg." Browning draws a graceful sketch 
 of some great Spanish author, presumably Cer- 
 vantes, playing at cribbage with his maid ser- 
 vant, and supping on a cheese paring and a 
 morsel of fruit. Dante recalls with regret the 
 days in which he saw his noblest friend walk 
 abroad in plainest attire, girt with a leathern belt 
 and horn buckle. All of the great spirits have 
 sought and loved simplicity. 
 
 We will not insist that there is nothing to be 
 said in defence of the florid ornamentation which 
 in some periods of history, and among certain 
 races, has stood for the ideals of beauty and of 
 majesty. A Gothic cathedral may represent a 
 devout purpose as well or better than a Greek 
 
 f L- 
 
 temple. But the attention of the worshipper, if 
 bestowed upon details of ornamentation, is di- 
 verted from objects more sublime. If you would
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 contemplate these you must absent yourself in 
 thought from the others. 
 
 Why is it that persons to whom the entertain- 
 ments of the great world are familiar often ex- 
 press intense delight in exchanging these for 
 rural retirement, unceremonious converse, and 
 simple fare? To many it would appear that in 
 retiring from worldly splendour such persons 
 would relinquish their principal sources of enjoy- 
 ment. The truth is that such a course brings 
 into view sources of real, uplifting pleasure: the 
 sweet breath of the fields and woods, surpass- 
 ing every artificial perfume, the beauty of earth, 
 sea, and sky, eclipsing the products of the loom 
 and easel, above all, the noble symphonies of 
 contemplative thought. To one initiated, these 
 can easily take the place of compliment and 
 display. 
 
 Let us then seek to obtain a clear vision of the 
 true object of life, and follow it with a strong 
 determination not to fail from its pursuit. The 
 great primal duties bring many minor ones in 
 their train, but between the greater and the less 
 we shall find here no incompatibility. The high- 
 est enjoyments shed their charm on the whole 
 sum and substance of human experience. But 
 we must be careful to choose the highest duty 
 and the noblest satisfaction. 
 
 One of the evils attendant upon wealth is that 
 those who have it not are apt to regard those
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 who have it either with a slavish reverence or 
 with a rancorous envy. Here we may suggest an 
 important distinction. We should not show any 
 especial reverence to the possessor of wealth as 
 such, but we may rightly reverence those who 
 use it with a noble beneficence. The poorest man 
 had best not envy Mr. Carnegie his immense 
 fortune, but any of us may envy his power of 
 parting with so much of it as he does for objects 
 in no wise personal to himself. 
 
 JULIA WARD HOWE.
 
 THE: VALUE OF 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Often ornateness 
 Goes with greatness; 
 Oftener felicity 
 Comes of simplicity. 
 
 fig 
 
 William Watson. 
 & & & 
 
 I am convinced, both by faith and experience, 
 that to maintain one's self on this earth is not 
 a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply 
 and wisely; as the pursuits of the simpler 
 nations are still the sports of the more artificial. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 ?>? 
 
 A servant, with this clause, 
 
 Makes drudgery divine: 
 Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, 
 
 Makes that and th' action fine. 
 
 George Herbert,
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 It is far more difficult to be simple than to be 
 complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill 
 and cease exertion in the proper place, than to 
 expend both indiscriminately. 
 
 Raskin. 
 
 The World is too much with us; late and soon, 
 Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; 
 Little we see in Nature that is ours; 
 We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 
 
 This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, 
 The winds that will be howling at all hours 
 And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers, 
 For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 
 
 It moves us not, Great God! I'd rather be 
 A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn, 
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 
 Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 
 Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 *>*>*> 
 
 The man whose character is simple looks 
 truth and honesty so straight in the face that 
 he has no consciousness of intrigue and cor- 
 ruption around him. 
 
 William George Jordan 
 
 2
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 
 Mine be a cot beside the hill; 
 A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear; 
 A willowy brook that turns a mill, 
 With many a fall shall linger near. 
 
 The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch 
 Shall twitter from her clay-built nest; 
 Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch, 
 And share my meal, a welcome guest. 
 
 Around my ivied porch shall spring 
 Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew; 
 And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing 
 In russet gown and apron blue. 
 
 The village church among the trees, 
 Where first our marriage vows were given, 
 With merry peals shall swell the breeze 
 And point with taper spire to Heaven. 
 
 S. Rogers. 
 
 * ~ ~ 
 
 And he was kind, and loved to sit 
 
 In the low hut or garnish'd cottage, 
 And praise the farmer's homely wit, 
 
 And share the widow's homelier pottage: 
 At his approach complaint grew mild; 
 
 And when his hand unbarr'd the shutter, 
 The clammy lips of fever smiled 
 
 The welcome which they could not utter. 
 
 Winthrop MackivortH Prat 
 
 3
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Happy the man, whose wish and care 
 A few paternal acres bound, 
 Content to breathe his native air 
 In his own ground. 
 
 Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, 
 Whose flocks supply him with attire; 
 Whose trees in summer yield him shade, 
 In winter, fire. 
 
 Blest, who can unconcern'dly 
 Hours, days, and years, slide soft away 
 In health of body, peace of mind, 
 Quiet by day, 
 
 Sound sleep by night; study 
 Together mix'd; sweet recreation 
 And innocence, which most does 
 With meditation. 
 
 Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; 
 Thus unlamented let me die; 
 Steal from the world, and not a stone 
 Tell where I lie. 
 
 Alexander Pope, 
 
 We are not simple enough to be happy and to 
 render others so. We lack the singleness of 
 heart and the self-forgetfulness. 
 
 Charles Wagner.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Purity and simplicity are the two wings with 
 which man soars above the earth and all tem- 
 porary nature. Simplicity is in the intention, 
 purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God; 
 purity unites with and enjoys Him. 
 
 Thomas u Ifempis. 
 
 ' w wttl 
 
 ? & 
 
 ^^ ^| 
 
 The world could not exist if it were not simple. 
 This ground has been tilled a thousand years, yet 
 its powers remain ever the same; a little rain, 
 a little sun, and each spring it grows green 
 again. 
 
 Goethe. 
 
 Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain, 
 These simple blessings of the lowly train; 
 To me more dear, congenial to my heart, 
 One native charm, than all the gloss of art. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 Why should not our furniture be as simple as 
 the Arab's or the Indian's? When I think of 
 the benefactors of the race, whom we have apo- 
 theosized as messengers from heaven, bearers 
 of divine gifts to man, I do not see in my mind 
 any retinue at their heels, any car-load of fash- 
 ionable furniture. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Who drives the horses of the sun 
 
 Shall lord it but a day; 
 Better the lowly deed were done, 
 
 And kept the humble way. 
 
 The rust will find the sword of fame, 
 
 The dust will hide the crown; 
 Ay, none shall nail so high his name 
 
 Time will not tear it down. 
 
 The happiest heart that ever beat 
 
 Was in some quiet breast 
 That found the common daylight sweet, 
 
 And left to Heaven the rest. 
 
 John Vance Cheney. 
 
 Your shepherd is very near to earth. He 
 grows up from her lap, he never quite leaves 
 her bosom; he is her foster-child. He may hear 
 her heart-beats and drink of her tears. If she 
 smiles he knoweth why. He has listened and he 
 knoweth. She telleth him her secret thoughts; 
 all the day long he may lie close in her arms. 
 No man so proper for that sweet bed; no man 
 may be so ready to die and mingle with her. 
 
 Maurice Hewlett. 
 
 Simplicity is a jewel rarely found. 
 
 Ovid.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 How some women could simplify in their 
 clothing and gain in attractiveness! ("There 
 are some upon whom rich clothes weep," says 
 Montaigne.) We men are too plain already in 
 the hideous ugliness of our garments. We have 
 forgotten that our male ancestors ever wore bril- 
 liant-coloured clothes a couple of centuries ago. 
 But I imagine Thoreau could give us points as 
 to superfluous wearing apparel, and I like to think 
 of the home-made grass raincoat (mino) of the 
 Japanese. Think, too, of the elegant taste of a 
 Japanese house, entirely suited to their ways and 
 their warm climate; a kakemono and a flower- 
 vase in the recess (tokonomo) of the guest-room, 
 or parlour; a fire-proof vault holding their art 
 treasures; rooms floored with soft, thick, white 
 mats, but cluttered up with no high tables, no 
 chairs, no stoves or fires, no washing-stands, 
 bureaus. In all the house no forks, spoons, table- 
 cloths, drinking-glasses, no flour, no pots or pans, 
 and above all no bonnets for the, women! 
 
 William S. Kennedy. 
 
 Nature gives herself without reserve to all 
 who come to inquire of her. But she is a jealous 
 mistress and must be loved alone. If we love 
 works of art it is because they come from her. 
 All the rest is pedantry and emptiness. 
 
 Jean Francois Millet. 
 7
 
 THE VA 
 
 The man of life upright, 
 Whose guiltless heart is free 
 
 From all dishonest deeds, 
 Or thought of vanity; 
 
 he man whose silent days 
 In harmless joys are spent, 
 Whom hopes cannot delude 
 Nor sorrow discontent: 
 
 That man needs neither towers 
 Nor armour for defence, 
 
 Nor secret vaults to fly 
 From thunder's violence: 
 
 He only can behold 
 With unaffrighted eyes 
 
 The horrors of the deep 
 And terrors of the skies. 
 
 Thus scorning all the cares 
 
 That fate or fortune brings, 
 He makes the heaven his book, 
 
 His wisdom heavenly things; 
 
 Good thoughts his only friem 
 
 His wealth a well-spent ag( 
 The earth his sober inn 
 
 And quiet pilgrimage. 
 
 Thomas Campion.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Small fields are mine; a small and guiltless rent: 
 In both I prize the quiet of content. 
 
 Mvienus. 
 
 The farther we advance in knowledge, the 
 more simplicity shall we discover in those pri- 
 mary rules that regulate all the apparently end- 
 less, complicated, and multiform operations of 
 the Godhead. 
 
 Caleb Cotton. 
 
 X-S3 ^L 
 
 Now when we come to the question of go 
 citizenship, the first requisite is that a man shall 
 do the homely, every-day, humdrum duties well. 
 A man is not a good citizen, I do not care how 
 lofty his thoughts are about citizenship in the 
 abstract, if in the concrete his actions do not 
 bear them out, and it does not make much dif- 
 ference how high are his aspirations for man- 
 kind at large if he does not behave well in his 
 own family, those aspirations are not going to 
 bear very visible fruit. 
 
 He has got to be a good breadwinner, he has 
 got to take care of his wife and children, he has 
 got to be a neighbour whom his neighbours can 
 trust. He has got to act squarely in his busi- 
 ness relations he has got to do all those every- 
 day and ordinary things first or he is not a good 
 citizen. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, 
 
 9 
 
 
 <3
 
 fft 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 She did not seem to know that she was admired 
 or hated for being so perfect, but went on calmly 
 through life, saying her prayers, loving her 
 family, helping her neighbours, and doing good. 
 
 IV. M. Thackeray. 
 
 Simplicity cuts off waste and intensifies con- 
 centration. It converts flickering torches into 
 search-lights. 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 
 I have been out to-day in field and wood, 
 Listening to praises sweet and counsel good, 
 Such as a little child had understood, 
 
 That in its tender youth, 
 Discerns the simple eloquence of truth. 
 
 The modest blossoms, crowding round my way, 
 Though they had nothing great or grand to say, 
 Gave out their fragrance to the wind all day; 
 
 Because his loving breath, 
 With soft persistence, won them back from death. 
 
 Phcebe Gary. 
 
 
 If you wish to be like a little child, study what a 
 little child could understand, Nature ; and do 
 what a little child could do, love. 
 
 Charles Ringsley*
 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? 
 
 O sweet content! 
 Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed? 
 
 O punishment! 
 
 T. Dekker. 
 
 The great man is he who does not lose his 
 child's heart. 
 
 Mencias. 
 
 Happy were he could finish forth his fate 
 In some unhaunted desert, where, obscure 
 From all society, from love and hate 
 Of worldly folk, there should he sleep secure; 
 
 Then wake again, and yield God ever praise; 
 Content with hip, with haws, and brambleberry ; 
 In contemplation passing still his days, 
 And change of holy thoughts to make him merry: 
 
 Who, when he dies, his tomb might be the bush 
 Where harmless robin resteth with the thrush: 
 Happy were he! 
 
 Robert Deuereujc, Earl of Essex. 
 
 ? & & 
 
 The spirit of simplicity is not an inherited gift, 
 but the result of a laborious conquest. Plain liv- 
 ing, like high thinking, is simplification. 
 
 ..
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 and tastes and fashions change; people 
 fancy now this and now that; but what is unpre- 
 tentious and what is true is always beautiful and 
 good, and nothing else is so. 
 
 W. D. Howells. 
 
 The pedigree of honey 
 Does not concern the bee; 
 A clover, any time, to him 
 Is aristocracy. 
 
 Emily Dickinson. 
 
 A sweet disorder in the dress 
 Kindles in clothes a wantonness: 
 A lawn about the shoulders thrown 
 Into a fine distraction, 
 An erring lace, which here and there 
 Enthrals the crimson stomacher, 
 A cuff neglectful, and thereby 
 Ribbands to flow confusedly, 
 A winning wave, deserving note, 
 In the tempestuous petticoat, 
 A careless shoe-string, in whose tie 
 I see a wild civility, 
 Do more bewitch me, than when art 
 Is too precise in every part. 
 
 Robert Herrick. 
 12
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 How many million stars must shine 
 Which only God can see! 
 
 Yet in the sky His hand has hung 
 Ten thousand stars for me! 
 
 How many blossoms bloom and fade 
 Which only God can know! 
 
 Yet here's my field of buttercups, 
 And here my daisies blow. 
 
 How many wing-paths through the blue 
 Lure swallows up and down 
 
 Yet here's my little garden walk, 
 And yon's the road to town! 
 
 How many a treacherous voice has wooed 
 
 Unhappy feet to roam 
 Yet God has taught my willing ear 
 
 The sounds of love and home! 
 
 Frederic Lawrence Inoivles. 
 
 * ' ' 
 
 O, when I am safe in my sylvan home, 
 I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome; 
 And when I am stretched beneath the pines, 
 Where the evening star so holy shines, 
 I laugh at the lore and pride of man, 
 At the sophist schools and the learned clan; 
 For what are they all, in their high conceit, 
 When man in the bush with God may meet? 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Through the simplest exercises the student 
 passes to the more serious etudes; and from 
 the latter to an appreciative interpretation of 
 those thoughts expressed in the "inarticulate 
 mystic speech of music." Who will say that the' 
 simplest exercises were less important in the 
 grand economy of development than the most 
 brilliant etude? And had the former composer 
 refused to contribute, how could the latter have 
 been reached? 
 
 Jeanne G. Pennington. 
 
 Native simplicity has an influence on the mind, 
 that art or knowledge of the world can never 
 boast. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ r. Ingmethorpe. 
 
 There is one show of breeding vulgarity sel- 
 dom assumes, simplicity. 
 
 George Macdonald. 
 & & & 
 
 Oh, for festal dainties spread, 
 .Like my bowl of milk and bread; 
 Pewter spoon and bowl of wood, 
 
 Pewter spoon and bowl of wood, 
 On the door-stone, gray and rude! 
 
 I was monarch: pomp and joy 
 Waited on the barefoot boy! 
 
 J. G. Whittier.
 
 
 
 Poetry grows more and more an intellectual 
 pleasure for the cultured classes, less and less 
 a possession of the people. Elizabethan song 
 was upon the lips of the milkmaids and market- 
 women, the common ear was trained to grace 
 and melody; but how many of the country folk 
 of to-day know the involved numbers of our 
 poets, or, knowing, could grasp them? Who is 
 writing the lays of the people? One can only 
 answer that few are writing them, because the 
 spirit of poetic art has suffered a sea-change into 
 something rich and strange, and the poet of to- 
 day would be fearful of his laurels should he 
 write so artless a song as " Gather ye rose-buds 
 while ye may," or " Come live with me and be 
 my love," and yet these are beads that Time tells 
 over on the rosary of Art. 
 
 Jessie B. Rittenhouse. 
 
 How simple a thing is true religion, and yet 
 from the beginning how men have sought to 
 make it hard and difficult! 
 
 Malcolm. J. McLeod 
 
 The highest duties oft are found 
 
 Lying on the lowest ground, 
 
 In hidden and unnoticed ways, 
 
 In household works, on common days. 
 
 Monselt.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 To dress, to call, to dine, to break 
 
 No canon of the social code, 
 The little laws that lackeys make, 
 
 The futile decalogue of Mode, 
 How many a soul for these things lives, 
 
 With pious passion, grave intent! 
 While Nature, careless handed, gives 
 
 The things that are more excellent. 
 
 William Watson. 
 
 Live with simplicity if you would live well; 
 bread with hunger makes a feast. 
 
 Epicurus. 
 
 The greatest truths are the simplest. 
 
 Hose a Ballou, 
 
 Simple may be contrasted with manifold. In 
 that sense it is almost synonymous with single, 
 fewness, littleness. A simple life would then 
 be a life of very few, not manifold wants as 
 few as possible, and those easily satisfied. Diog- 
 enes would be leading a simple life, and so the 
 man who, according to the anecdote, threw away 
 his cup and drank water from the hollow of his 
 hand. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 16
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Simplicity should be a leading object in every 
 attempt to impress the youthful mind; the sim- 
 plest is always most grand and sublime. 
 
 J. W. Barker. 
 
 Thus fares the land by luxury betrayed: 
 In nature's simplest charms at first arrayed, 
 But verging to decline, its splendours rise; 
 Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise: 
 While, scourged by famine from the smiling land, 
 The mournful peasant leads his humble band, 
 And while he sinks, without one arm to save, 
 The country blooms a garden and a grave. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 Simplicity of life is directness of life. It is 
 life treated without hurry, apology, or panic. The 
 simple life is the life that enjoys the closest 
 relations with reality. I plough the land. I make 
 a chair. I lay bricks. Am I nearer reality in any 
 one art than in any other? I am near reality 
 when I am honest. Reality is simplicity. Sim- 
 plicity is life. The farm must answer the ques- 
 tion of reality. The workshop and the machine 
 have the same question to answer. There is only 
 one question and only one answer, but there may 
 be many answerers. 
 
 Horace Traubel. 
 
 17 
 

 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 If I can stop one heart from breaking, 
 
 I shall not live in vain; 
 If I can ease one life the aching, 
 
 Or cool one pain, 
 Or help one fainting robin 
 
 Unto his nest again, 
 
 shall not live in vain. 
 
 Emily Dickinson. 
 
 Nothing is more simple than greatness; in- 
 deed, to be simple is to be great. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 iur reading should be selected with the utmost 
 care. We should take that which will confirm 
 our desire for simplicity rather than the work 
 of those authors who have lived artificial lives, 
 and have constantly impressed upon their books 
 their admiration for the magnificent and the 
 lin, the extravagant, the unhealthful. 
 
 John Brisben Walker. 
 
 Teach me the secret of thy innocence, 
 That in simplicity I may grow wise, 
 
 Asking from Art no other recompense 
 Than the approval of her own just eyes. 
 
 Madison Catvein. 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 SIMPLE NATURE 
 
 Be it not mine to steal the cultured flower 
 
 From any garden of the rich and great, 
 Nor seek with care, through many a weary hour, 
 
 Some novel form of wonder to create. 
 Enough for me the leafy woods to rove, 
 
 And gather simple cups of morning dew, 
 Or, in the fields and meadows that I love, 
 
 Find beauty in their bells of every hue. 
 Thus round my cottage floats a fragrant air, 
 
 And though the rustic plot be humbly laid, 
 Yet, like the lilies gladly growing there, 
 
 I have not toil'd, but take what God has made. 
 
 My Lord Ambition pass'd, and smiled in 
 scorn; 
 
 I pluck'd a rose, and, lo ! it had no thorn. 
 
 C. H. Romanes. 
 
 Simplicity is not a talent like music; it is not 
 a strength or infirmity of our nature like self- 
 control or selfishness; it is not a fruit of the 
 Spirit like love; it is an attitude, an attitude of 
 
 receptiveness. 
 
 . V<\\_ 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 Courts are but only superficial schools 
 To dandle fools. 
 
 Lord Bacon.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 When Socrates passed through shops of toys 
 and ornaments, he cried out, " How many things 
 are here which I do not need! " And the same 
 expression may every man make who surveys 
 the common accommodations of life. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson. 
 
 Simplicity is Nature's first step, and the last of 
 Art. 
 
 P. J. Bailey. 
 
 
 She doeth little kindnesses 
 
 Which most leave undone or despise; 
 For nought which sets one heart at ease, 
 And giveth happiness or peace, 
 
 Is low-esteemed in her eyes. 
 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 There is a majesty in simplicity which is far 
 above the quaintness of wit. 
 
 Alexander Pope. 
 & & & 
 
 Simplify your life. Live as if you were not 
 wealthy. That is the only true rule for the 
 wealthy. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 20
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Simplicity is not trying to be. Simplicity is 
 sincerity, naturalness, manliness, self-government, 
 the subordination of the lower to the higher, of 
 the higher to the highest in one word, sacrifice; 
 or if a fuller phrase be asked, finding the divine 
 plan and fulfilling it. 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 Fair Quiet, have I found thee here, 
 And Innocence, thy sister dear? 
 Mistaken long, I sought you then 
 In busy companies of men. 
 Your sacred plants, if here below, 
 Only among the plants will grow; 
 Society is all but rude 
 To this delicious solitude. 
 
 Jtndrew Maruell. 
 
 A simple, guileless, childlike man, 
 Content to live where life began; 
 Strong only on his native grounds, 
 The little world of sights and sounds 
 Whose girdle was the parish bounds. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 & & & 
 
 The circumstances in which men of wealth live 
 are antagonistic to the simple life. 
 
 Felix Mdler.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Simplicity means the survival, not of the fit- 
 test, but of the best. 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 
 The French woman, at an afternoon or evening 
 party, may be as beautifully and stylishly dressed 
 as you like, there is always about her dress a 
 certain little touch of simplicity that will make 
 you think that somewhere in her wardrobe she 
 keeps some frock or gown still more beautiful, 
 stylish, and expensive. 
 
 Max O'Rett. 
 
 In such a time as this they only will be able 
 to help their country in her need who have 
 learned in early life the great lessons of simplicity 
 and self-denial, and I don't hesitate to say that 
 the worst education which teaches simplicity and 
 self-denial is better than the best which teaches 
 all else but this. 
 
 The first aim, then, for your time and your 
 generation should be, to foster, each in your- 
 selves, and each in your school, a simple and self- 
 denying life your ideal, to be a true and useful 
 one, must have these two characteristics before 
 all others. 
 
 Thomas Hughe*.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 THE MEN OF OLD 
 
 I know not that the men of old 
 
 Were better than men now, 
 Of heart more kind, of hand more bold, 
 
 Of more ingenuous brow: 
 I heed not those who pine for force 
 
 A ghost of Time to raise, 
 As if they thus could check the course 
 
 Of these appointed days. 
 
 To them was life a simple art 
 
 Of duties to be done, 
 A game where each man took his part, 
 
 A race where all must run; 
 A battle whose great scheme and scope 
 
 They little cared to know, 
 Content, as men at arms, to cope 
 
 Each with his fronting foe. 
 
 Man now his Virtue's diadem 
 
 Puts on and proudly wears, 
 Great thoughts, great feelings, came to them, 
 
 Like instincts, unawares: 
 Blending their souls' sublimest needs 
 
 With tasks of every day, 
 They went about their gravest deeds, 
 
 As noble boys at play. 
 
 Richard Monckton Milne* (Lord. Houghton . 
 2 3
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Let such as love the eagle's scream 
 Divide with him his home of ice: 
 For me shall gentler notes suffice, 
 The valley song of bird and stream. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 Of manners gentle, of affections mild; 
 In wit a man, simplicity a child. 
 
 Alexander Pope 
 
 Touch us gently, Time! 
 
 Let us glide adown thy stream 
 Gently as we sometimes glide 
 
 Through a quiet dream. 
 Humble voyagers are we, 
 Husband, wife, and children three 
 (One is lost an angel fled 
 To the azure overhead!) 
 
 Touch us gently, Time! 
 
 We've not proud nor soaring wings, 
 Our ambition, our content, 
 
 Lies in simple things. 
 Humble voyagers are we, 
 O'er life's dim, unsounded sea, 
 Seeking only some calm clime; 
 Touch us gently, gentle Time. 
 
 Bryan Waller Procter. 
 
 24
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 And here let me say, that expensive habits 
 among the more prosperous labourers often 
 interfere with the mental culture of themselves 
 and their families. How many among them 
 sacrifice improvement to appetite! How many 
 sacrifice it to the love of show, to the desire of 
 outstripping others, and to habits of expense 
 which grow out of this insatiable passion! In a 
 country so thriving and luxurious as ours, the 
 labourer is in danger of contracting artificial 
 wants and diseased tastes; and to gratify these, 
 he gives himself wholly to accumulation, and 
 sells his mind for gain. Our unparalleled pros- 
 perity has not been an unmixed good. It has 
 inflamed cupidity, has diseased the imagination 
 with dreams of boundless success, and plunged 
 a vast multitude into excessive toils, feverish 
 competitions, and exhausting cares. A labourer 
 having secured a neat home and a wholesome 
 table, should ask nothing more for the senses; 
 but should consecrate his leisure, and what may 
 be spared of his earnings, to the culture of himself 
 and his family, to the best books, to the best 
 teaching, to pleasant and profitable intercourse, 
 to sympathy and the offices of humanity, and to 
 the enjoyment of the beautiful in nature and art. 
 
 William Ettery Chanr.ing. 
 
 All great actions have been simple. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, 
 
 25
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 It is not in the spirit of something far away 
 in the clouds or under the moon, something 
 ethereal, visionary, and antimundane, that Angelo, 
 Dante, and Shakespeare work, but in the spirit 
 of the common Nature and the homeliest facts: 
 through these," and not away from them, the 
 path of the creator lies. 
 
 John Burroughs. 
 & & & 
 
 "^ .^f^ 'm 
 
 With a porch at my door, both for shelter and 
 
 shade, too, 
 
 As the sunshine or rain may prevail; 
 And a small spot of ground for the use of the 
 
 spade, too, 
 
 With a barn for the use of the flail: 
 A cow for my dairy, a dog for my game, 
 
 And a purse when a friend wants to borrow; 
 I'll envy no nabob his riches or fame, 
 Nor what honours await him to-morrow. 
 
 Collins. 
 
 The innocence that is so wise; 
 The trust that dreams of no disguise; 
 The simple faith in mysteries, 
 
 These still shall in the world survive 
 So long as God doth children give, 
 To keep the child in us alive. 
 
 Samuel Longfellow. 
 
 rr 
 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 In purple and fine linen 
 My country farmhouse shines. 
 
 The purple on the lilacs 
 The linen on the lines. 
 
 Frederic Lawrence f^nowles. 
 
 Albert Du'rer, the famous painter, used to say 
 he had no pleasure in pictures that were painted 
 with many colours, but in those which were 
 painted with a choice simplicity. So it is with 
 me as to sermons. 
 
 Martin Luther. 
 
 We need love's tender lessons taught 
 
 As only weakness can: 
 God hath His small interpreters; 
 
 The child must teach the man. 
 
 J. G. Whit tier. 
 
 1l 
 
 What doth the poor man's son inherit? 
 Wishes o'erjoyed with humble things, 
 
 A rank adjudged by toil-won merit, 
 
 Content that from employment springs, 
 A heart that in his labour sings; 
 
 A heritage, it seems to me, 
 
 A king might wish to hold in fee. 
 
 James Russell Lowell.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Let it not be in any man's power to say truly 
 of thee that thou art not simple, or that thou art 
 not good; but let him be a liar whoever shall 
 think anything of this kind about thee; and this 
 is altogether in thy power. For who is he that 
 shall hinder thee from being good and simple? 
 
 Marcus Jturelius. 
 & & & 
 
 The greatest truths are the simplest; and so 
 are the greatest men. 
 
 Hare. 
 
 Her occupation was only to live her daily life; 
 her accomplishments were the knowledge of a 
 few songs; her intellectual gifts were summed 
 up in her simple innocence. 
 
 Victor Hugo. 
 
 The trivial round, the common task, 
 Will furnish all we need to ask; 
 Room to deny ourselves; a road 
 To bring us, daily, nearer God. 
 
 John treble. 
 
 Calm soul of all things! make it mine 
 To feel amid the cities' jar 
 That there abides a peace of thine 
 Man did not make and cannot mar. 
 
 Matthew Mrnold. 
 28 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Whenever vanity and gaiety, a love of pomp 
 and dress, furniture, equipage, buildings, great 
 company, expensive diversions, and elegant en- 
 tertainments get the better of the principles and 
 judgments of men and women, there is no know- 
 ing where they will stop, nor into what evils, 
 natural, moral, or political, they will lead us. 
 
 John Mdams. 
 
 & & & 
 
 Quiet, Lord, my froward heart: 
 Make me teachable and mild, 
 
 Upright, simple, free from art, 
 Make me as a weaned child: 
 
 From distrust and envy free, 
 Pleased with all that pleases Thee. 
 
 What Thou shalt to-day provide, 
 
 Let me as a child receive; 
 What to-morrow may betide, 
 
 Calmly to Thy wisdom leave; 
 'Tis enough that Thou wilt care : 
 
 Why should I the burden bear? 
 
 As a little child relies 
 
 On a care beyond his own, 
 Knows he's neither strong nor wise, 
 
 Fears to stir a step alone; 
 Let me thus with Thee abide, 
 
 As my Father, Guard, and Guide. 
 
 John ffewton. 
 29 

 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 
 The most agreeable of all companions is a 
 simple, frank man, without any high pretensions 
 to an oppressive greatness one who loves life, 
 and understands the use of it; obliging alike at 
 all hours; above all, of a golden temper, and 
 steadfast as an anchor; for such an one, we 
 gladly exchange the greatest genius, th* most 
 brilliant wit, the profoundest thinker, and the 
 brightest scholar. 
 
 Leasing, 
 
 Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, 
 Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 
 Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile 
 The short and simple annals of the Poor. 
 
 Thomas Gray. 
 
 The more I see of the world, the more I am 
 satisfied that simplicity is inseparably the com- 
 panion of true greatness; I never yet knew a 
 truly great man, a man who overtopped his 
 fellow man, who did not possess a certain playful, 
 almost infantile, simplicity; true greatness never 
 struts on the stilts, or plays the king on the 
 stage; conscious of its elevation, and knowledge 
 in what elevation consists, it is happy to act its 
 part as other men in the common amusement 
 and business of mankind; it is not afraid of being 
 
 undervalued. 
 
 / V\\lilf^x- ^V \\ %UVW_ 
 
 Gale.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 It matters little where I was born, 
 Whether my parents were rich or poor, 
 
 Whether they shrank from the cold world's scorn 
 Or walked in the pride of wealth secure; 
 
 But whether I live an honest man, 
 And hold my integrity firm in my clutch, 
 
 I tell you, brother, plain as I am, 
 t matters much. 
 
 From the Swedish. 
 
 Be simple, be unaffected, be honest in your 
 speaking and writing: never use a long word 
 where a short one will do. 
 
 Mlford. 
 & & & 
 
 We have grown up surrounded by a thousand 
 unwise, false, or unnecessary customs. Because 
 it is the " custom," we think we must imitate. It 
 is difficult for the mind to separate things as 
 they should be from things as they are. " That is 
 the way of the neighbourhood; therefore it must 
 be our way." To separate ourselves from the 
 false and unreal requires clear thinking. It is 
 only by a wrench that we break away. Yet there 
 cannot be simplicity of life without this separa- 
 tion mentally and actually; not what is the cus- 
 tom, but what is logical, what is in good taste, 
 should be our constant effort to determine.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Our social joys are more than fame, 
 Life withers in the public look. 
 Why mount the pillory of a book, 
 Or barter comfort for a name? 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 & & & 
 
 Simplicity means making for the important 
 things, and not allowing the unimportant, the 
 superfluous, to get in the way. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 & & & 
 
 No character can be simple unless it is based 
 on truth, -unless it is lived in harmony with 
 one's own conscience and ideals. 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 
 Still to be neat, still to be drest, 
 
 As you were going to a feast; 
 
 Still to be powdered, still perfumed, 
 
 Lady, it is to be presumed, 
 
 Though art's hid causes are not found, 
 
 All is not sweet, all is not sound. 
 
 Give me a look, give me a face, 
 That makes simplicity a grace; 
 Robes loosely flowing, hair as free, 
 Such sweet neglect more taketh me 
 Than all the adulteries of art; 
 They strike mine eyes, but not my heart. 
 
 Ben Jonson,
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 To live content with small means; to seek 
 elegance rather than luxury, and refinement 
 rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respect- 
 able; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think 
 quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to 
 stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open 
 heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await 
 occasions, hurry never in a word, to let the 
 spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up 
 through the common; this is to be my symphony. 
 
 William Henry Channing. 
 
 There is no rhyme that is half so sweet 
 
 As the song of the wind in the rippling wheat; 
 
 There is no metre that's half so fine 
 
 As the lilt of the brook under rock and vine; 
 
 And the loveliest lyric I ever heard 
 
 Was the wildwood strain of a forest bird. 
 
 Madison Caivein. 
 
 Simple hearts put all the history and customs 
 of this world behind them, and play their own 
 play in innocent defiance of the blue-laws of 
 the world; and such would appear, could we 
 see the human race assembled in vision, like little 
 children frolicking together, though to the eyes 
 of mankind at large they wear a stately and 
 solemn garb of works and influences.
 
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 You want to get simple, clear, universal relig- 
 ion? You cannot get it by any patchwork, say- 
 ing to yourself, " Now I am going to study a 
 little Buddhism, then a little Calvinism, now a 
 little Liberalism. There is truth in all these 
 things; by putting them all together I can find 
 a broader religion." Confusion worse confounded 
 can be the only result of that. But suppose you 
 do not try to do that at all. Suppose you ask 
 yourself simply this: "What, to me, is the best 
 and highest conception of religion? What is 
 the best gift a man can have?" When you are 
 looking only for the best you pass lightly over 
 wearisome controversies, but you come at last 
 to great utterances that arrest your attention. 
 Take, for instance, the words of the old prophet: 
 "What doth God require of thee but to do 
 justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly 
 with thy God?" At this your heart kindles. 
 You say, "I can believe that; that is true re- 
 ligion." 
 
 Samuel M. Crothers. 
 
 & > & 
 
 I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: 
 I am no orator, as Brutus is; 
 But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, 
 For I have neither wit, nor word, nor worth, 
 Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, 
 To stir men's blood: I only speak right on. 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Simplicity is the great friend to nature, and 
 if I would be proud of anything in this silly 
 world, it should be of this honest alliance. 
 
 Stern*. 
 
 To give pleasure to a single heart by a single 
 kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings 
 in prayer. 
 
 Saadi. 
 
 What though no rule of courtly grace 
 
 To measured mood had train'd her pace, 
 
 A foot more light, a step more true, 
 
 Ne'er from the heath-flower dash'd the dew; 
 
 E'en the slight harebell raised its head, 
 
 Elastic from her airy tread; 
 
 What though upon her speech there hung 
 
 The accent of the mountain tongue, 
 
 Those silver sounds, so soft, so clear, 
 
 The list'ner held his breath to hear. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 But when they stripped him of his ornaments 
 It was the baubles lost their grace, not he. 
 
 It seemed the soul within him made his limbs 
 And made them grand. The baubles were well 
 
 gone, 
 He stood the more a king, when bared to man. 
 
 Eliot.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 We are dazzled with the splendour of titles, 
 the ostentation of learning, the noise of victories; 
 they, on the contrary, see the philosopher in the 
 cottage, who possesses his soul in patience and 
 thankfulness, under the pressures of what little 
 minds call poverty and distress. They do not 
 look for great men at the head of armies, or 
 among the pomps of a court, but often find them 
 out in shades and solitudes, in the private walks 
 and by-paths of life. The evening's walk of a 
 wise man is more illustrious in their sight than 
 the march of a general at the head of a hundred 
 thousand men. A contemplation on God's works; 
 a voluntary act of justice to our own detriment; 
 a generous concern for the good of mankind; 
 tears that are shed in silence for the misery of 
 ethers; a private desire or resentment broken and 
 subdued; in short, an unfeigned exercise of 
 humility, or any other virtue are such actions 
 as are glorious in their sight, and denominate 
 men great and reputable. The most famous 
 among us are often looked upon with pity, with 
 contempt, or with indignation; while those who 
 are most obscure among their own species are 
 regarded with love, with approbation, and esteem. 
 
 The Spectator. 
 & & & 
 
 Simplicity of character is the natural result of 
 profound thought. 
 
 Haxlitt. 
 
 36 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 After all, of what use is this pride of appear- 
 ance, for which so much is risked, so much is 
 suffered? It cannot promote health or ease 
 pain; it makes no increase of merit in the person; 
 it creates envy; it hastens misfortune. 
 
 "What is a butterfly? At best, 
 He's but a caterpillar drest, 
 The gaudy fop's his picture just," 
 
 as Poor Richard says. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 There can be, I fear, no question that the out- 
 side world has been reflected in our schools. I 
 hear on all sides stories of increased expendi- 
 ture of all kinds. There must be fancy dresses 
 for all games, and boys are made to feel uncom- 
 fortable who do not conform to the fashion, or 
 who practise such 'useful and often necessary 
 economies as wearing old clothes or travelling 
 third-class. You know whether such things are 
 true here. If they are, they are sapping true 
 manliness, and tainting our national life at its 
 roots. 
 
 Thomas Hughes. 
 
 In character, in manners, in style, in all things, 
 the supreme excellence is simplicity. 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 37 

 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Give to me the life I love, 
 
 Let the lave go by me, 
 Give the jolly heaven above 
 
 And the by-way nigh me. 
 Bed in the bush with stars to see, 
 
 Bread I dip in the river 
 There's the life for a man like me, 
 
 There's the life for ever. 
 
 R. L. Stevenson. 
 
 In our reading it would be an excellent thing 
 if we could establish the rule of neglecting the 
 unimportant, the superfluous, and devoting our 
 time and attention to the really important things. 
 The present condition in literature is like that 
 which is said to have prevailed on earth imme- 
 diately after Noah entered the ark. A deluge has 
 set in. It rains and rains books and reviews and 
 magazines and pamphlets; and then there are 
 the newspapers. The flood rises higher and 
 higher. It comes into our houses, empties itself 
 on our book-shelves, and loads our tables. We 
 are up to our necks in it, and in alarm we cry 
 that we shall drown! 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 That best portion of a good man's life, 
 
 is little, nameless, unremembered acts 
 Of kindness and of love. 
 
 William Wordsworth.
 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Compar'd with this, how poor Religion's pride, 
 In all the pomp of method, and of art; 
 
 When men display to congregations wide 
 Devotion's ev'ry grace, except the heart, 
 The Power, incensed, the pageant will desert, 
 
 The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole; 
 But, haply, in some cottage far apart, 
 
 May hear, well-pleas'd, the language of the soul, 
 
 And in His Book of Life the inmates poor enroll. 
 
 Robert Burns. 
 ?>? 
 
 In the effort to appreciate various forms of 
 greatness, let us not underestimate the value of 
 a simply good life. Just to be good; to keep 
 life pure from degrading elements, to make it 
 constantly helpful in little ways to those who 
 are touched by it, to keep one's spirit always 
 sweet, and avoid all manner of petty anger and 
 irritability that is an ideal as noble as it is 
 difficult. 
 
 Edward. Howard Griggs. 
 
 
 FOR A' THAT AND A' THAT 
 
 Is there for honest poverty 
 Wha hings his head, an' a' that? 
 
 The coward slave, we pass him by; 
 We dare be poor for a' that. 
 
 For a' that an' a' that, 
 Our toils obscure, an' a' that;
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
 The man's the gowd for a' that. 
 
 What though on hamely fare we dine, 
 
 Wear hoddin gray, an' a' that; 
 Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 
 
 A man's a man for a' that. 
 For a' that an' a' that, 
 
 Their tinsel show, an' a' that; 
 The honest man, though e'er sae poor, 
 
 Is king o' men for a' that. 
 
 Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord, 
 
 Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that, 
 Though hundreds worship at his word, 
 
 He's but a coof for a' that; 
 For a' that, an' a' that, 
 
 His riband, star, an' a' that; 
 The man of independent mind, 
 
 He looks an' laughs at a' that. 
 
 
 Then let us pray that come it may, 
 
 As come it will for a' that, 
 That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 
 
 May bear the gree, an' a' that. 
 For a' that, an' a' that, 
 
 It's comin* yet, for a' that, 
 When man to man, the warld o'er, 
 
 Shall brithers be for a' that! 
 
 Robert Burn*. 
 
 40
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Some genuine exhibitions in living simply are 
 being given by the Japanese. It is not a fad 
 with them. It is conviction and reality. We may 
 argue until the crack of doom about the relative 
 height reached by civilization in Asia and Amer- 
 ica. The question is too general for absolute 
 decision. But on some specific points no doubt 
 exists, and plain living as an adjunct to high 
 acting is one of them. The record of the Japan- 
 ese hospitals is the most brilliant of all their 
 accomplishments in this war. 1 They may or may 
 not surpass Europeans in various military attri- 
 butes. They are, however, as shown by their 
 official reports, just seventy times as proficient 
 as Americans in fighting disease, and the Boer 
 War put the English in this respect about where 
 the Spanish War put us. Out of twenty-five thou- 
 sand cases of serious illness the Japanese lose 
 forty. From typhoid they lose, between May 6th 
 and December ist, three out of 133; from dysen- 
 tery, four out of 342. It is fair to assume that 
 their ability in preventing disease is at least as 
 great, relatively, as in curing it. When Napo- 
 leon said that in war sickness was a more dan- 
 gerous foe than bullets, it was true, and it 
 remained true until the Japanese appeared upon 
 the scene. Can we imitate them? It will be no 
 easy matter, for their medical success depends in 
 large part upon the willingness of soldiers to live 
 1 The Russo-Japanese War.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 hygienically. They do not eat for pleasure. 
 They do not drink for fun. They are the only 
 inspiring examples of what the simple life can 
 
 Jtnon. 
 
 If we look into the manners of the most remote 
 ages of the world, we discover human nature in 
 her simplicity: and the more we come down- 
 ward toward our own times, may observe her 
 hiding herself in artifices and refinements, pol- 
 ished insensibly out of her original plainness, 
 and at length entirely lost under form and 
 ceremony, and (what we call) good breeding. 
 Read the accounts of men and women as they 
 are given us by the most ancient writers, both 
 sacred and profane, and you would think you were 
 reading the history of another species. 
 
 Joseph Jtddison. 
 
 There is a great mistake made on the subject 
 of simplicity; there is one simplicity of circum- 
 stance, another simplicity of heart; there is many 
 a man who sits down to a meal of bread and 
 milk on a wooden table, whose heart is as proud 
 as the proudest whose birth is royal; there is 
 many a one whose voice is heard in the public 
 meeting loudly descanting on regal tyranny and 
 aristocratic insolence, who, in his own narrow cir- 
 cle, is as much a tyrant as any oppressor. 
 
 F. IV. Robertson. 
 
 42 
 
 tr\
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Perhaps it is in the matter of amusements that 
 one seeking to make a departure in the direction 
 of " the simple life " has the best chance of exer- 
 cising judgment. As each one must do his share 
 of the world's work, so in order to restore to the 
 body its capacity for labour there must be rest 
 through sleep and rest through entertainment. 
 As we must have exercise in the open air in 
 order to be healthy, there is opportunity to select 
 those things which are natural rather than the 
 amusements which are artificial. 
 
 John Brisben Walker. 
 
 Most of American literature that we prize is 
 in praise of the simple life, from the writings of 
 Benjamin Franklin to those of John Burroughs 
 who both use simple English; and all our preach 
 ers, in and out of the pulpit, have made their 
 best sermons about it to name two laymen for 
 examples, Charles William Eliot and Theodore 
 Roosevelt. 
 
 To consider this a new gospel is the most 
 ominous sign that our minds have been uphol- 
 stered with cheap fiction, commercial living, and 
 department-store decorations. It is as true as 
 it is commonplace, by the way, that the simple 
 life was perhaps never learned from sermons, but 
 always in a home. 
 
 Walter H. Page. 
 
 &
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Fair is the soul, rare is the soul 
 Who has kept, after youth is past, 
 
 All the art of the child, all the heart of the child, 
 Holding his faith at last! 
 
 Gelett Burgess. 
 
 
 Simplicity is a state of mind. It dwells in the 
 main intention of our lives. A man is simple 
 when his chief care is the wish to be what he 
 ought to be, that is, honestly and naturally 
 human. And this is neither so easy nor so im- 
 possible as one might think. At bottom, it con- 
 sists in putting our acts and aspirations in accord- 
 ance with the law of our being, and consequently 
 with the Eternal Intention which willed that we 
 should be at all. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit 
 with too much as they that starve with nothing. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Wiser it were to welcome and make ours 
 
 Whate'er of good, though small, the Present 
 brings, 
 
 Kind greetings, sunshine, song of birds, and flow- 
 ers, 
 
 With a child's pure delight in little things. 
 
 R. C. Trench. 
 
 44
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 I wish her beauty 
 
 That owes not all its duty 
 
 To gaudy tire, or glist'ring shoe 
 
 Something more than 
 Taffata or tissue can, 
 Or rampant feather, or rich fan. * 
 
 A face that's best 
 
 By its own beauty drest, 
 
 And can alone command the rest: 
 
 A face made up 
 
 Out of no other shop 
 
 Than what Nature's white hand sets ope. 
 
 Richard Crashatv. 
 
 "A Commonplace life," we say, and we sigh; 
 
 But why should we sigh as we say? 
 The commonplace sun in the commonplace sky 
 
 Makes up the commonplace day. 
 The moon and the stars are commonplace things, 
 And the flower that blooms and the bird that 
 
 sings; 
 
 But dark were the world, and sad our lot 
 If the flowers failed, and the sun shone not; 
 And God, who studies each separate soul 
 Out of commonplace lives makes His beautiful 
 whole. 
 
 Susan Coolidge. 
 
 45 
 
 lit !
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Only through an ideal that is pure and simple 
 can we live in this world in such a way as to 
 discover its beauty and appropriate its truth. 
 
 Samuel M. Crothers. 
 
 There is a holy simplicity! 
 
 Simplicity of style and directness of language, 
 when united in the narrative form, present the 
 strongest attractions to the expanding mind. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Putnam. 
 
 Let us consider of what is life made up? Of 
 splendid bursts of genius and heroism, or of 
 patient, noiseless, progressive efforts of daily 
 wisdom and usefulness? Whence flow the order, 
 tranquillity, and happiness of society? By whom 
 are the great designs of Providence carried into 
 effect? The grand sum total of the world's busi- 
 ness is brought to pass, not by the irregular im- 
 pulses of a few energetic spirits, but by the 
 joint harmonious action of myriads of humble, 
 faithful workers, who pursue the task set before 
 them, and have no higher ambition than to per- 
 form it well.
 
 
 O Nature! I do not aspire 
 To be the highest in thy quire, 
 To be a meteor in the sky, 
 Or comet that may range on high; 
 Only a zephyr that may blow 
 Among the reeds by the river low; 
 Give me thy most privy place 
 Where to run my airy race. 
 
 In some withdrawn, unpublic mead 
 
 Let me sigh upon a reed, 
 
 Or in the woods, with leafy din, 
 
 Whisper the still evening in: 
 
 Some still work give me to do, 
 
 Only be it near to you! 
 
 For I'd rather be thy child 
 
 And pupil, in the forest wild, 
 
 Than be the king of men elsewhere, 
 
 And most sovereign slave of care. 
 
 H. 2>. Thoreau. 
 
 How welcome to our ears, long pained 
 
 By strife of sect and party noise, 
 The brook-like murmur of his song 
 
 Of nature's simple joys! 
 
 J. G. Whittier.- "Wordsworth." 
 
 Simplicity is the virtue of nature. 
 
 // m-\ 0T\ ' "^\ 
 
 Mrs. Opie. 
 
 47
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 People are seeking salvation from an unquiet 
 spirit. They are perplexed and they long for 
 peace. They are overburdened and they desire 
 to be saved from weakness and faint-heartedness. 
 There is a pathetic desire for whatever ministers 
 to peace of mind. It is because people find the 
 world too great and many-sided that they yield 
 themselves so easily to any one who seems to 
 reduce everything to simplicity. Wearied with 
 its own speculations, the tired soul cries: "Tell 
 me the old, old story. Tell it to me as you would 
 tell it to a little child, so that I may repeat the 
 very words, and in that find comfort and help." 
 
 Samuel M, Crothers, 
 
 When I heard the learn'd astronomer, 
 
 When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in 
 
 columns before me, 
 When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to 
 
 add, divide, and measure them, 
 When I sitting heard the astronomer where he 
 
 lectured with much applause in the lecture- 
 
 room, 
 
 How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, 
 Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by my- 
 
 self, 
 In the mystical, moist night-air, and from time to 
 
 time 
 Looked up in perfect silence at the stars. 
 
 Watt Whitman.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 MY STAR 
 
 Written when an open window at night fur- 
 nished the writer habitually her only glimpse of 
 the outer world. 
 
 A scrap of sky 
 
 Have I; 
 Great wealth it is to me, 
 
 Such glorious things 
 Therein I see. 
 
 The morning star 
 Comes from afar; 
 For me it shines so bright, 
 Brings me a heavenly light, 
 Sent from my Lord above, 
 That I may trust His love. 
 
 Mary Osgood. 
 
 & ? & 
 
 There are too many humble people who wish 
 to imitate the great, too many poor working men 
 who ape the well-to-do middle classes, too many 
 shop-girls who play at being ladies, too many 
 clerks who act the club-man or sportsman; and 
 among those in easy circumstances and the rich 
 are too many people who forget that what they 
 possess could serve a better purpose than pro- 
 curing pleasure for themselves, only to find in the 
 end that one never has enough. 
 
 Charles Wagner.
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Happiness is to be found in congenial work, 
 in a regular and well-spent life, in obscurity and 
 retirement, in sound and true friendship, and 
 especially in the love of a man and a woman who 
 thoroughly appreciate each other. 
 
 Max O'Retl. 
 
 To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 
 
 To throw a perfume on the violet, 
 
 To smoothe the ice, or add another hue 
 
 Unto the rainbow, or with taper light 
 
 To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, 
 
 Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 The ultimate, the deepest kind 
 
 -- 
 
 implicity 
 
 Felix Mdler. 
 
 Why are the simplicity of youth, the caresses 
 of infants, and the plainness of the rustic pleas- 
 ing? They are unhackneyed in vice, devoid of 
 art, and their whole soul beams in their faces, 
 and sparkles in their eyes. 
 
 J. Barrett. 
 
 Upright simplicity is the deepest wisdom, and 
 perverse craft the merest shallowness.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 It is more honourable to be content with few 
 outward means, than with many; to be cheer- 
 ful amidst privation, than amidst overflowing 
 plenty. A poor man, living on bread and water, 
 because he will not ask for more than bare sus- 
 tenance requires, and leading a quiet, cheerful 
 life through his benevolent sympathies, his joy in 
 duty, his trust in God, is one of the true heroes of 
 the race, and understands better the meaning of 
 happiness than we, who cannot be at ease unless 
 we clothe ourselves " in purple, and fare sump- 
 tuously every day," unless we surround, defend, 
 and adorn ourselves with all the products of 
 nature and art. His scantiness of outward means 
 is a sign of inward fulness, whilst the slavery in 
 which most of us live, to luxuries and accommo- 
 dations, shows the poverty within. 
 
 William Ellery Charming. 
 
 
 The very simplicity and nakedness of man's life 
 in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at 
 least, that they left him still but a sojourner in 
 nature. When he was refreshed with food and 
 sleep he contemplated his journey again. He 
 dwelt, as it were, in a tent in this worldi and 
 was either threading the valleys, or crossing the 
 plains, or climbing the mountain-tops. But, lo! 
 men have become the tools of their tools. 
 
 H. D. Thorea 
 5'
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 The poet's noblest duty is, 
 
 Whatever theme he sings, 
 To draw the soul of beauty forth 
 
 From unconsidered things. 
 That, howsoe'er despised may be 
 
 The humblest form of earth, 
 His kindly sympathy may weave 
 
 A halo round its birth. 
 
 For deepest in creation's midst 
 
 The rarest treasure lies, 
 And deeper than all science delves 
 
 May reach the poet's eyes. 
 And, with poetic instinct fired, 
 
 He finds his greatest part 
 In raising Nature's hidden gems 
 
 To set them in his art. 
 
 Charles Warren Stoddard. 
 
 " Silks and satins, scarlets and velvets," as 
 Poor Richard says, " put out the kitchen fire." 
 
 These are not the necessaries of life; they can 
 scarcely be called the conveniences; and yet, 
 only because they look pretty, how many want 
 to have them! The artificial wants of mankind 
 thus become more numerous than the natural; 
 and, as Poor Dick says, " For one poor person 
 there are a hundred indigent." 
 
 Benjamin franklin. 
 
 5 2
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 
 It is well to let down our metropolitan pride 
 a little. Man thinks himself at the top, and that 
 the immense display and prodigality of Nature 
 are for him. But they are no more for him than 
 they are for the birds and beasts, and he is no 
 more at the top than they are. 
 
 John Burroughs. 
 & & & 
 
 w*^^^ Irak 
 
 A mind at peace with all below, 
 
 A heart whose love is innocent. 
 
 Lord Byron. 
 
 ? & & 
 
 The Spirit of God creates in us the simplicity 
 and warmth of heart which children have, nay, 
 rather the perfections of His heavenly hosts, 
 high and low being joined together in His mys- 
 terious work; for what are implicit trust, ardent 
 love, abiding purity, but the mind both of little 
 children and of the adoring seraphim! 
 
 John Henry tfewman. 
 
 I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it 
 all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. 
 I would rather ride on earth in an ox-cart, with 
 a free circulation, than go to heaven in the 
 fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a 
 malaria all the way. 
 
 H, D. Thoreau. 
 
 53
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 He that loves a rosy cheek 
 
 Or a coral lip admires, 
 Or from star-like eyes doth seek 
 
 Fuel to maintain his fires; 
 As old Time makes these decay, 
 So his flames must waste away. 
 
 But a smooth and steadfast mind, 
 Gentle thoughts, and calm desires, 
 
 Hearts with equal love combined, 
 Kindle never-dying fires: 
 
 Where these are not, I despise 
 
 Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes. 
 
 T. Caretv. 
 
 An inborn charm of graciousness 
 Made sweet her smile and tone, 
 
 And glorified her farm-wife dress 
 With beauty not its own. 
 
 J. G. Whittle r. 
 
 We have seen men commit suicide because 
 their means had fallen under a certain minimum. 
 They preferred to disappear rather than retrench. 
 Observe that this minimum, the cause of their 
 despair, would have been sufficient for others 
 of less exacting needs, and enviable to men whose 
 tastes are modest. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 54
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 The way of simplicity is hard. In the scientific 
 world, every one is looking for new simplifica- 
 tions of thought, and yet they are not in view. 
 In the moral world, too, we shall have to go 
 through many gropings and much going astray, 
 before we shall find that true simplicity for which 
 we seek. Simplicity is the last elixir, distilled by 
 fermentation. It is the last finish that comes of 
 much complexity. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 
 The dear Lord's best interpreters 
 Are humble human souls; 
 
 The Gospel of a life like hers 
 Is more than books or scrolls. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 & & & 
 
 Fashion is a poor vocation. Its creed, that idle- 
 ness is a privilege and work a disgrace, is among 
 the deadliest errors. Without depth of thought, 
 or earnestness of feeling, or strength of purpose, 
 living an unreal life, sacrificing substance to show, 
 substituting the factitious for the natural, mis- 
 taking a crowd for society, finding its chief pleas- 
 ure in ridicule, and exhausting its ingenuity in 
 expedients for killing time, fashion is among the 
 last influences under which a human being, who 
 respects himself or who comprehends the great 
 end of life, would desire to be placed. 
 
 William Ellery Charming. 
 55
 
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Some keep the Sabbath going to church; 
 I keep it staying at home, 
 With a bobolink for a chorister, 
 And an orchard for a dome. 
 
 Some keep the Sabbath in surplice; 
 I just wear my wings. 
 
 Emily Dickinson 
 
 
 O, but man, proud man! 
 Drest in a little brief authority, 
 Most ignorant of what he's most assured, 
 His glassy essence, like an angry ape, 
 Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven 
 As make the angels weep. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain 
 
 height: 
 
 What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang) 
 In height and cold, the splendour of the hills? 
 But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease 
 To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine, 
 To sit a star upon the sparkling spire; 
 And come, for Love is of the valley, come, 
 For Love is of the valley, come thou down 
 And find him; by the happy threshold, he, 
 Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize. 
 
 Jtlfred Tennyson 
 56
 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 There is one test which few books can stand: 
 To be read at sea or among the mountains or in 
 the sunshine. Books which have been written 
 within the four walls of a room have little or 
 no affiliation with the open air. Poetry such as 
 Longfellow wrote is essentially house-poetry. 
 It may be tested by technical and grammatical 
 rules. But you must take Whitman to the moun- 
 tains or the seashore. What would stand if the 
 sea and the mountains, forests, clouds, passed 
 judgments on our books! 
 
 Oscar L. Trlggs. 
 & & & 
 
 It is a beauteous evening, calm and free; 
 The holy time is quiet as a nun 
 Breathless with adoration; the broad sun 
 Is sinking down in its tranquillity; 
 
 The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea: 
 Listen! the mighty being is awake, 
 And doth with his eternal motion make 
 A sound like thunder everlastingly. 
 
 Dear child! dear girl! that walkest with me here, 
 If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought 
 Thy nature is not therefore less divine: 
 
 Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year, 
 And worship'st at the Temple's inner shrine, 
 God being with thee when we know it not. 
 
 William Wordsworth, 
 
 57
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Howe'er it be, it seems to me 
 
 'Tis only noble to be good; 
 Kind hearts are more than coronets, 
 
 And simple faith than Norman blood. 
 
 Mlfred Tennyson. 
 
 The test of a strong, simple sermon is results, 
 not the Sunday praise of the auditors, but 
 their bettered lives during the week. People 
 who pray on their knees on Sunday and prey 
 on their neighbours on Monday, need simplicity 
 in their faith. 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 
 Full apt are we to set before ourselves as the 
 essence of life's bliss, the great things, the showy 
 things, the noteworthy things, but therein are we 
 beguiled, therein are we blinded. Greatness hath 
 little to do with happiness. 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 Methinks I love all common things, 
 The common air, the common flower, 
 
 The dear, kind, common thought that springs 
 From hearts that have no other dower, 
 No other wealth, no other power, 
 
 Save love; and will not that repay 
 
 For all else fortune tears away? 
 
 Bryan Waller Procter. 
 
 58
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Simplicity consists in a just medium, in which 
 we are neither too much excited, nor too sedate; 
 the soul is not carried away by external things, 
 so as to be unable to reflect; neither does it make 
 those continual references to self, which a jealous 
 sense of its own excellence multiplies to infinity. 
 That freedom of the soul which looks straight 
 onward in its path, losing no time to reason upon 
 its steps, to study them, or to dwell upon those 
 which it has already taken, is true simplicity. 
 
 Fenelon. 
 & & & 
 
 Oh! could the faith of childhood's days, 
 Oh! could its little hymns of praise, 
 Oh! could its simple, joyous trust 
 Be re-created from the dust 
 That lies around a wasted life, 
 The fruit of many a bitter strife! 
 Oh! then at night in prayer I'd bend, 
 And call my God, my Father, Friend, 
 And pray with childlike faith once more 
 The prayer my mother taught of yore, 
 " Now I lay me down to sleep : 
 I pray the Lord my soul to keep." 
 
 Eugene Henry Pull 
 
 The true friend of truth and good loves them 
 under all forms, but he loves them most under 
 the most simple form.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Who is there that sets himself to the task of 
 steadily watching his thoughts for the space of 
 one hour, with the view of preserving his mind 
 in a simple, humble, healthful condition, but -will 
 speedily discern in the multiform, self-reflecting, 
 self-admiring emotions, which, like locusts, are 
 ready to " eat up every green thing in his land," 
 a state as much opposed to simplicity and humil- 
 ity as night is to day? 
 
 M. 
 
 Her presence breathed in sweet excess 
 The fragrance of rare loveliness 
 
 A simple beauty in her face, 
 And in her form a simple grace. 
 
 She was so perfect and so fair, 
 So like a vision, and so rare, 
 
 The air that touched her seemed to me 
 To thrill with trembling ecstasy. 
 
 I. Edgar Jones. 
 
 If thou hadst simplicity and purity, thou 
 wouldst be able to comprehend all things with- 
 out error, and behold them without danger. The 
 pure heart safely pervades not only heaven, but 
 hell. 
 
 Thomas a Jfempis. 
 60
 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Come back to the inn, love, and the lights and 
 
 the fire, 
 And the fiddler's old tune and the shuffling of 
 
 feet; 
 
 For there in a while shall be rest and desire, 
 And there shall the morrow's uprising be sweet. 
 
 William Morris. 
 
 The fairest lives, in my opinion, are those which 
 regularly accommodate themselves to the com- 
 mon and human model, without miracle, without 
 extravagance. 
 
 Montaigne. 
 
 & & & 
 
 Great men unite their actions with simplicity, 
 because they receive more glory from facts than 
 from words. 
 
 Montesquieu. 
 
 ^ ? ? 
 
 How aesthetics would gain by more simplicity! 
 Instead of this luxury in job lots, all these decora- 
 tions, pretentious but vapid from iteration, we 
 should have an infinite variety; happy improvi- 
 sations would strike our eyes, the unexpected in a 
 thousand forms would rejoice our hearts, and 
 we should rediscover the secret of impressing on 
 a drapery or a piece of furniture that stamp of 
 human personality which makes certain antiques 
 priceless. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 61 

 
 
 Happy those early days, when I 
 
 Shined in my Angel-infancy! 
 
 Before I understood this place 
 
 Appointed for my second race, 
 
 Or taught my soul to fancy aught 
 
 But a white, celestial thought; 
 
 When yet I had not walk'd above 
 
 A mile or two from my first Love, 
 
 And looking back, at that short space 
 
 Could see a glimpse of his bright face; 
 
 When on some gilded cloud or flower 
 
 My gazing soul would dwell an hour, 
 
 And in those weaker glories spy 
 
 Some shadows of eternity; 
 
 Before I taught my tongue to wound 
 
 My conscience with a sinful sound, 
 
 Or had the black art to dispense 
 
 A several sin to every sense, 
 
 But felt through all this fleshly dress 
 
 Bright shoots of everlastingness. 
 
 O how I long to travel back, 
 
 And tread again that ancient track! 
 
 That I might once more reach that plain, 
 
 Where first I left my glorious train; 
 
 From whence th' enlighten'd spirit sees 
 
 That shady City of Palm trees! 
 
 But ah! my soul with too much stay 
 
 Is drunk, and staggers in the way : 
 
 Some men a forward motion love, 
 
 But I by backward steps would move; 

 
 /70V ^ ,^ 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 And when this dust falls to the urn, 
 In that state I came, return. 
 
 Henry Vaughan. 
 
 When a thought is too weak to be with sim- 
 plicity expressed, it is a proof that it should be 
 rejected. 
 
 Vauvenargue*. 
 
 
 . 
 
 e spirit of simplicity is a great magician. 
 It softens asperities, bridges chasms, draws to- 
 gether hands and hearts. The forms which it 
 takes in the world are infinite in number; but 
 never does it seem to us more admirable than 
 when it shows itself across the fatal barriers 
 of position, interest, or prejudice. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 Oft, when the wine in his glass was red, 
 He longed for the wayside well instead; 
 
 And closed his eyes on his garnished rooms 
 To dream of meadows and clover-blooms. 
 
 J. G. Whit tier. 
 
 The thing aimed at by all great souls has been 
 to bring men and races back to the simplicity 
 and purity of childhood back to reality. 
 
 Booker T. Washington.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 
 
 
 With little here to do or see 
 
 Of things that in the great world be, 
 
 Sweet Daisy! oft I talk to thee 
 
 For thou art worthy, 
 Thou unassuming commonplace 
 Of Nature, with that homely face, 
 And yet with something of a grace 
 
 Which love makes for thee ! 
 
 Willium Wordsworth. 
 
 We are apt to forget, in praising the multi- 
 plication of wants, that mere multiplication is 
 not a benefit, unless at the same time that wants 
 are multiplied, they are also integrated. Pastor 
 Wagner admits that the multiplication of wants 
 is conducive to the advance of civilization; he 
 does not wish to turn the hands on the dial 
 backward; he is no eulogist of asceticism. 
 
 What he says is that we are too heavily loaded, 
 that we are carrying too much baggage, that 
 we would better discharge our burdens, or a 
 part of them. This complex civilization has 
 put so many cares, so many unnecessary anx- 
 ieties upon us that we walk bent and stooping. 
 He cries out that we are spending our precious 
 lives in trying to get no end of things which we 
 really do not care for, and that we miss the things 
 for which at heart we do care. 
 
 Felix Mdler.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 There is doubt whether the simplicity that be- 
 comes a fad is simplicity at all. Gluttony and 
 extravagant houses and the weary dissipations of 
 the inane rich are bad diseases of a small sec- 
 tion of American society; but, bad as they are, 
 they startle one less than the making of simplicity 
 a sort of cult; for whosoever seeks it in any 
 way but in modesty and by personal habit can- 
 not find it. It begins in a state of mind, the very 
 state of mind that abhors a fad. To go about 
 acquiring simplicity with great ado that justi- 
 fies the jibes of all our enemies. Must we seek 
 our very silences noisily? 
 
 Walter H. Page. 
 
 The cowslip startles in meadows green, 
 
 The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice, 
 And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean 
 
 To be some happy creature's palace; 
 The little bird sits at his door in the sun, 
 
 Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 
 And lets his illumined being o'errun 
 
 With the deluge of summer it receives; 
 His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, 
 And the heart in her dumb breast flutters 
 
 sings; 
 
 He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest 
 In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best? 
 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 65 
 
 and
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 There are certain occasions when, in art, sim- 
 plicity is an audacious originality. 
 
 Mchilles Polncelot. 
 * * * 
 
 Simplicity is the pure white light of a life 
 lived from within. It is destroyed by any attempt 
 to live in harmony with public opinion. 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 
 The most pathetic thing about our modern life 
 is the revelation which it gives of multitudes who 
 are overburdened, who are tired even of good 
 and great things. The message that has come 
 to us as if it were a gospel is the great word, 
 
 all things are yours." 
 
 " All the good the past has had, 
 Remains to make our own time glad," 
 
 we say. But does it make our own time glad, 
 this haunting sense of a good we have not per- 
 sonally grasped, of the wisdom and truth all 
 around us, but disorderly to our mind? Does this 
 make us glad, does it not bring rather the feeling 
 of those who labour and are heavy laden, and 
 who long, above all things on earth, for sim- 
 plicity, directness, peace? 
 
 Samuel At. Crothers.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 
 Why dream of lands of gold and pear 
 
 Of loving knight and lady, 
 When farmer boy and barefoot girl 
 
 Were wandering there already? 
 
 J. G. Whit tier.- "Burnt.' 
 
 Teach me, Father, how to go 
 Softly as the grasses grow; 
 Hush my soul to meet the shock 
 Of the wild world as a rock; 
 But my spirit, propt with power, 
 Make as simple as a flower; 
 Let the dry heart fill its cup, 
 Like a poppy looking up; 
 Let Life lightly wear her crown, 
 Like the poppy looking down, 
 When its heart is filled with dew, 
 And its life begins anew. 
 
 Teach me, Father, how to be 
 Kind and patient as a tree; 
 Joyfully the crickets croon 
 Under shady oak at noon; 
 Beetle, on his mission bent, 
 Tarries in that cooling tent; 
 Let me, also, cheer a spot, 
 Hidden field or garden grot 
 Place where passing souls can rest 
 On the way and be their best. 
 
 Edwin Markham. 
 6 7
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Listen, dear reader, it is the common things 
 that quench thirst, not rare things; ordinaries, 
 not luxuries; not palatial houses, but a home; 
 not royal wine, but cold water. 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 
 Simplicity and grace seem to be the elements 
 to charm. 
 
 Mrs. Sigourney. 
 & & & 
 
 "Tis the mind that makes the body rich; 
 And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, 
 So honour peereth in the meanest habit. 
 What, is the jay more precious than the lark, 
 Because his feathers are more beautiful? 
 Or is the adder better than the eel, 
 Because his painted skin contents the eye? 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Her entire person was simplicity, ingenuous- 
 ness, whiteness, candour, and radiance, and it 
 might have been said of her that she was trans- 
 parent. She produced a sensation of April and 
 daybreak, and she had dew in her eyes. She was 
 the condensation of the light of dawn in a 
 woman's form. 
 
 Victor Hugo: " Les Miserable*. 
 
 63
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 A rose will wither, so will love, 
 When love grows overwise. 
 
 Keep all thy petals, O my heart, 
 While the short summer flies! 
 
 Let gladness be their gentle sun, 
 And innocence their dew, 
 
 Ask the warm April rain to fall, 
 And wash all care from you. 
 
 gs^v^ @a 
 
 And if love went the truant way 
 And you have lost his track, 
 
 Be faithful to simplicity 
 And you shall win him back. 
 
 Hush! the soft fingers of desire 
 
 Tap at the stoic will; 
 Be very simple, O my heart, 
 
 And love will enter still. 
 
 Frederic Lawrence J^notvles. 
 
 I do not want to be compelled to expend any 
 force upon the poet's form I want it all for his 
 thought. A tortuous and difficult channel may 
 add to the beauty of a mountain brook, but it 
 oes not add to the beauty of a poem. 
 
 John Burroughs. 
 
 Simplicity has an abiding charm. 
 
 W. Hague.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Thoreau tells us he threw away the ornaments 
 on his mantel that he might not lose the time in 
 dusting them that could be better employed. Our 
 genial contemporary in England the author of 
 " Towards Democracy " will have no tailor's 
 stuffings or linings and such whigmaleeries what- 
 ever in his coats. When a certain lady (usually 
 identified by writers with mock-modesty by say- 
 ing that she shall be nameless) went down to my 
 island " Shingleshack " in the woods, she con- 
 fessed to a feeling of envy at the easy terms on 
 which I had secured all the comforts necessary 
 to happy days. No carpets, matting, or rugs; no 
 curtains or hangings; no framed pictures or bric- 
 a-brac, no books to speak of, rustic furniture 
 home-made or uninjurable just pure comfort by 
 the great fireplace, ease and simplicity in the culi- 
 nary department, and the day left for higher 
 uses. No dust, no wagons; the boats at the 
 door, and the well, too; magnificent mountain 
 scenery without, and peace and quiet within. An 
 axe for the woods, a carpenter's bench and a 
 few tools, a hammer for geology, an opera-glass 
 for the birds. No butcher and no baker and no 
 candlestick maker; but squirrels running over the 
 roof and the annually punctual phoebe in her nest 
 on the bracket of the eaves. 
 
 William S. Kennedy. 
 
 70
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 My fairest child, I have no song to give you; 
 
 No lark could pipe in skies so dull and gray; 
 Yet, if you will, one quiet hint I'll leave you, 
 
 For every day. 
 
 I'll tell you how to sing a clearer carol 
 Than lark who hails the dawn on breezy down, 
 
 To earn yourself a purer poet's laurel 
 Than Shakespeare's crown. 
 
 Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever; 
 
 Do lovely things, not dream them, all day long; 
 And so make Life, and Death, and that For Ever, 
 
 One grand sweet song. 
 
 Charles Ifingsley. 
 & & & 
 
 Simplicity is a mental soil where artifice, lying, 
 deceit, treachery, and selfish, low ambition can- 
 not grow. 
 
 William. George Jordan. 
 
 How simple a thing then does salvation become! 
 It is receiving Him. Justification is a free gift; 
 so is faith; so is forgiveness; so is eternal life. 
 It is because the human heart is proud and does 
 not take to gifts that we have made our Chris- 
 tianity such a complex thing. 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 _^uJ^^ .^^ ^T 
 71
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 For crystal brows there's nought within; 
 
 They are but empty cells for pride; 
 He who the Syren's hair would win 
 
 Is mostly strangled in the tide. 
 
 Give me, instead of Beauty's bust, 
 
 A tender heart, a loyal mind 
 Which with temptation I would trust, 
 
 Yet never link'd with error find, 
 
 One in whose gentle bosom I 
 Could pour my secret heart of woes, 
 
 Like the care-burthen'd honey-fly 
 That hides his murmurs in the rose. 
 
 , Jtnon. 
 
 Not fair as men would reckon fair, 
 Nor noble as they count the line: 
 
 Only as graceful as a bough, 
 And tendrils of the vine: 
 
 Only as noble as sweet Eve, 
 Your ancestress and mine. 
 
 Christina G. Rossetti. 
 
 Keep back the one word more, 
 
 Nor give of your whole store; 
 
 For, it may be, in Art's sole hour of need, 
 
 Lacking that word, you shall be poor indeed. 
 
 Lizette Woodworth Reese. 
 
 72
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Having simple needs, you find it less painful 
 to accustom yourself to the hazards of fortune. 
 You remain a man, though you lose your office 
 or your income, because the foundation on which 
 your life rests is not your table, your cellar, your 
 horses, your goods and chattels, or your money. 
 In adversity you will not act like a nursling de- 
 prived of its bottle and rattle. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 He goes on Sunday to the church, 
 
 And sits among his boys; 
 He hears the parson pray and preach, 
 
 He hears his daughter's voice, 
 Singing in the village choir, 
 
 And it makes his heart rejoice. 
 
 It sounds to him like her mother's voice, 
 
 Singing in Paradise! 
 He needs must think of her once more, 
 
 How in the grave she lies; 
 And with his hard, rough hand he wipes 
 
 A tear out of his eyes. 
 
 Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, 
 
 Onward through life he goes; 
 Each morning sees some task begin, 
 
 Each evening sees its close; 
 Something attempted, something done, 
 
 Has earned a night's repose. 
 
 Longfellow 
 
 73
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 One passage in your Letter a little displeas'd 
 me. The rest was nothing but kindness, which 
 Robert's letters are ever brimful of. You say that 
 " this World to you seems drain'd of all its 
 sweets! " At first I had hoped you only meant 
 to intimate the high price of Sugar! but I am 
 afraid you meant more. O, Robert, I don't know 
 what you call sweet. Honey and the honeycomb, 
 roses and violets, are yet in the earth. The sun 
 and moon yet reign in Heaven, and the lesser 
 lights keep up their pretty twinklings. Meats and 
 drinks, sweet sights and sweet smells, a country 
 walk, spring and autumn, follies and repentance, 
 quarrels and reconcilements have all a sweetness 
 by turns. Good-humour and good-nature, friends 
 at home that love you, and friends abroad that 
 miss you you possess all these things, and more 
 innumerable, and these are all sweet things. 
 You may extract honey from everything. 
 
 Charles Lamb to Robert Lloyd. 
 
 i \/ iml/ 
 
 Amid the rich and cultured blooms that shined, 
 By friendly hands bound in a birthday gift, 
 I found the homely, dear white clover hid, 
 And thanked at heart the thought which placed it 
 
 there, 
 
 The plain, good flower that cheerfully fulfils 
 Its homely duties in the common field. 
 
 Samuel Longfellow,
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Away, away, from men and towns, 
 To the wild wood and the downs 
 To the silent wilderness 
 Where the soul need not repress 
 Its music, lest it should not find 
 An echo in another's mind, 
 While the touch of Nature's art 
 Harmonizes heart to heart. 
 
 P. B. Shelley 
 
 Simplicity of manners and taste is the most 
 desirable thing in the world. 
 
 Mrs. Dinnies. 
 
 Life is not made up of great sacrifices or duties, 
 but of little things, of which smiles and kindness 
 and small obligations given habitually, are what 
 win and preserve the heart. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Davy. 
 
 The accumulations of our civilization are enor- 
 mous: an artificial world of great depth and 
 potency overlies the world of reality; especially 
 does it overlie the world of man's moral and in- 
 tellectual nature. Most of us live and thrive in 
 this artificial world, and never know but it is 
 the world of God's own creating. 
 
 John Burroughs.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Let me live harmlessly; and near the brink 
 Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place, 
 
 Where I may see my quill or cork down sink 
 With eager bite of perch, or bleak, or dace; 
 
 And on the world and my Creator think: 
 Whilst some men strive ill-gotten goods t 
 embrace, 
 
 And others spend their time in base excess 
 
 Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness. 
 
 Let them that list, these pastimes still pursue; 
 
 And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill; 
 So I the fields and meadows green may view, 
 
 And daily by fresh rivers walk at will, 
 Among the daisies and the violets blue, 
 
 Red hyacinth and yellow daffodil, 
 Purple narcissus like the morning rays, 
 Pale gander-grass, and azure culverkeys. 
 
 Joseph D avors. 
 
 What can I give Him, 
 
 Poor as I am? 
 If I were a shepherd 
 
 I would bring a lamb; 
 If I were a wise man 
 
 I would do my part; 
 Yet what can I give Him? 
 
 Give my heart. 
 
 Christina G. Rossetti. 
 
 7 6 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 I use strong language, because I would combat 
 the disposition, too common in the labouring 
 mass, to regard what is called the upper class 
 with envy or admiration. This disposition mani- 
 fests itself among them in various forms. Thus, 
 when one of their number prospers, he is apt to 
 forget his old acquaintance, and to work his way, 
 if possible, into a more fashionable caste. As 
 far, indeed, as he extends his acquaintance among 
 the intelligent, refined, generous, and truly hon- 
 ourable, he makes a substantial improvement of 
 his condition; but if, as is too often the case, he is 
 admitted by way of favour into a circle, which 
 has few claims, beyond those of greater luxury 
 and show, and which bestows on him a patroniz- 
 ing, condescending notice in exchange for his 
 old, honourable influence among his original 
 associates, he does anything but rise. Such is not 
 the elevation I desire for the labourer. I do not 
 desire him to struggle into another rank. Let 
 him not be a servile copyist of other classes, but 
 aim at something higher than has yet been real- 
 ized in any body of men. Let him not associate 
 the idea of Dignity or Honour with certain 
 modes of living, or certain outward connections. 
 I would have every man stand on his own ground, 
 and take his place among men according to per- 
 sonal endowments and worth, and not according 
 to outward appendages; and I would have every 
 member of the community furnished with such 
 
 77
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 means of improvement, that, if faithful to himself, 
 he may need no outward appendage to attract the 
 respect of all around him. 
 
 William Ellery Channing. 
 
 \\ 
 
 
 Do the work that's nearest, 
 
 Though it's dull at whiles, 
 Helping when we meet them 
 
 Lame dogs over stiles. 
 
 Charles Iflngsley. 
 
 Remember that the chance to do the great 
 heroic work may or may not come. If it does 
 not come, then all that there can be to our credit 
 is the faithful performance of every-day duty. 
 That is all that most of us, throughout our lives, 
 have the chance to do, and it is enough, because 
 it is the beginning to do, because it means most 
 for the nation when done, and if the time for 
 the showing of heroism does come, you may 
 guarantee that those who show it are most likely 
 to be the people who have done their duty in 
 average times, as the occasion for doing the 
 duty arose. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt* 
 
 
 Simplicity is an exact medium between too little 
 and too much.
 
 I love snow and all the forms 
 
 Of the radiant frost; 
 I love waves, and winds, and storms, 
 
 Everything almost 
 Which is Nature's, and may be 
 Untainted by man's misery. 
 
 P. B. Shelley. 
 
 I know not what it is, but when I pass 
 Some running bit of water by the way, 
 
 A river brimming silver in the grass, 
 And rippled by a trailing alder-spray, 
 
 Hold in my heart I cannot from a cry, 
 It is so joyful at the merry sight; 
 
 So gracious is the water running by, 
 So full the simple grass is of delight. 
 
 Philip Henry Savage. 
 
 Without simplicity no human performance can 
 arrive to perfection. 
 
 Swift. 
 & & & 
 
 Tis better to be lowly born, 
 And range with humble livers in content, 
 Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief 
 And wear a golden sorrow. 
 
 Shakespeare.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 In its dreams, man's ambition embraces vast 
 limits, but it is rarely given us to achieve great 
 things, and even then, a quick and sure success 
 always rests on a groundwork of patient prepara- 
 tion. Fidelity in small things is at the base of 
 every great achievement. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 If our love were but more simple, 
 We should take Him at His word; 
 
 And our lives would be all sunshine 
 In the sweetness of our Lord. 
 
 F. W. Faber. 
 
 You say that you have no skill that the Arts 
 and Crafts movement is not for you. You are 
 mistaken. You do not know how little mystery 
 there is in the making of things, good things, nor 
 what a large share common sense has in arts- 
 manship. It must be so. The things that only 
 the few can make are not for the many, and the 
 many are much more important than the few, the 
 " few " to the contrary. Supplying the simple 
 wants and needs of the many well, beautifully, 
 artistically, is the best of all careers a career 
 that must in the nature of things be within the 
 reach of the many, since only the many can 
 supply the wants of the many. 
 
 Perceval Wiksell. 
 80
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 There is a very simple rule for every one of 
 us that reduces the perplexity of our lives. 
 " Covet earnestly the best gifts." Cultivate that 
 " distributive virtue " that rejects not merely the 
 positively bad, but that casts aside the lesser for 
 the greater good. Give up the vain desire of 
 knowing everything; ask yourself at every step, 
 " What is the thing most worth knowing? What 
 is most worth doing?" Do that, and be not 
 troubled though many other possible tasks re- 
 main undone. Learn to do without what is un- 
 essential. That is the condition of doing joyfully 
 and effectively that which is essential. The man 
 in his work, in his study, in his friendship, must 
 bring everything to this simple test, " Is this 
 the best thing for me at this moment? I am 
 living in a world where I cannot know or do 
 everything; I must choose. Of the two interests 
 which challenge my attention to-day, I must 
 choose the greater thing. Which one is worth my 
 effort? " Step by step that man's life and thought 
 grow simple, and he comes to be serene in the 
 midst of all distractions. 
 
 Samuel M . Crothers. 
 
 How desirable is this simplicity! who will give 
 it to me? I will quit all else; it is the pearl of 
 great price. 
 
 Feneton. 
 
 8r
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Small service is true service while it lasts; 
 
 Of humblest Friends, bright Creature, scorn not 
 
 One! 
 The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, 
 
 Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 What simplifies life is to say something like 
 this: "I do not pretend to know all about relig- 
 ion, or duty, or Christ, but I do propose to live 
 along the line of life which I will call toward 
 Christ. I propose to think less of what I may 
 live by, and more of what I may live toward." 
 When a man makes this decision he has not, 
 indeed, solved all the problems of life, but he 
 has amazingly simplified them. Many things 
 which had been perplexing, disturbing, confusing, 
 now fall into line behind that one comprehensive 
 loyalty. He has, as it were, come out of the 
 woods, and found a high road. It is not all level, 
 or easy; there is many a sharp ascent in it, and 
 many a shadowy valley. But at least the way is 
 clear, and he knows whither it leads, and he has 
 found his bearings, and he trudges along with 
 a quiet mind, even though with a weary step, for 
 he has emerged from the bewildering underbrush 
 of life into the " simplicity which is toward 
 Christ." 
 
 Francis G. Peabody. 
 82
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 A maid whom there were none to praise, 
 
 And very few to love. 
 A violet by a mossy stone 
 
 Half -hidden from the eye! 
 Fair as a star, when only one 
 
 Is shining in the sky. 
 
 William Wordsworth* 
 
 I would not have the restless will 
 
 That hurries to and fro, 
 Seeking for some great thing to do, 
 
 Or secret thing to know; 
 I would be treated as a child, 
 
 And guided where I go. 
 
 NS^V 
 
 Wherever in the world I am 
 
 In whatsoe'er estate, 
 I have a fellowship with hearts 
 
 To keep and cultivate; 
 And a work of lowly love to do, 
 
 For the Lord on whom I wait. 
 
 So I ask Thee for the daily strength, 
 
 To none that ask denied, 
 And a mind to blend with outward life, 
 
 While keeping at Thy side; 
 Content to fill a little space, 
 
 If Thou be glorified. 
 
 Jtnna L. Waring. 
 83
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Thanks to the human heart by which we live, 
 Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, 
 
 To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 There are so many causes, we are besieged on 
 every hand. No one can show the slightest in- 
 terest in public affairs without at once becom- 
 ing a marked man, and hunted as the prey of 
 every possible cause insisting upon his co- 
 operation. And yet this leads to distraction, to 
 complexity, to mere dilettanteism. The bane of 
 many of our charities, and of popular causes, 
 political and otherwise, is dilettanteism; and this 
 cannot be overcome unless we concentrate, trying 
 to do justice to the one cause, or to those few 
 causes to which we ally ourselves, choosing 
 them because we are in sympathy with them, 
 and because we are fitted by capacity and ex- 
 perience to promote them. Justice, too, the ful- 
 filment of one's obligations, is a part of simplicity. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 Let us be content in work 
 To do the thing we can; and not presume 
 To fret because it's little. 
 
 E. B. Browning 
 84 
 
 
 s I H 
 
 111
 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 To true simplicity, to perceive a truth is to 
 begin to live it, to see a duty is to begin to do it. 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 
 ^^^L ^^ ^r 
 
 *> ^ ^ 
 
 The beautiful does not obtrude, but appears 
 in simplicity. 
 
 K^rummacher. 
 
 
 
 Simplicity is, of all things, the hardest to be 
 copied. 
 
 Richard Steele. 
 
 Our life is like a German Confederacy, made up 
 of petty states, with its boundary for ever fluc- 
 tuating, so that even a German cannot tell you 
 how it is bounded at any moment. The nation 
 itself, with all its so-called internal improve- 
 ments, which, by the way, are all external and 
 superficial, is just such an unwieldy and over- 
 grown establishment, cluttered with furniture, 
 and tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury 
 and heedless expense, by want of calculation and 
 a worthy aim, as the million households in the 
 land; and the only cure for it as for them is in 
 a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan 
 simplicity of life and elevation of purpose. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 
 85 

 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 A religion of commandments grows burden- 
 some. A religion of ceremonials grows weari- 
 some. A religion of personal love is ever buoy- 
 ant with the spring and variety of personal char- 
 acter. . . . Can you not see a special freshness 
 and exuberance and simplicity of joy, a cordial 
 welcoming of every new day as a new blessing 
 in the life of the simplest and most childlike 
 Christians, whose religion begins and ends in 
 this : " I love Christ and He loves me ; and I 
 can please Him if I am pure and true and good; 
 and so I will try to be with all my might and 
 His." The great ministry of freshness to the stale 
 lives of men is the Holy Spirit, whose work is 
 to take of the things of Christ and show them 
 to us. 
 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 A BOY'S PRAYER 
 
 God who created me 
 
 Nimble and light of limb, 
 In three elements free, 
 
 To run, to ride, to swim: 
 
 Not when the sense is dim, 
 But now from the heart of joy, 
 
 I would remember Him: 
 Take the thanks of a boy. 
 
 H. C. Seeching. 
 
 86
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small con- 
 siderations, habitually practised in our social 
 intercourse, give a greater charm to the character 
 than the display of great talents and accomplish- 
 ments. 
 
 M. M. Kielty. 
 >?& 
 
 Men of few words are the best men. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 & & & 
 
 Oh, for boyhood's painless play, 
 Sleep that wakes in laughing day, 
 Health that mocks the doctor's rules, 
 Knowledge never learned of schools, 
 
 For, eschewing books and tasks, 
 Nature answers all he asks. 
 
 J. G. Whittler. 
 
 He sows June fields with clover, and the world 
 
 Broadcasts with little common kindnesses, 
 
 With plain, good souls that cheerfully fulfil 
 
 Their homely duties in the common field 
 
 Of daily life, ambitious of no more 
 
 Than to supply the needs of friend or kin. 
 
 Samuel Longfellow. 
 87
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 As a little child, that has not yet learned to 
 guide its own steps, trusts implicitly to a mother's 
 wisdom and tenderness; as a wife loyally fol- 
 lows her husband through the darkness, be- 
 lieving where she cannot see; as a husband trusts 
 his wife's instinct of purity and goodness before 
 his own, so I lay my life in the hands of God. 
 I try to do right; I labour with my whole soul 
 to bring my will into accord with His; and the 
 rest I leave with Him. 
 
 Charles Beard.. 
 
 ? & ? 
 
 ,j& 
 
 I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, 
 but I was terrified to find that they required to be 
 dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was 
 all undusted still, and I threw them out the win- 
 dow in disgust. How, then, could I have a fur- 
 nished house? I would rather sit in the open air, 
 for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where 
 man has broken ground. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 
 I pray not that 
 Men tremble at 
 My power of place 
 
 And lordly sway, 
 I only pray for simple grace 
 To look my neighbour in the face 
 Full honestly from day to day. \f^ 
 
 James IVhitcomb Riley.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Happy are those who have retained throughout 
 life their infantine simplicity, which nurses a 
 tractable idol in an unsuspicious bosom, is as- 
 sured 'it knows and heeds the voice addressing 
 it, and shuts it up again with a throb of joy, and 
 keeps it warm. 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 
 The tanned face, garlanded with mirth, 
 It hath the kingliest smile on earth;: 
 The swart brow, diamonded with sweat, 
 Hath never need of coronet. 
 
 James Whitcomb Rlley. 
 
 He who cares for the lily, 
 
 And heeds the sparrow's fall, 
 Shall tenderly lead His loving child, 
 
 For He made and loveth all. 
 And so, when wearied and baffled, 
 
 And I know not which way to go, 
 I know that He can guide me, 
 
 And 'tis all that I need to know. 
 
 Jtnon. 
 
 Thy home is with the humble, Lord! 
 
 The simple are Thy rest; 
 Thy lodging is in childlike hearts; 
 
 Thou makest there Thy nest. 
 
 F. W. Faber. 
 8 9
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 I called on the king, but he made me wait in 
 his hall, and conducted like a man incapacitated 
 for hospitality. There was a man in my neigh- 
 bourhood who lived in a hollow tree. His man- 
 ners were truly regal. I should have done better 
 had I called on him. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 & & & 
 
 J> / 
 
 I have one preacher that I love better than 
 any other on earth; it is my little tame robin, 
 which preaches to me daily. I put his crumbs 
 upon my window-sill, especially at night. He 
 hops on to the sill when he wants his supply, and 
 takes as much as he desires to satisfy his need. 
 From thence he always hops on to a tree close 
 by, and lifts up his voice to God and sings his 
 carol of praise and gratitude, tucks his little 
 head under his wing, and goes fast to sleep, and 
 leaves to-morrow to look after itself. He is 
 the best preacher that I have on earth. 
 
 Martin Luther. 
 
 Make the best of what you have. The fullest 
 life is not so full of good things as it would be 
 if it reaped all the harvest of good within its 
 reach. Our frailty is in reaching out toward 
 the impossible and distant. 
 
 Jtnon.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 He alone is a man who can resist the genius 
 of the age, the tone of fashion, with vigorous 
 simplicity and modest courage. 
 
 Lavater. 
 
 The simple life means the life that reflects the 
 fundamental things, that expresses the structural 
 facts of human society. Now what is more 
 fundamental, in regard to my relations to others, 
 than the idea that others are worthy, that they 
 have fundamentally the same worth that we have? 
 How, then, can I feel at ease, if society around 
 me is such that vast numbers of others, of whom 
 I feel in my heart that they are entitled to the 
 same advantages that I enjoy, are deprived of 
 them? If society is so constituted that eight- 
 tenths are in a position, not only of physical 
 disadvantage, but often of serious moral peril, 
 and at any rate, at intellectual disadvantage, how 
 can I say to myself: I am going to enter into the 
 true life, and not pay any attention to this funda- 
 mental discord. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 Happy he whom neither wealth nor fashion, 
 Nor the march of the encroaching city, 
 
 Drives an exile 
 From the hearth of his ancestral homestead. 
 
 Longfellow.
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 One of the chief dangers of life is trusting 
 occasions. We think that conspicuous events, 
 striking experiences, exalted moments, have most 
 to do with our character and capacity. We are 
 wrong. Common days, monotonous hours, weari- 
 some paths, plain old tools, and . every-day 
 clothes tell the real story. Good habits are not 
 made on birthdays, nor Christian character at the 
 new year. The vision may dawn, the dream may 
 waken, the heart may leap with a new inspira- 
 tion on some mountain-top, but the test, the 
 triumph, is at the foot of the mountain, on the 
 level plain. 
 
 The workshop of character is every-day life. 
 The uneventful and commonplace hour is where 
 the battle is won or lost. Thank God for a new 
 truth, a beautiful idea, a glowing experience: 
 but remember that unless we bring it down to 
 the ground and teach it to walk with feet, work 
 with hands, and stand the strain of daily life, we 
 have worse than lost it, we have been hurt by 
 it. A new light in our heart makes an occasion; 
 but an occasion is an opportunity, not for build- 
 ing a tabernacle and feeling thankful and looking 
 back to a blessed memory, but for shedding the 
 new light on the old path, and doing old duties 
 with new inspiration. The uncommon life is the 
 child of the common day, lived in an uncommon 
 way. 
 
 Maltbie Davenport Babcock. 
 9 2 
 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 She has a world of ready wealth, 
 Our minds and hearts to bless 
 
 Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health, 
 Truth breathed by cheerfulness. 
 
 One impulse from a vernal wood 
 May teach you more of man, 
 
 Of moral evil and of good, 
 Than all the sages can. 
 
 Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; 
 
 Our meddling intellect 
 Misshapes the beauteous forms of things : 
 
 We murder to dissect. 
 
 Enough of Science and of Art; 
 
 Close up these barren leaves; 
 Come forth, and bring with you a heart 
 
 That watches and receives. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 We are all acquainted with people who have 
 a rage for being abroad, who think the world 
 would no longer go round if they didn't figure 
 on all sides of it. To stay at home is penal; 
 there they cease to be in view. A horror of home 
 life possesses them to such a degree that they 
 would rather pay to be bored outside than be 
 amused gratuitously within. 
 
 Charles Wagner.
 
 
 Simplicity is the model of expression which is 
 inseparable from a truth-loving nature. Ostenta- 
 tion and love of display indicate some com- 
 plexity of motive or some obliquity of spirit. 
 Plainness of manner bears witness to single- 
 ness of heart. The man who exalts truth above 
 all things moves directly to his object. He 
 selects his words not for the purpose of adorn- 
 ing thought, but for the purpose of giving it 
 precise expression. He determines upon his 
 actions not with a view of impressing men, but 
 with the object of fulfilling the impulses of his 
 heart. In dealing with such a nature one does 
 well to stand on the firm ground of sincerity, to 
 discard all the devices of artfulness, and find 
 strength in quietness and confidence. 
 
 Mnon. 
 
 Men are burdened with doing. They must 
 do this and that; and the day is too short for 
 the works of the day, and there are not enough 
 days in the year to finish the tasks appointed. 
 Men and women are always hurrying, always 
 worrying, always under pressure of so-called 
 duties. But the apostle simplified the problem 
 of life amazingly when he said, " This one thing 
 I do." He selected the highest, the chief thing, 
 and gave to that his whole life. 
 
 Jtnon.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Whenever life is simple and sane, true pleasure 
 accompanies it as fragrance does uncultivated 
 flowers. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 ~ ~ * 
 
 The crying need of the pulpit to-day, we can- 
 not but feel, is a simple directness. Some one 
 notes that the true laws of eloquence are, first, 
 to have something to say, and secondly to say 
 it. To say it plainly, to say it attractively! And 
 this is style. To be clear, to be fresh, to abhor 
 the vague, to keep wide of the moloch of indefi- 
 niteness, to know what is mist and maze as well 
 as what is rock and river! It is not possible to 
 see six inches into the depths of a puddle, but 
 one can look down twenty fathoms into the 
 waters that wash the shores of Catalina Island. 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 
 
 *ET *sr e^ 
 
 OUR FRIEND 
 
 I know not whether she be fair, 
 
 If blue her eyes or gold her hair; 
 
 I have not marked her features well 
 
 Her spirit casts too strong a spell. 
 
 Even in wintry frost and sleet, 
 If one but pass her on the street, 
 
 95
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Though all the town be wrapp'd in furs, 
 A sense of warmth and April stirs. 
 
 Her lips may be as soft as those 
 The bee is proffered by the rose 
 I do not know; but this I'm sure: 
 They smile alike on rich and poor. 
 
 Her ear may be so fine a fleck 
 It scarce casts shadow on her neck; 
 I only know 'tis not too small 
 To listen when the needy call. 
 
 I know not if her hand be white, 
 Or if her foot be arched and slight; 
 Her feet will run to carry aid, 
 Her hand shower blessings unrepaid. 
 
 If she should die, some brush might trace 
 The maiden's comeliness or grace; 
 But most could only strive, ah yes, 
 Somehow to fill the loneliness. 
 
 Frederic Lawrence I^nowlei. 
 
 Ornament is but the gilded shore 
 To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf 
 Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word, 
 The seeming truth which cunning times put on 
 To entrap the wisest. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 96 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 The Architect of the universe, by whom all 
 things were created, when for love's sake He 
 became a man, made ploughs and yokes. The 
 loftiest soul did lowliest work. Hard hands be- 
 longed to the gentlest heart. The Son of God 
 would not have an exceptional lot, but a com- 
 mon one. He must know how most men feel, 
 and so He became a wage-earner and a day- 
 labourer. 
 
 Maltble Davenport Babcock. 
 
 Livery counts for nothing: we must see the 
 heart. No class has the prerogative of simplicity; 
 no dress, however humble in appearance, is its 
 unfailing badge. Its dwelling need not be a 
 garret, a hut, the cell of the ascetic nor the 
 lowliest fisherman's bark. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 & & & 
 
 Truth needs no colour, . . . beauty no pencil. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 ' 
 
 Simplicity is favourable to law. 
 
 J. Jk. Spencer. 
 
 & & ? 
 
 A childlike mind in its simplicity practises that 
 science of good to which the wise may be blind. 
 
 Schiller. 
 
 97
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Come live with me and be my Love, 
 And we will all the pleasures prove 
 That hills and valleys, dale and field, 
 And all the craggy mountains yield. 
 
 There will we sit upon the rocks 
 And see the shepherds feed their flocks, 
 By shallow rivers, to whose falls 
 Melodious birds sing madrigals. 
 
 There will I make thee beds of roses 
 And a thousand fragrant posies, 
 A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 
 Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. 
 
 A gown made of the finest wool, 
 Which from our pretty lambs we pull, 
 Fair lined slippers for the cold, 
 With buckles of the purest gold. 
 
 ^^^^^ 
 
 A belt of straw and ivy buds 
 
 With coral clasps and amber studs: 
 And if these pleasures may thee move, 
 Come live with me and be my Love. 
 
 Thy silver dishes for thy meat 
 As precious as the gods do eat, 
 Shall on an ivory table be 
 Prepared each day for thee and me. 
 98
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 The shepherd swains shall dance and sing 
 For thy delight each May-morning: 
 If these delights thy mind may move, 
 Then live with me and be my Love. 
 
 C. Mario 
 
 
 * * 
 
 Am I acting in simplicity, from a germ of the 
 divine life within, or am I shaping my path to 
 obtain some immediate result of expediency? 
 Am I endeavouring to compass effects, amidst a 
 tangled web of foreign influences I cannot cal- 
 culate; or am I seeking simply to do what is 
 right, and leaving the consequences to the good 
 providence of God? 
 
 M . Jt. Schimmelpenninck. 
 
 To maintain one's self on this earth is not a 
 hardship, but a pastime, if one will live simply 
 and wisely. 
 
 Now the pulpit and the mart 
 Make an unquiet thing of Art, 
 For we trade or else we preach; 
 
 Even the crocus, 'stead of song, 
 Serves for text the April long; 
 Thus we set it out of reach. 
 
 Lizette Woodworth Reese.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 If simplicity of heart is an essential condition 
 of respect, simplicity of life is its best school. 
 Whatever be the state of your fortune, avoid 
 everything which could make your children 
 think themselves more or better than others. 
 Though your wealth would permit you to dress 
 them richly, remember the evil you might do in 
 exciting their vanity. Preserve them from the 
 evil of believing that to be elegantly dressed 
 suffices for distinction, and above all do not 
 carelessly increase by their clothes and their 
 habits of life the distance which already sepa- 
 rates them from other children: dress them 
 simply. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 The expression of truth is simplicity. 
 
 Seneca.. 
 
 The secret of all true greatness is simplicity. 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 
 Have the courage to be ignorant of a great 
 number of things in order to avoid the calamity 
 of being ignorant of everything. 
 
 Sydney Smith. 
 & & & 
 
 An honest tale speeds best, being plainly tol< 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 TOO
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Simplicity is the sun of a self-centred and 
 pure life, the secret of any specific greatness 
 in the life of the individual. 
 
 William. George Jordan. 
 
 The bed was made, the room was fit, 
 By punctual eve the stars were lit; 
 The air was still, the water ran, 
 No need was there for maid or man, 
 When we put up, my ass and I, 
 At God's green caravanserai. 
 
 R. L. Stevenson 
 
 True humour lies in the thought, and arises 
 rom the representation of images in odd circum- 
 stances and uncommon lights. A pleasant 
 thought strikes us by the force of its natural 
 beauty: and the mirth of it is generally rather 
 palled than heightened by that ridiculous phrase- 
 ology which is so much in fashion among the 
 pretenders to humour and pleasantry. This tribe 
 of men are like our mountebanks; they make a 
 man a wit, by putting him in a fantastic habit. 
 Our little burlesque authors, who are the delight 
 of ordinary readers, generally abound in these 
 pert phrases, which have in them more vivacity 
 than wit. 
 
 The Spectator. 
 
 IOI
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little and 
 spend a little less; to make upon the whole a 
 family happier by his presence; to renounce 
 when that shall be necessary and not be embit- 
 tered; to keep a few friends, but these without 
 capitulation above all, on the same grim con- 
 dition to keep friends with himself here is a 
 task for all that a man has of fortitude and 
 delicacy. 
 
 R. L. Stevenson. 
 
 That temperance and sobriety are the best 
 guardians of health is an old story. They spare 
 him who observes them many a misery that 
 saddens existence; they ensure him health, love 
 of action, mental poise. Whether it be a ques- 
 tion of food, dress, or dwelling, simplicity of 
 taste is also a source of independence and safety. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 What a happy simplicity prevailed in ancient 
 times when it was the custom for ladies, though 
 of the greatest distinction, to employ themselves 
 in useful and laborious works. 
 
 C. B. Buck. 
 
 How many undervalue the power of simplicity! 
 But it is the real key to the heart. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 102
 
 tffl 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 O Friend! I know not which way I must look 
 
 For comfort, being, as I am, opprest 
 
 To think that now our life is only drest 
 
 For show; mean handiwork of craftsman, cook, 
 
 Or groom ! We must run glittering like a brook 
 In the open sunshine, or we are unblest; 
 The wealthiest man among us is the best: 
 No grandeur now in Nature or in book 
 
 Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense, 
 This is idolatry; and these we adore: 
 Plain living and high thinking are no more: 
 
 The homely beauty of the good old cause 
 Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence. 
 And pure religion breathing household laws. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 In the downhill of life, when I find I'm declining, 
 
 May my lot no less fortunate be 
 Than a snug elbow-chair can afford for reclining, 
 
 And a cot that o'erlooks the wide sea; 
 With an ambling pad-pony to pace o'er the lawn, 
 
 While I carol away idle sorrow, 
 And blithe as the lark that each day hails the 
 dawn 
 
 Look forward with hope for to-morrow. 
 
 Collins.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Certainly, in our own little sphere it is not 
 the most active people to whom we owe the 
 most. Among the common people whom we 
 know, it is not necessarily those who are busiest, 
 not those who, meteorlike, are ever on the rush 
 after some visible charge and work. It is the 
 lives, like the stars, which simply pour down on 
 us the calm light of their bright and faithful 
 being, up to which we look and out of which 
 we gather the deepest calm and courage. 
 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 The simple life is that which is directed toward 
 the attainment of things that are essential. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 True worth is in being, not seeming, 
 In doing each day that goes by 
 
 Some little good, not in the dreaming 
 Of great things to do by and by. 
 
 Jtlice Gary. 
 
 ? 
 
 One of the signs of the simplicity of culture 
 is its freshness of feeling. It invests the most 
 familiar objects with interest and newness, being 
 in this regard the opposite pole of criticism. It is 
 positive, not negative; active, not passive. 
 
 Malcolm J . McLeod. 
 
 104
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 If we kept our principle of joy in work con- 
 sistently in view we would not set ourselves 
 tasks that lay beyond the possibilities of joy, 
 This is our first mistake. We plan book covers 
 and carvings which are too elaborate to be com- 
 pleted in joy. They become mechanical in char- 
 acter. They become exclusively the possession of 
 one person or a few persons. They do not seem 
 to make the democratic appeal. But this is not 
 our worst fault. I am convinced that even elab- 
 orate things may be possible both for workers 
 and possessors if we insist upon producing them 
 by simple methods. We overfinish everything. 
 We do not know where to stop. We are afraid 
 comparison with the finish of the machine. 
 
 Will Price. 
 
 True elegance becomes the more so as it ap- 
 proaches simplicity. 
 
 Beecher. 
 
 The more simply you live, the more secure is 
 your future; you are less at the mercy of sur- 
 prises and reverses. An illness or a period of 
 idleness does not suffice to dispossess you: a 
 change of position, even considerable, does not 
 put you to confusion. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 105
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 :e the wretch that long has tost 
 
 On the thorny bed of pain, 
 At length repair his vigour lost 
 
 And breathe and walk again: 
 The meanest floweret of the vale, 
 The simplest note that swells the gale, 
 The common sun, the air, the skies, 
 
 J 
 
 To him are opening Paradise. 
 
 , ~ ..<* 
 
 Genuine simplicity 
 cementing principle. 
 
 Thomas Gray. 
 
 of heart is a healing and 
 
 Burke. 
 
 Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman 
 
 of whom I should never tire, 
 Give me a perfect child, give me away aside 
 
 from the noise of the world a rural domestic 
 
 life, 
 Give me to warble spontaneous songs recluse 
 
 by myself, for my own ears only, 
 Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again, 
 
 O Nature, your primal sanities! 
 
 Walt Whitman. 
 
 
 
 Simplicity in a character is like the needle of a 
 compass, it knows only one point, its North, 
 
 its ideal. 
 
 ^B^HT ^~^^F^^^~\ f^^^ ^k 
 
 William George Jordan. 
 1 06
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Life is not a deep, profound, perplexing problem. 
 It is a simple, easy lesson, such as any child 
 may read. You cannot find its solution in the 
 ponderous tomes of the old fathers, the philoso- 
 phers, the theorists. It is not on your book- 
 shelves, but in the warmest corner of the most 
 unlettered heart it glows in letters that the 
 blindest may read, a sweet, plain, simple, easy, 
 loving lesson. And when you have learned it, 
 brother of mine, the world will be better and 
 happier. 
 
 R. J. Bardette. 
 & & & 
 
 Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a 
 day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a 
 hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things 
 in proportion. D Thoreau 
 
 * * * 
 
 Yes! the faithful dog that asks for our sym- 
 pathetic pat upon its head; the child that nestles 
 in your lap; the man whose arm lovingly sus- 
 tains you; the woman whose lips are graciously 
 tendered you to kiss these little threads of 
 celestial origin weave for us heavenly garments, 
 and our dear, earthly loves become celestial by 
 ways beyond our understanding. God's own love 
 comes to us through the lowliest door, and the 
 arms of the Eternal embrace us in the babe's 
 clasp. 
 
 Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 How happy is he born and taught 
 That serveth not another's will; 
 
 Whose armour is his honest thought 
 And simple truth his utmost ski 
 
 Whose passions not his masters are, 
 Whose soul is still prepared for death, 
 
 Not tied unto the world with care 
 Of public fame, or private breath; 
 
 Who envies none that chance doth raise 
 Or vice; who never understood 
 
 How deepest wounds are given by praise; 
 Nor rules of state, but rules of good: 
 
 Who hath his life from rumours freed, 
 Whose conscience is his strong retreat; 
 
 Whose state can neither flatterers feed, 
 Nor ruin make accusers great; 
 
 Who God doth late and early pray 
 More of His grace than gifts to lend;; 
 
 And entertains the harmless day 
 With a well-chosen book or friend; 
 
 This man is freed from servile bands 
 
 Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; 
 Lord of himself, though not of lands; 
 
 And having nothing, yet hath all. 
 
 Sir H. Wotton. 
 
 1 08 
 

 
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Speech is the chief revelation of the mind, the 
 first visible form that it takes. As the thought, 
 so the speech. To better one's life in the way of 
 simplicity, one must set a watch on his lips and 
 his pen. Let the word be as genuine as the 
 thought, as artless, as valid: think justly, speak 
 frankly. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 What was the secret of such a one's power? 
 What had she done? Absolutely nothing; but 
 radiant smiles, beaming good-humour, the tact 
 of divining what every one felt and every one 
 wanted, told that she had got out of self and 
 learned to think of others; so that at one time 
 it showed itself in deprecating the quarrel, which 
 lowering brows and raised tones already showed 
 to be impending, by sweet words; at another, 
 by smoothing an invalid's pillow; at another, by 
 soothing a sobbing child; at another, by humour- 
 ing and softening a father who had returned 
 weary and ill-tempered from the irritating cares 
 of business. None but she saw those things. 
 None but a loving heart could see them. That 
 was the secret of her heavenly power. The one 
 who will be found in trial capable of great acts 
 of love, is ever the one who is always doing con- 
 siderate small ones. 
 
 F. W. Robertson. 
 109 

 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 As inward love breeds outward talk, 
 The hound some praise, and some the hawk 
 Some, better pleased with private sport, 
 Use tennis; some a mistress court: 
 
 But these delights I neither wish 
 
 Nor envy, while I freely fish. 
 
 Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride; 
 
 Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide; 
 
 Who uses games shall often prove 
 
 A loser; but who falls in love 
 Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare: 
 My angle breeds me no such care. 
 
 Of recreation there is none 
 So free as fishing is alone; 
 All other pastimes do no less 
 Than mind and body both possess; 
 
 My hand alone my work can do 
 
 So I can fish and study too. 
 
 I care not, I, to fish in seas 
 Fresh rivers best my mind do please, 
 Whose sweet calm course I contemplate, 
 And seek in life to imitate: 
 In civil bounds I fain would keep, 
 And for my past offences weep. 
 
 And when the timorous trout I wai 
 To take, and he devours my bait,
 
 How poor a thing, sometimes I find, 
 
 Will captivate a greedy mind; 
 And when none bite, I praise the wise, 
 Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise. 
 
 gPvv* 
 
 Izaak Walton. 
 
 Scarce had he need to cast his pride or slough the 
 
 dross of earth ; , 
 E'en as he trod that day to God, so walked he 
 
 from his birth 
 In simpleness and gentleness and honour and 
 
 clean mirth. 
 
 Rudyard tripling. 
 
 Simplicity should be free, natural, spontaneous, 
 bubbling, artesian. It should not be negative; it 
 should be positive. It should not be critical; it 
 should be creative. It should not embitter char- 
 acter; it should mellow it. 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 jm *&isa* II 
 
 The best painters, as they progress in reputa- 
 tion and toward perfection, are found to dis- 
 pense more and more with the technique of the 
 art, for simpler methods. Simplicity never fails 
 to charm. 
 
 in
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 To do Thy will is more than praise, 
 
 As words are less than deeds, 
 And simple trust can find Thy ways 
 
 We miss with chart of creeds. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 9 
 
 The consciousness of being well dressed and 
 yet owing for it, of riding in carriages which 
 one cannot afford, of wearing jewelry and 
 tailor-made suits which are beyond one's means, 
 or of patronizing expensive hotels and restaurants 
 which one cannot by any stretch of imagination 
 or sophistry afford, is destructive to self-respect, 
 to truth and honesty, and to manhood and 
 womanhood. You cannot afford to wear lies on 
 your body or eat lies at expensive cafes any more 
 than you can afford to tell lies with your tongue. 
 
 Orison S. Warden. 
 
 It is not growing like a tree 
 In bulk, doth make Man better be; 
 Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
 To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: 
 A lily of a day 
 Is fairer far in May, 
 Although it fall and die that night 
 It was the plant and flower of Light. 
 In small proportions we just beauties see; 
 And in short measures life may perfect be. 
 
 B. jonson. 
 112
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 It was the fashion in the political economy of 
 a past day to encourage all sorts of extravagance; 
 the proceeds of expenditures thus wasted, it was 
 claimed, going toward the prosperity of less 
 favoured classes. To-day, it is distinctly under- 
 stood that what one wastes some other must lose. 
 The engrossment of the products of labour by 
 one person is almost as much a loss in the 
 scheme of a scientific distribution as is the going 
 down of a ship at sea carrying with it gold coin 
 that has cost the labour of half a million workers. 
 
 If you would lead " the simple life " you must 
 therefore begin by living in a house commensurate 
 with your needs by taking up of the earth's 
 surface such share as will not compel the hud- 
 dling together of your brothers. You must be 
 reasonable in all your bodily desires. 
 
 John Brisben Walker. 
 
 I saw her upon nearer view, 
 
 A spirit, yet a woman too! 
 
 Her household motions light and free, 
 
 And steps of virgin-liberty; 
 
 A countenance in which did meet 
 
 Sweet records, promises as sweet; 
 
 A creature not too bright or good 
 
 For human nature's daily food, 
 
 For transient sorrows, simple wiles, 
 
 Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 "3
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 The sad face of the man who has too much 
 work of one kind is only equalled by the worried 
 face of a man out of a job. When life means 
 much to us; when we love the man at the next 
 bench; when we care what our work stands for 
 and hope to see it produce joy to the final user 
 or possessor; when we see the merit in another's 
 work and try to excel it; when we are not con- 
 cerned about becoming rich, or in hoarding 
 things, or even to gain applause, but are con- 
 cerned only to please ourselves, concerned only to 
 find our work and to do it, then the craftsman is 
 born, then the spirit of the craftsman is en- 
 franchised. 
 
 Percival Wiksell. 
 
 If our merchants did not most of them fail, and 
 the banks, too, my faith in the old laws of the 
 world would be staggered. The statement that 
 ninety-six in a hundred doing such business 
 surely break down, is perhaps the sweetest fact 
 that statistics have revealed exhilarating as the 
 fragrance of the flowers in the spring. Does it 
 not say somewhere, " The Lord reigneth, let the 
 earth rejoice " ? If thousands are thrown out of 
 employment, it suggests that they were not well 
 employed. Why don't they take the hint? It 
 is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. 
 What are you industrious about? 
 
 H . Z>. Thoreau. 
 114
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 
 Revelations of his own soul, of God's intimate 
 presence, of the grandeur of the creation, of the 
 glory of disinterestedness, of the deformity of 
 wrong-doing, of the dignity of universal justice, 
 of the might of moral principle, of the immuta- 
 bleness of truth, of immortality, and of the in- 
 ward sources of happiness; these revelations, 
 awakening a thirst for something higher than 
 he is or has, come of themselves to an humble, 
 self-improving man. Sometimes a common scene 
 in nature, one of the common relations of life, 
 will open itself to us with a brightness and preg- 
 nancy of meaning unknown before. Sometimes a 
 thought of this kind forms an era in life. It 
 changes the whole future course. It is a new 
 creation. And these great ideas are not con- 
 fined to men of any class. They are communica- 
 tions of the Infinite Mind to all minds which are 
 open to their reception; and labour is a far 
 better condition for their reception than luxuri- 
 ous or fashionable life. It is even better than a 
 studious life, when this fosters vanity, pride, and 
 the spirit of jealous competition. A childlike 
 simplicity attracts these revelations more than a 
 selfish culture of intellect, however far extended. 
 
 William Ellery Channing. 
 ~ ~ <* 
 
 If we stay at home and mind our business, who 
 will want railroads? We do not ride on the 
 railroad; it rides upon us. 
 
 "5 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 

 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 To give up the ancestral hearth, to let the 
 family traditions fall into desuetude, to abandon 
 the simple domestic customs, for whatever return, 
 is to make a fool's bargain; and such is the 
 place in society of family life, that if this be 
 impoverished, the trouble is felt throughout the 
 whole social organism. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates, and men decay: 
 Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade; 
 A breath can make them, as a breath has made: 
 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
 When once destroyed, can never be supplied. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 & & ? 
 
 Culture is the human soul grown ripe. It is 
 the complete nature at its richest, fully unfolded, 
 evenly balanced, wisely directed, adjusted. The 
 cultured life is the trained life, the finished life, 
 but ever and everywhere the simple life. 
 
 Malcolm J. McLeod. 
 
 Be sure if you do your very best in that which 
 is laid upon you daily you will not be left with- 
 out help when some mightier occasion arises. 
 
 Jean Alicolas Grou. 
 
 116
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 If a man has anything to say or do, it drops 
 from him simply and directly, as a stone falls 
 to the ground. There are no two ways about it, 
 but down it comes. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 & ^ & 
 
 Like the star 
 
 That shines afar, 
 
 Without haste 
 
 And without rest, 
 
 Let each man wheel, with steady sway, 
 
 Round the task that rules the day, 
 
 And do his best. 
 
 Goethe. 
 
 In the midst of our artifice and hypocrisy, 
 Jesus points us to the little children, and exhorts 
 us to be true. In the midst of our self-dissection 
 and self-contemplation, Jesus calls us to be 
 natural, unaffected, simple, and sincere. In the 
 midst of our half-heartedness, Jesus bids us to be 
 whole. In the midst of our vanity, Jesus tells us 
 to look around, and with a wondering childlike 
 gaze forget ourselves in all the marvels of this 
 God-filled world. How shall we turn yet once 
 again and become like little children? . . . Let 
 but the sweet remembrance of your purer days 
 work their own way within you. Let the bright 
 face of childhood preach its own expressive ser- 
 mon to your soul. 
 
 E. M. Geldart. 
 117
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 My daily task, whatever it be, that is what 
 mainly educates me. All other culture is mere 
 luxury compared with what that gives. That 
 gives the Indispensables. Yet, fool that I am, 
 this pressure of my daily task is the very thing 
 that I so growl at as my "Drudgery!" 
 
 William C. Gannett. 
 
 I marvel not that sadder grows the world, 
 
 For men have lost the love of simple things, 
 
 With eloquence of Nature's music mute, 
 
 With speed of waterways made bond to trade, 
 
 With stately trees brought low for needless heaps, 
 
 With flowers forced untimely into bloom, 
 
 What is there honest, free, and fair remaining? 
 
 We stifle in our towns of prisoned air 
 
 And happy with a rare glance from the earth 
 
 We see a square of blue or curdled cloud, 
 
 Or niggard stretch of moonlight through a street. 
 
 At manners of the hill-bound kind we scoff, 
 
 Although we know not what those hills have 
 
 taught 
 
 Of dumb and deep content for city's towers. 
 And in these keeps of pain, disease, and sin, 
 These wards of grief whose keys are our own 
 
 eyes, 
 
 With blanched regard we tell ourselves we live. 
 O mother of us all, from whom we went 
 As early as our tender steps were free, 
 118
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Whose near outstretch of arm we put aside 
 To hurry from thy verdant aisles of peace, 
 Take us again, us sick with thought or craft, 
 And lull us with thy choirs of careless birds. 
 
 Philip Becker Goetz. 
 
 Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crown'd, 
 
 Where all the ruddy family around 
 
 Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail, 
 
 Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale; 
 
 Or press the bashful stranger to his food, 
 
 And learn the luxury of doing good. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 Simplicity is not sour, or gloomy. Simplicity 
 does not wish us to disrobe ourselves of all the 
 fine array of civilization. It only demands that 
 we try to keep in mind the things which really 
 make for our best welfare, and set aside the 
 things which are so many impediments in our 
 way. 
 
 Felix Mdler. 
 
 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife 
 Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;, 
 
 Along the cool sequester'd vale of life 
 They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 
 
 t Thomas Gray.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 To sum up the necessities of most men, a few 
 concise lines would answer. Their regime is in 
 general of supreme simplicity, and so long as 
 they follow it, all is well with them, as with 
 every obedient child of Mother Nature. Let 
 them depart from it, complications arise, health 
 fails, gaiety vanishes. Only simple and natural 
 living can keep a body in full vigour. 
 
 Charles IVagner. 
 
 
 Perfectly valid are the two words into which 
 at the end of his book Pastor Wagner condenses 
 the message which he seeks to deliver, the two 
 words which express the essence of the simple 
 life: REMEMBER! FORGET! Forget the 
 things which at heart you do not care for. Re- 
 member the things which you do care for. For- 
 get the accessories. Remember the essentials! 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 No pure and simple life, true to itself, true 
 to its Maker, was ever lived on this earth, that 
 was not a voice on God's behalf, however still 
 and small; and that did not, in its sincere and 
 humble way, declare a hope and reveal a faith 
 which might well be the evidence of things un- 
 seen. 
 
 Alexander Gordon.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 I said to a craftsman in New York last week: 
 "Why do you only do the very costly things?" 
 He replied : " In order to meet the market." 
 Then I pushed my inquiry further. " What are 
 you doing to meet the other, the larger, market? 
 The market of the people?" Then he argued: 
 " I acknowledge that is my defect. I had to 
 make a choice. I could not do both." " But do 
 you feel that as a craftsman you have done much 
 until you have reached your hands out both 
 ways? " " I suppose not. There you are probably 
 right. I would prefer the other course, but it 
 offers me too many difficulties." That is just the 
 point. I know the prospect I open to my binder 
 friend is not at the outset a very alluring one. It 
 does not invite the craftsman to a bed of ease. 
 It means struggle and a good many failures. It 
 means struggle and finally means success. Yet 
 it is the only victory worth while. Any other 
 victory is in the nature of a defeat. 
 
 Horace Traubel. 
 
 Nothing destroys the weight of example as 
 much as labour to make it striking and observed. 
 Goodness, to be interesting, must be humble, 
 modest, unassuming, not fond of show, not wait- 
 ing for great and conspicuous occasions, but dis- 
 closing itself without labour and without design, 
 in pious and benevolent offices, so simple, so 
 121
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 minute, so steady, so habitual, that they will carry 
 a conviction of the singleness and purity of the 
 heart from which they proceed. Such goodness 
 is never lost. It glorifies itself by the very 
 humility which encircles it, just as the lights of 
 heaven often break with peculiar splendour 
 through the cloud which threatened to obscure 
 them. 
 
 William Ellery Charming. 
 
 Nature never did betray 
 The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, 
 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 
 From joy to joy; for she can so inform 
 The mind that is within us, so impress 
 With quietness and "beauty, and so feed 
 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
 sh judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men 
 
 Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb 
 Our cheerful faith that all which we behold 
 Is full of blessings. 
 
 William Wordsworth.. 
 k >jJnJ**^ 
 
 The charm of the Indian to me is that he stands 
 free and unconstrained in nature, is her inhabitant 
 and not her guest, and wears her easily and 
 gracefully. But the civilized man has the habits
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 of the house. His house is a prison, in which he 
 finds himself oppressed and confined, not shel- 
 tered and protected. He walks as if he sustained 
 the roof; he carries his arms as if the walls 
 would fall in and crush him, and his feet remem- 
 ber the cellar beneath. His muscles are never 
 relaxed. It is rare that he overcomes the house, 
 and learns to sit at home in it, and roof and floor 
 and walls support themselves, as the sky and 
 trees and earth. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 
 ? J& J& 
 
 JT vA>* 
 
 Simple is not synonymous with ugly, any mo 
 than sumptuous, stylish, and costly are synony- 
 mous with beautiful. Our eyes are wounded by 
 the crying spectacle of gaudy ornament, venal 
 art and senseless and graceless luxury. Wealth 
 coupled with bad taste sometimes makes us 
 regret that so much money is in circulation to 
 provoke the creation of such a prodigality of 
 horrors. 
 
 Charles Wagner 
 
 Thoreau says that there is nothing like manual 
 labour for taking the vain twists and kinks out 
 of one's tongue and wrists. " Learn to split 
 wood at least. Steady labour with the hands, 
 which engrosses the attention also, is unquestion-
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 ably the best method of removing palaver and 
 sentimentality out of one's style both of speaking 
 and writing." And rare as is the charm of really 
 good manners, it is most often 1 think to be 
 found sometimes quite in perfection amongst 
 manual workers: a real and free exchange of 
 human interest, the art that ceases to be art and 
 becomes nature. 
 
 Edward Carpenter. 
 
 We overload our table. The fashion of dinners 
 with many courses is the outgrowth, not of desire, 
 nor of real pleasure, but of vanity on the part of 
 the hosts, of a wish to follow the example of 
 others who have set this fashion, and to display 
 magnificence as a host, and not to fall below the 
 accepted standard of hospitality. 
 
 These overloaded tables are an impertinence. 
 We should be better off, physically, morally, and 
 in every way, if our dinners were less elaborate 
 than they are. 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 I do not ask for any crown 
 
 But that which all may win, 
 Nor seek to conquer any world 
 
 Except the one within. 
 
 Louisa May JHcott. 
 124
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 From scenes like these, 
 springs, 
 
 That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad 
 Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 
 "An honest man's the noblest work of God;" 
 
 And certes, in fair Virtue's heavenly road, 
 The cottage leaves the palace far behind; 
 
 What is a lordling's pomp? a cumbrous load, 
 Disguising oft the wretch of human kind, 
 Studied in arts of Hell, in wickedness refin'd! 
 
 Robert Burns. 
 
 ? & & 
 
 Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? 
 
 Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk? 
 
 At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse? 
 
 Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust? 
 
 And loved so well a high behaviour, 
 
 In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, 
 
 Nobility more nobly to repay? 
 
 O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine! 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 & & & 
 
 Some one notes that happiness and simplicity 
 are old-time friends, and wiser words are rarely 
 spoken. Happiness is found everywhere, but 
 she prefers the common place the quiet lane, 
 the restful river, the simple toil and tool and 
 task. She leans rather to the cottage than to the 
 
 CaStle< Malcolm J. McLeod.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 For this is Love's nobility: 
 Not to scatter bread and gold, 
 Goods and raiment, bought and sold; 
 But to hold fast our simple sense, 
 And speak the speech of innocence. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson 
 
 1MB W 
 
 Foppish and fantastic ornaments are only indi- 
 cations of vice, not criminal in themselves. Ex- 
 tinguish vanity in the mind, and you naturally 
 retrench the little superfluities of garniture and 
 equipage. The blossoms will fall of themselves, 
 when the root that nourished them is destroyed. 
 
 Joseph Mddison. 
 
 I weigh not fortune's frown or smile; 
 
 I joy not much in earthly joys; 
 I seek not state, I reck not style; 
 
 I am, not fond of fancy's toys: 
 I rest so pleased with what I have 
 I wish no more, no more I crave. 
 
 I quake not at the thunder's crack; 
 
 I tremble not at noise of war; 
 I swound not at the news of wrack; 
 
 I shrink not at a blazing star; 
 
 fear not loss, I hope not gain, 
 
 envy none, I none disdain. 
 126 

 
 I see ambition never pleasec 
 I see some Tantals starved in store; 
 
 I see gold's dropsy seldom eased; 
 I see even Midas gape for more; 
 
 I neither want nor yet abound, 
 
 Enough's a feast, content is crowned. 
 
 I feign not friendship where I hate; 
 
 I fawn not on the great (in show) ; 
 I prize, I praise a mean estate, 
 
 Neither too lofty nor too low: 
 This, this is all my choice, my cheer, 
 A mind content, a conscience clear. 
 
 Joshua, Sylvester. 
 
 " Is not this the carpenter? " As though no 
 words of wisdom or works of power could come 
 from a carpenter! If Jesus had been a rabbi, in a 
 scholar's robe, it would have been another thing. 
 Yes; and what another thing for us, and for all 
 the world's workers! Celsus sneered at the 
 carpenter, and said that word proved he was 
 an impostor. How could God so demean Him- 
 self? But the world has left Celsus behind, along 
 with the critics of Nazareth, and blesses God for 
 the gentleness and comfort, the sympathy and 
 hope, which were given to us by the hands of 
 the carpenter. 
 
 It suits our best sense that the one who spoke 
 127 
 

 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 of " putting the hand to the plough," and " tak- 
 ing the yoke upon us," should have made ploughs 
 and yokes Himself, and people do not think His 
 words less heavenly for not smelling of books 
 and lamps. Let us not make the mistake of 
 those Nazarenes. That Jesus was a carpenter, 
 was to them poor credentials of divinity, but it 
 has been divine credentials to the poor ever since. 
 Let us not be deceived by social ratings and 
 badges of the schools. Hundreds of doors are 
 not to be opened by Phi Beta Kappa keys. 
 
 Maltbie Davenport Babcock. 
 
 Secure a good name to thyself by living virtu- 
 ously and humbly; but let this good name be 
 nursed abroad, and never be brought home to 
 look upon it; let others use it for their own ad- 
 vantage; let them speak of it if they please; but 
 do not thou use it at all but as an instrument to 
 do God glory, and thy neighbour more advantage. 
 Let thy face, like Moses', shine to others, but 
 make no looking-glass for thyself. 
 
 Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 & ? ? 
 
 A true perception of the Gospel is the entire 
 forgetfulness of self: utter absence of any pre- 
 tension, and the complete and entire refusal to 
 accept the world's praise or judgment. 
 
 General Gordon. 
 
 128
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 I suspect after all it makes but little difference 
 to which school you go, whether to the woods 
 or to the city. A sincere man learns pretty 
 much the same things in both places. 
 
 John Burroughs. 
 
 If I do what I may in earnest I need not mourn 
 if I work no great work on the earth. To help 
 the growth of a thought that struggles toward 
 the light; to brush with gentle hand the earth 
 stain from the white of one snowdrop such be 
 my ambition! 
 
 George Macdonald. 
 
 It is pitiable to think of the devices that people 
 resort to in order to live a lie and to foist them- 
 selves upon the public for what they are not. 
 There seems to be no limit to the depths of 
 silliness, meanness, falsity, and dishonour to 
 which the straining for appearances will not 
 lead. Not long ago a " smart " young man was 
 heard bragging how he had not paid a dollar 
 for room rent in three years. He said that all 
 he had to do was to dress well, take a large, 
 good-looking trunk to his room, stave off the 
 landlady with smooth words as long as he could, 
 and then leave an empty trunk and steal away 
 to another part of the city to work the same 
 129 

 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 game. A young lawyer says that, by adopting 
 similar means, he has been able to dodge his rent 
 for many months. Another boasts how skilfully 
 he can dupe fashionable tailors into giving him 
 credit by the plausible stories he tells them. 
 
 Orison J. Ma.rd.en, 
 
 
 
 There, where a few torn shrubs the place dis- 
 
 close, 
 
 The village preacher's modest mansion rose. 
 A man he was to all the country dear, 
 And passing rich with forty pounds a year; 
 Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 
 Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change his 
 
 place ; 
 
 Unpractised he to fawn, or seek for power, 
 By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; 
 Far other aims his heart had learned to prize, 
 More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 On a wedding-day the unessential things are 
 crowded to the front, the runnings to and fro, 
 the preparation of a feast, the dressing, the car- 
 riages; and everything else receives more atten- 
 tion than that which should be the principal con- 
 cern. Often a crowd is invited, a crowd of persons 
 who are almost strangers, or who, at any rate, are
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 quite indifferent, and have no business there, who 
 merely interfere. The most solemn day in two 
 persons' lives is spoiled because we do not stop to 
 think that true life consists in giving point to 
 the things which are important, and not allowing 
 the things which are unimportant to occupy the 
 mind. Is not a simple wedding better, a simple 
 wedding in which there is beauty, solemnity, and 
 joy shared by those into whose lives it fittingly 
 comes and not by the indifferent, to whom the 
 parents owe social obligations? 
 
 Felix Jtdler. 
 
 From the cradle to the grave, in his needs as in 
 his pleasures, in his conception of the world and 
 of himself, the man of modern times struggles 
 through a maze of endless complication. Nothing 
 is simple any longer; neither thought nor action; 
 not pleasure, not even dying. With our own 
 hands we have added to existence a train of hard- 
 ships. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 All the works of God are characterized by great 
 and even amazing simplicity, when we contem- 
 plate their extent ; and the wonder is, not that the 
 original ideas in reference to which they are con- 
 stituted are so many, but that they are so few. 
 
 H. Winslow.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 How vainly men themselves amaze 
 To win the palm, the oak, or bays, 
 And their incessant labours see 
 Crown'd from some single herb or tree, 
 Whose short and narrow-verged shade 
 Does prudently their toils upbraid; 
 While all the flowers and trees do close 
 To weave the garlands of Repose. 
 
 Mndrew Marvell. 
 * * * 
 
 They all were looking for a king 
 To slay their foes and lift them high: 
 
 Thou cam'st, a little baby thing 
 That made a woman cry. 
 
 O Son of Man, to right my lot 
 Naught but Thy presence can avail; 
 
 Yet on the road Thy wheels are not, 
 Nor on the sea Thy sail! 
 
 George Macdonald. 
 
 We make those with whom we associate happy 
 or miserable in their association with us by the 
 little things we say or do not say, the insignificant 
 things we do or do not do. The innuendoes, the 
 curl of the lip, the tone of the voice, the move- 
 ment of a finger these things are more im- 
 portant than the great things about which wi 
 are so careful. 
 
 Minot J. Savage. 
 
 132 
 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 If we suppose that there are spirits or angels 
 who look into the ways of men, as it is highly 
 probable there are, both from reason and revela- 
 tion, how different are the notions which they 
 entertain of us, from those which we are apt 
 to form of one another? Were they to give us 
 their catalogue of such worthies as are now 
 living, how different would it be from that which 
 any of our own species would draw up? 
 
 The Spectator. 
 
 ~ * ~ 
 
 'z^^^jy ^^^^\ jf 
 
 Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth 
 Of simple beauty and rustic health. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 How many of us are there who do not care 
 more for an artist's sketches than for his finished 
 work? Rodin's distinction lies in the fact that 
 he knows when he has said all that he can say 
 joyously, and the result, whether it is rough or 
 fine, tells its story not necessarily our story, 
 but Rodin's story. Its individuality may indeed 
 make it caviare to the general at least until 
 the " general " shall become artsmen themselves. 
 And that is just the mischief with our mechanical 
 and unindividual age. It must overornament and 
 overfinish to meet a market which shows a 
 general and inevitable lack of individual taste. 
 
 Will Price. 
 
 '33
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 What material things does a man need to live 
 under the best conditions? A healthful diet, 
 simple clothing, a sanitary dwelling-place, air and 
 exercise. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 Wisely and well spake Abraham Davenport, 
 Straight to the question, with no figures of speech 
 Save the ten Arab signs. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 Now I yearn for one of those old, meander- 
 ing, dry, uninhabited roads, which lead away 
 from towns, which lead us away from tempta- 
 tion, which conduct us to the outside of earth, 
 over its uppermost crust; where you may for- 
 get in what country you are travelling; where 
 your head is more in heaven than your feet are 
 on earth; where you can pace when your breast 
 is full, and cherish your moodiness. . . . There 
 I can walk and recover the lost child that I am 
 without any ringing of a bell. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 
 Princes have but their titles for their glories, 
 An outward honour for an inward toil. 
 
 Shakespeare.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Any simple, unquestioned mode of life is allur- 
 ing to men. The man who picks peas steadily 
 for a living is more than respectable. He is to 
 be envied by his neighbours. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 
 Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and 
 
 dust? 
 And, live we now we can, yet die we must. 
 
 Shakespeare, 
 
 
 And still to childhood's sweet appeal 
 
 The heart of genius turns, 
 And more than all the sages teach 
 
 From lisping voices learns. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 ?>> 
 
 Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth 
 A Youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown; 
 
 Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth, 
 And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. 
 
 Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere; 
 
 Heaven did a recompense as largely send: 
 He gave to Misery all he had, a tear, 
 
 He gain'd from Heaven, 'twas all he wish'd, 
 a friend. 
 
 Thomas Gray.
 
 \ 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 I should be pleased to meet man in the woods. 
 I wish he were to be encountered like wild cari- 
 bous and moose. 
 
 Of what consequence whether I stand on 
 London bridge for the next century, or look 
 into the depths of this bubbling spring which 
 I have laid open with my hoe? 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 
 What, stand with slackened hands and fallen 
 heart before the littleness of your service! Too 
 little, is it, to be perfect in it? Would you, then, 
 if you were Master, risk a greater treasure in 
 the hands of such a man? Oh, there is no man, 
 no woman, so small that they cannot make their 
 life great by high endeavour; no sick crippled 
 child in its bed that cannot fill a niche of service 
 that way in the world. This is the beginning of 
 all Gospels that the kingdom of Heaven is 
 at hand just where we are. It is just as near us 
 as our work is, for the gate of Heaven for each 
 soul lies in the endeavour to do that work per- 
 fectly. 
 
 William C. Gannett. 
 
 Never anything can be amiss, 
 When simpleness and duty tender it. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 I 3 6 
 
 Si l\ 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Yes, there is holy pleasure in thine eye! 
 The lovely cottage in the guardian nook 
 Hath stirr'd thee deeply; with its own dear brook, 
 Its own small pasture, almost its own sky! 
 
 But covet not the abode O do not sigh 
 As many do, repining while they look; 
 Intruders who would tear from Nature's book 
 This precious leaf with harsh impiety: 
 
 Think what the home would be if it were thine, 
 Even thine, though few thy wants ! Roof, win- 
 dow, door, 
 The very flowers are sacred to the Poor, 
 
 The roses to the porch which they entwine: 
 Yea, all that now enchants thee, from the day 
 On which it should be touch'd would melt away! 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 To give pleasure to others and take it our- 
 selves, we have to begin by removing the ego, 
 which is hateful, and then keep it in chains as 
 long as the diversions last. There is no worse 
 kill-joy than the ego. We must be good children, 
 sweet and kind, button our coats over our medals 
 and titles, and with our whole heart put our- 
 selves at the disposal of others. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 '37
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Aurelia, though a woman of great quality, de- 
 lights in the privacy of a country life, and passes 
 away a great part of her time in her own walks 
 and gardens. Her husband, who is her bosom 
 friend and companion in her solitude, has been 
 in love with her ever since he knew her. They 
 both abound with good sense, consummate vir- 
 tue, and a mutual esteem; and are a perpetual en- 
 tertainment to one another. Their family is 
 under so regular an economy, in its hours of 
 devotion and repast, employment and diversion, 
 that it looks like a little commonwealth within 
 itself. They often go into company, that they may 
 return with the greater delight to one another, 
 and sometimes live in town, not to enjoy it 
 so properly, as to grow weary of it, that they may 
 renew in themselves a relish of a country life. 
 By this means they are happy in each other, be- 
 loved by their children, adored by their servants, 
 and are become the envy or rather the delight 
 of all that know them. 
 
 Joseph Jtddlson. 
 
 Ceremony was but devised at first 
 To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, 
 Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown; 
 But where there is true friendship, there needs 
 none. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 138
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 The hope of pleasure in the work itself: 
 strange that hope must seem to some of my 
 readers to most of them! Yet I think that to 
 all living things there is a pleasure in the exer- 
 cise of their energies, and that even beasts re- 
 joice in being lithe and swift and strong. But a 
 man at work, making something which he feels 
 will exist because he is working at it and wills 
 it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul 
 as well as of his body. Memory and imagination 
 keep him as he works. Not only his own 
 thoughts, but the thoughts of the men of past 
 ages guide his hands; and, as a part of the human 
 race, he creates. If we work thus we shall be 
 men, and our days will be happy and eventful. 
 Thus worthy work carries with it the hope of 
 pleasure in rest, the hope of the pleasure in our 
 using what it makes, and the hope of pleasure 
 in our daily creative skill. All other work but 
 this is worthless; it is slave's work mere toil- 
 ing to live, that we may live to toil. 
 
 William. Morris. 
 
 Great thoughts hallow any labour. To-day I 
 earned seventy-five cents heaving manure out 
 of a pen, and made a good bargain of it. If the 
 ditcher muses the while how he may live up- 
 rightly, the ditching-spade and turf-knife may 
 be engraved on the coat of arms of his posterity. 
 
 H. D, Thoreau.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 All that glisters is not gold; 
 Often you have heard that told: 
 Many a man his life hath sold 
 But my outside to behold: 
 Gilded tombs do worms infold. 
 Had you been as wise as bold, 
 Young in limbs, in judgment old, 
 Your answer had not been inscroll'd. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 One must have a strong, level head, indeed, 
 to live in a great city without being dazzled or 
 led away by the glitter and show, the false dis- 
 play, and the flaunting of wealth on every hand. 
 It takes a well-poised mind and a steady, well- 
 balanced character to cling to one's aim, to keep 
 dead in earnest through it all, to keep plodding, 
 and to remain true to one's ideals. It takes cour- 
 age to live a simple, natural life in the midst of 
 superficiality, or to be true to one's self in the 
 midst of unreality, but in the final balancing of 
 accounts it is the only thing that pays. 
 
 Orison S. Marden. 
 
 i look at a piece of mediaeval work. You will 
 as a rule not find such finish as I have been 
 describing. The Gothic tracery cut in wood 
 shows the sweeping stroke of a sure but not over- 
 140 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 anxious hand. The designs of panels vary not 
 because the workman tried to make them differ- 
 ent, but because he could see no sense in making 
 them alike. The old tooled leather is simple to 
 the point of crudeness compared to the over- 
 worked leather of to-day, and yet it is infinitely 
 more interesting and splendid. 
 
 Will Price, 
 ? J& ? 
 
 How I love the simple, reserved countrymen, 
 my neighbours, who mind their own business 
 and let me alone; who never waylaid nor shot at 
 me, to my knowledge, when I crossed their fields, 
 though each one has a gun in his house. For 
 nearly two score years I have known at a dis- 
 tance these long-suffering men, whom I never 
 spoke to, who never spoke to me, and now I feel 
 a certain tenderness for them, as if this long pro- 
 bation were but the prelude to an eternal friend- 
 ship. What a long trial we have withstood, and 
 how much more admirable we are to each other, 
 perchance, than if we had been bedfellows. I 
 am not only grateful because Homer and Shake- 
 speare have lived, but I am grateful for Minott, 
 and Rice, and Melvin, and Goodwin, and Puffer 
 even. I see Melvin all alone filling his sphere 
 in russet suit, which no other would fill or sug- 
 gest. He takes up as much room in nature as 
 the most famous. 
 
 H. Z>. Thoreau.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 True, we can never be at peace till we have 
 performed the highest duty of all, till we have 
 arisen, and gone to our Father; but the per- 
 formance of smaller duties, yes, even of the 
 smallest, will do more to give us temporary re- 
 pose, will act more as healthful anodynes, than 
 the greatest joys that can come to us from any 
 other quarter. 
 
 % W ^^ry 
 
 George Macdonal 
 
 Has not everything in creation its own place 
 and hour? Who would venture to say that a 
 potato is inferior to a pomegranate? Decadence 
 set in from the moment that art, which was in 
 point of fact the child of nature, became the 
 supreme goal, and men took some great artist for 
 their model, forgetting that his eyes had been 
 fixed on the infinite. They talked of working 
 from nature, but they approached her in a con- 
 ventional form. If, for instance, they wished to 
 paint an open-air subject, they copied the model 
 indoors, without reflecting that the light of the 
 atelier had little in common with the all-per- 
 vading light of open day. Artists would never 
 have been so easily satisfied had they been moved 
 by a really deep emotion. For since what is in- 
 finite can only be expressed by a faithful record 
 of actual fact, this falsehood nullified all their 
 efforts. There can be no isolated truth. From
 
 the moment that technical merits were made 
 the first object in painting, one thing became 
 clear: any one who had acquired considerable 
 anatomical knowledge tried to bring this side 
 of his art forward and was loudly praised. No 
 one reflected that these admirable qualities ought 
 to have been used, like everything else, to ex- 
 press ideas. Instead of trying to express definite 
 thoughts, the successful artist drew up his pro- 
 gramme and chose subjects which afforded op- 
 portunities for the display of his own skilful 
 handicraft. And instead of using knowledge as 
 the handmaid of thought, thought itself was 
 stifled under a brilliant display of fireworks. One 
 artist copied another, and the fashion became 
 general. 
 
 Jean Francois Millet. 
 
 All nature is classic and akin to art; the su- 
 mach and pine and hickory which surround my 
 house remind me of the most graceful sculpture. 
 Sometimes their tops, or a single limb or leaf, 
 seem to have grown to a distinct expression, as if 
 it were a symbol for me to interpret. 
 
 Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture claim at once 
 and associate with themselves those perfect speci- 
 mens of the art of nature, leaves, vines, acorns, 
 pine-cones, etc. 
 
 H . D. Thoreau. 
 
 '43 
 
 5\BnQ ^f*J
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 If it were possible to make all understand that 
 the ideal society is not something in the circle 
 in which we do not move, or in the great city 
 which lies a little beyond our horizon, but just 
 around us in our immediate vicinity, a great step 
 would be taken toward " the simple life." If we 
 would have delightful companions, they can be 
 found in our neighbours' houses. If we seek 
 sympathetic friends, they are really amongst 
 those we already know if we ourselves are 
 prepared to give them unselfish and disinterested 
 friendship. 
 
 John Brisben Walker. 
 
 Hence, lying world, with all thy care, 
 With all thy shows of good and fair, 
 
 Of beautiful or great! 
 Stand with thy slighted charms aloof, 
 Nor dare invade my peaceful roof, 
 
 Or trouble my retreat. 
 
 Far from thy mad fantastic ways 
 I here have found a resting-place 
 
 Of poor wayfaring men: 
 Calm as the hermit in his grot 
 I here enjoy my happy lot, 
 
 And solid pleasures gain. 
 
 Charles Wesley. 
 
 144
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 The Greek, proceeding from the bosom of 
 nature, attained to art when he had made himself 
 independent of the immediate influence of nature. 
 We, violently debarred from nature, and pro- 
 ceeding from the dull ground of a heaven-rid 
 and juristic civilization, shall first reach art when 
 we completely turn our backs on such a civili- 
 zation, and once more cast ourselves, with con- 
 scious bent, into the arms of nature. 
 
 Richard Wagner. 
 
 True happiness is of a retired nature, and an 
 enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first 
 place, from the enjoyment of one's self; and in 
 the next, from the friendship and conversation 
 of a few select companions: it loves shade and 
 solitude, and naturally haunts groves and foun- 
 tains, fields and meadows: in short, it feels every- 
 thing it wants within itself, and receives no addi- 
 tion from multitudes of witnesses and spectators. 
 On the contrary, false happiness loves to be in a 
 crowd, and to draw the eyes of the world upon 
 her. She does not receive any satisfaction from 
 the applauses which she gives herself, but from 
 the admiration she raises in others. She flourishes 
 in courts and palaces, theatres and assemblies, 
 and has no existence but when she is looked 
 upon. 
 
 Joseph Jtddison. 
 
 MS
 
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 I am only a dentist. I doubt if I could make a 
 good chair without long apprenticeship. But I 
 have schooled myself to like even the disagreeable 
 features of my daily work and find the greatest 
 satisfaction in restoring the lost contour of a 
 tooth, or the lost contour of a face, by inventing 
 for each case brought before me suitable plans for 
 replacing and restoring what has been lost. My 
 work has led me into sympathy with many arts. 
 I must handle gold with the jeweler. I must 
 handle wax and plaster with the sculptor and 
 carver. I must follow the machinist and tool 
 maker in the construction of mechanical appli- 
 ances, motors, and time-saving short cuts in tools 
 made at a moment's notice to cover a special 
 case. 
 
 Percival Wiksell. 
 *> * *> 
 
 "What shall I do to gain eternal life?" 
 
 " Discharge aright 
 
 The simple dues with which each day is rife, 
 Yea, with thy might. 
 
 Schiller. 
 
 Whenever a mind is simple and receives a 
 divine wisdom, then old things pass away, 
 means, teachers, texts, temples fall; it lives now, 
 and absorbs past and future into the present 
 hour.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 
 Brilliancy is a good thing. So is genius. But 
 normally what we want is not genius, but the 
 faculty of seeing that we know how to apply the 
 copy-book moralities that we write down, and 
 as long as we think of them only as fit for the 
 copy-book there is not much use in us. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt* 
 
 
 For everything that is given something is 
 taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old 
 instincts. What a contrast between the well- 
 clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with 
 a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his 
 pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose 
 property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an un- 
 divided twentieth of a shed to sleep under. But 
 compare the health of the two men and you 
 shall see that his aboriginal strength, the white 
 man has lost. If the traveller tell us truly, 
 strike the savage with a broadaxe and in a day 
 or two the flesh shall unite and heal as if you 
 struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same 
 blow shall send the white to his grave. 
 
 The civilized man has built a coach, but has 
 lost the use of his feet. He is supported on 
 crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. 
 He has got a fine Geneva watch, but he has lost 
 the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Green- 
 wich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure 
 
 M7
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 of the information when he wants it, the man 
 in the street does not know a star in the sky. 
 The solstice he does not observe; the equinox 
 he knows as little; and the whole bright calendar 
 of the year is without a dial in his mind. His 
 note-books impair his memory; his libraries 
 overload his wit; the insurance office increases 
 the number of accidents; and it may be a ques- 
 tion whether machinery does not encumber; 
 whether we have not lost by refinement some 
 energy, by a Christianity intrenched in establish- 
 ments and forms some vigour of wild virtue. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 We are all too gross, too materialistic, too 
 earthly, to comprehend even so much as the 
 rudiments of the life of heaven. And yet it is 
 a perfect simplicity. The happy life of heaven 
 is the life of purified affections, of guileless hearts, 
 of love and trust, beautiful as those that often 
 win us so in little children. 
 
 John Page Hopps. 
 
 Beauty heightened by simplicity is ineffable 
 and nothing is so adorable as a beauteous, inno- 
 cent maiden, who walks along unconscious! 
 holding in her hand the key of Paradise. 
 
 Victor Hugo 
 
 148 
 
 \^v 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 What wondrous life is this I lead! 
 Ripe apples drop about my head; 
 The luscious clusters of a vine 
 Upon my mouth do crush their wine; 
 The nectarine, and curious peach, 
 Into my hands themselves do reach; 
 Stumbling on melons, as I pass, 
 Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass. 
 
 Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, 
 Withdraws into its happiness; 
 The mind, that ocean where each kind 
 Does straight its own resemblance find; 
 Yet it creates, transcending these, 
 Far other worlds, and other seas, 
 Annihilating all that's made 
 To a green thought in a green shade. 
 
 Jtndrew Marvell. 
 
 Let the question be, not what is popular or 
 expedient, but what is honest, and let that be 
 done though the heavens fall. 
 
 This is the rule of that best society which 
 makes no ostentatious display, and indulges in 
 no sham tastes or sham enthusiasms, or other un- 
 realities, but is distinguished by simplicity and 
 genuineness. 
 
 Samuel Smith Harris. 
 
 149
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Just to let thy Father do 
 
 What He will; 
 Just to know that He is true, 
 
 And be still. 
 Just to follow hour by hour 
 
 As He leadeth; 
 Just to draw the moment's power 
 
 As it needeth. 
 Just to trust Him, this is all! 
 
 Then the day will surely be 
 Peaceful, whatso'er befall, 
 
 Bright and blessed, calm and free. 
 
 F. ft. Havergal. 
 
 If there were only thousands of men fighting in 
 the coat of Henry Thoreau! possessing a 
 similar Spartan spirit, as upright a life, as inde- 
 pendent and simple! Have you felt the cool 
 sense of power and safety that lies in the posses- 
 sion of four or five arts or trades, such as farm- 
 ing, gardening, teaching, editing, typography, 
 wood-chopping ? 
 
 William S. Kennedy. 
 
 No man can gauge the value in English life 
 at this present critical time of a steady stream of 
 young men, flowing into all professions and all 
 industries from our public schools, who have 
 
 150 

 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 learnt resolutely to use those words so hard to 
 speak in a society such as ours, " I can't afford; " 
 who have been trained to have few wants and 
 to serve these themselves, so that they may have 
 always something to spare of power and of means 
 to help others ; who are " careless of the comfits 
 and cushions of life," and content to leave them 
 to the valets of all ranks. 
 
 Thomas Hughes. 
 
 Who doth ambition shun 
 And loves to live i' the sun, 
 Seeking the food he eats 
 And pleased with what he gets 
 Come hither, come hither, come hither! 
 Here shall he see 
 No enemy 
 But winter and rough weather. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 The simplest ideas are sometimes the most 
 incommunicable. Mankind are so prone to 
 mystery that they create it, and expect to find it 
 where it does not exist; moreover, simplicity is 
 the first thing that is lost, and the last that is 
 regained. 
 
 Jtcton.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Not his the soldier's sword to wield, 
 
 Nor his the helm of state, 
 Nor glory of the stricken field, 
 
 Nor triumph of debate. 
 
 In common ways, with common men, 
 He served his race and time. 
 
 J. G. WMttier: " Hat leek. 
 
 Be simple and modest in your deportment, and 
 treat with indifference whatever lies between 
 virtue and vice. 
 
 Marcus Jiurelius. 
 
 She walks in beauty, like the night 
 Of cloudless climes and starry skies, 
 
 And all that's best of dark and bright 
 Meets in her aspect and her eyes, 
 
 Thus mellow'd to that tender light 
 Which heaven to gaudy day denies. 
 
 
 One shade the more, one ray the less 
 Had half-impair'd the nameless grace 
 
 Which waves in every raven tress 
 Or softly lightens o'er her face, 
 
 Where thoughts serenely sweet express 
 How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. 
 
 Lord. Byron.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 fellow of plain, uncoined constancy. 
 
 Sha kespea re. 
 
 j> * 
 
 I ask for simplicity in literature, not only as 
 one of the best remedies for the dejection of 
 our souls biases, jaded, weary of eccentricities 
 but also as a pledge and source of social 
 union. I ask also for simplicity in art. Our art 
 and our literature are reserved for the privileged 
 few of education and fortune. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest 
 man has hardly need to count more than his ten 
 fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten 
 toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, 
 simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or 
 three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead 
 of a million count half a dozen, and keep your 
 accounts on your thumb-nail. 
 
 H. D. Thoreau. 
 ?>> 
 
 "^*y ^ i 
 
 Very few modern lyrics possess the singing 
 quality. The term " lyric verse," as used to-day, 
 is a misnomer. It is as intricate in form and 
 phrase as if not consecrated to the lyre by poets 
 in the dawn of art. The divorce between poetry 
 and song grows more absolute year by year; 
 
 'S3
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 composers search almost vainly through modern 
 volumes of verse for lyrics that combine the 
 melody and feeling, the spontaneity and grace, 
 indispensable to song. It is not that the modern 
 poet is unable to produce such, but that he does 
 not choose. It has gone out of fashion, to state 
 the case quite frankly, to write with a singing 
 cadence; something rare and strange must issue 
 from the poet's lips, something inobvious. Art 
 lurks in surprises, and the poet of to-day must 
 be a diviner of mysteries, a searcher of secrets, 
 in nature and humanity and truth, and a revealer 
 of them in his art, though he reveal ofttimes but 
 conceal. 
 
 Jessie B. Rittenhouse. 
 
 jlf ^^f 
 
 ^^> j^^ 
 
 ^// i K xr*"*xj"^^^^^v^^f^^^^v J ^^\ f ^^ f 
 
 Simplicity is that grace which frees the soul 
 from all unnecessary reflections upon itself. 
 
 Fenelon. 
 
 Up! up, my friend! and quit your books, 
 
 Or surely you'll grow double; 
 Up! up, my friend! and clear your looks! 
 
 Why all this toil and trouble? 
 
 The sun, above the mountain's head, 
 
 A freshening lustre mellow 
 Through all the long green fields has spread, 
 
 His first sweet evening yellow.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife; 
 
 Come, hear the woodland linnet 
 How sweet his music! on my life, 
 
 There's more of wisdom in it! 
 
 And hark! how blithe the throstle sings! 
 
 He, too, is no mean preacher; 
 Come forth into the light of things 
 
 Let Nature be your teacher. 
 
 A 
 
 She has a world of ready wealth, 
 Our minds and hearts to bless, 
 
 Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health, 
 Truth breathed by cheerfulness. 
 
 One impulse from a vernal wood 
 
 May teach you more of man, 
 Of moral evil and of good, 
 
 Than all the sages can. 
 
 Sweet is the lore which nature brings; 
 
 Our meddling intellect 
 Misshapes the beauteous forms of things 
 
 We murder to dissect. 
 
 ^2*s/&& 
 
 Enough of science and of art; 
 
 Close up those barren leaves; 
 Come forth, and bring with you a heart 
 
 That watches and receives. 
 
 William Wordsworth.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 Simplicity, innocence, industry, temperance, 
 are arts that lead to tranquillity, as much as learn- 
 ing, knowledge, wisdom, and contemplation. A 
 noble simplicity in discourse is a talent rare, and 
 above the reach of ordinary men. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 rra 
 
 O reader! had you in your mind 
 Such stores as silent thought can bring, 
 
 O gentle reader! you would find 
 A tale in everything. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 So bandaged, and hampered, and hemmed in 
 with a thousand requisitions, obligations, straps, 
 tatters, and tag-rags, I can neither see nor move: 
 not my own am I, but the World's; and time 
 flies fast, and Heaven is high, and Hell is deep: 
 Man! bethink thee, if thou hast power of thought! 
 Why not! what binds me here? Want! Want! 
 Ha, of what? Will all the shoe wages under the 
 Moon ferry me across into that far land of light? 
 Only meditation can, and devout prayer to God. 
 
 I will to the woods; the hollow of a tree will 
 lodge me, wild berries feed me; and for Clothes, 
 can not I stitch myself one perennial suit of 
 Leather? 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 156
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Language has but one function, and 
 help another to understand what passes 
 speaker's breast. What though he is surrounded 
 with the incomprehensible? Is he, therefore, au- 
 thorized to speak in an unknown tongue? Amid 
 the vague and the obscure, are there not facts, 
 principles, realities, of unutterable moment, on 
 which he and others may lay hold? Even when 
 he catches broken glimpses, he can report these 
 simply and faithfully, so as to be apprehended 
 by a prepared mind. The more difficult the sub- 
 ject, the more anxiously the art of clear ex- 
 pression should be cultivated; and the pulpit, 
 which gathers together the multitude, and - ad- 
 dresses its rapid instruction to the ear, demands 
 such culture above all other spheres. This is the 
 last place for dark sayings; and yet he who care- 
 fully studies expression, will find the pulpit a 
 place for communicating a great amount of pro- 
 found and soul-stirring thought to the world. 
 
 William Ellery Charming. 
 
 "What she could" not what she could not 
 do not what she thought might be done not 
 what she would like to do not what she would 
 do if she had more time not what somebody 
 else thought she ought to do but "what she 
 could." 
 
 IV. Jt. Shipman. 
 157 

 
 
 FHE VALUE OF 
 
 Constant discipline in unnoticed ways, and the 
 spirit's silent unselfishness, becoming the hidden 
 habit of the life, give to it its true saintly beauty, 
 and this is the result of care and lowly love in 
 little things. Perfection is attained most readily 
 by this constancy of religious faithfulness in all 
 minor details of life, consecrating the daily efforts 
 of self-forgetting love. 
 
 T. T. Carter. 
 
 Goodness and greatness are not means, but ends! 
 Hath he not always treasures, always friends, 
 The good, great man? Three treasures Love 
 
 and Light, 
 
 And calm Thoughts, regular as infants' breath; 
 And three firm friends, more sure than day and 
 
 night 
 Himself, his Maker and the Angel Death. 
 
 J. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Singleness of heart is that species of simplicity 
 which is altogether to be admired. 
 
 We want to be doing what we fancy mighty 
 things ; but the great point is, to do small things, 
 when called to them, in a right spirit. 
 
 R. Cecil.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 
 Simplicity is an uprightnes 
 checks all useless dwelling upon one's self and 
 one's actions. It is different from sincerity, 
 which is a much lower virtue. We see many 
 people who are sincere without being simple; 
 they say nothing but what they believe to be 
 true, and do not aim at appearing anything but 
 what they are; but they are always in fear of 
 passing for something they are not| they are 
 always thinking about themselves, weighing all 
 their words and thoughts, and dwelling upon 
 what they have done in the fear of having done 
 too much or too little. 
 
 F&nelon. 
 
 When I thread my way along the crowded 
 thoroughfare, leaving Carnegie Hall this morn- 
 ing, on the way to my home; or to-morrow, 
 walking down our main street, and find my 
 every sense assaulted by the din and the noise 
 and rushing, and the blare of it; when I see in 
 this New York the evidence of increased material 
 wealth on every hand, palaces going up on every 
 side, pride and vanity displaying themselves, and 
 people absorbed in it more and more, I ask my- 
 self whether it is of any use to preach the doc- 
 trine of simplicity in such environments, whether 
 it is not a preposterous incongruity to do so, 
 whether it would not be better to wait until a lull 
 
 '59
 
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 somehow takes place and the mad rush is checked, 
 and men's minds are more open to the reception 
 of such seed. But on the other hand, I cannot 
 help feeling that just because the pace at which 
 we are moving is so mad, there is bound to be, 
 there is already setting in, a reaction. The fifty 
 thousand readers of Pastor Wagner's book seem 
 to prove that there is the beginning of such a 
 reaction, that there are numbers of people who 
 are appalled at the way the current is sweeping 
 them along, and who would like to get away from 
 the rush and are considering whether it is not 
 time for them to take the helm in hand and 
 steer their own life, instead of allowing them- 
 selves to be swept away, and who are asking by 
 what chart they shall steer. 
 
 Felix Mdlcr. 
 
 Oh! look not after great things: small breath- 
 ings, small desires after the Lord, if true and 
 pure, are sweet beginnings of life. Take heed of 
 despising "the day of small things," by looking 
 after some great visitation, proportionable to thy 
 distress, according to thy eye. Nay, thou must 
 become a child; thou must lose thy own will 
 quite by degrees. Thou must wait for life to be 
 measured out by the Father, and be content with 
 what proportion, and at what time, He shall 
 please to measure. 
 
 /. Penington. 
 
 160
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 What should a man desire to leave? 
 
 A flawless work; a noble life; 
 
 Some music harmonized from strife, 
 Some finished thing, ere the slack hands at eve 
 
 Drop, should be his to leave. 
 
 Or, in life's homeliest, meanest spot, 
 With temperate step from year to year 
 To move within his little sphere, 
 
 Leaving a pure name to be known, or not, 
 This is a true man's lot. 
 
 Francis Turner Palgrave. 
 
 Bouhours, whom I look upon to be the most 
 penetrating of all the French critics, has taken 
 pains to show that it is impossible for any 
 thought to be beautiful which is not just, and 
 has not its foundation in the nature of things; 
 that the basis of all wit is truth, and that no 
 thought can be valuable of which good sense 
 is not the groundwork. Boileau has endeavoured 
 to inculcate the same notion in several parts of 
 his writings, both in prose and verse. This is 
 that natural way of writing, that beautiful sim- 
 plicity, which we so much admire in the com- 
 positions of the ancients; and which nobody 
 deviates from but those who want strength of 
 genius to make a thought shine in its own natural 
 beauties. Poets, who want this strength of 
 161
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 genius to give that majestic simplicity to nature, 
 which we so much admire in the works of the 
 ancients, are forced to hunt after foreign orna- 
 ments, and not to let any piece of wit of what 
 kind soever escape them. I look upon these writ- 
 ers as Goths in poetry, who like those in archi- 
 tecture, not being able to come up to the beautiful 
 simplicity of the old Greeks and Romans, have 
 endeavoured to supply its place with all the ex- 
 travagancies of an irregular fancy. 
 
 Joseph Mddlson. 
 
 & 
 
 Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, 
 My staffe of faith to lean upon, 
 
 My script of joye immortal diet 
 My bottle of salvation, 
 
 My gown of glory, hope's true gage; 
 
 And thus I take my pilgrimage. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 & 
 
 would desire the fair sex to consider how 
 impossible it is for them to add anything that 
 can be ornamental to what is already the master- 
 piece of nature. The head has the most beauti- 
 ful appearance, as well as the highest station in 
 a human figure. Nature has laid out all her art 
 in beautifying the face; she has touched it with 
 vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory, 
 made it the seat of smiles and blushes; lighted
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 it up and enlivened it with the brightness of 
 eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of 
 sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be 
 described, and surrounded it with such a flowing 
 shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most 
 agreeable light. In short, she seems to have 
 designed the head as the cupola to the most 
 glorious of her works; and when we load it with 
 such a pile of supernumerary ornaments, we 
 destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and 
 foolishly contrive to call off the eye from great 
 and real beauties, to childish gewgaws, ribands, 
 and bonelace. 
 
 Joseph Jiddison. 
 
 He that is moderate in his wishes from reason 
 and choice, and not resigned from sourness, dis- 
 taste or disappointment, doubles all the pleasures 
 of his life. The air, the season, a sunshiny day, 
 or a fair prospect, are instances of happiness, and 
 that which he enjoys in common with all the 
 world (by his exemption from the enchantments 
 by which all the world are bewitched) are to him 
 uncommon benefits and new acquisitions. Health 
 is not eaten up with care, nor pleasure interrupted 
 by envy. It is not to him of any consequence 
 what this man is famed for, or for what the other 
 is preferred. He knows there is in such a place 
 an uninterrupted walk; he can meet in such a 
 
 163
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 company an agreeable conversation. He has no 
 emulation, he is no man's rival, but every man's 
 well-wisher; can look at a prosperous man with 
 a pleasure in reflecting that he hopes he is as 
 happy as himself; and has his mind and his 
 fortune, as far as prudence will allow, open to the 
 unhappy and to the stranger. 
 
 Richard Steels. 
 
 f> f> ^> 
 
 Oh! be little, be little; and then thou wilt be 
 content with little; and if thou feel, now and 
 then, a check or a secret smiting, in that is 
 the Father's love; be not overwise, nor over- 
 eager, in thy own willing, running, and desiring, 
 and thou mayest feel it so; and by degrees come 
 to the knowledge of thy Guide, who will lead 
 thee, step by step, in the path of life, and teach 
 thee to follow. Be still, and wait for light and 
 strength. 
 
 7. Penington. 
 > & > 
 
 THE RETIREMENT 
 
 Farewell, thou busy world, and may 
 We never meet again; 
 Here I can eat and sleep and pray, 
 And do more good in one short day 
 Than he who his whole age outwears 
 Upon the most conspicuous theatres, 
 Where nought but vanity and vice appea 
 164
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 
 Good God! how sweet are all things here! 
 How beautiful the fields appear! 
 
 How cleanly do we feed and lie! 
 Lord! what good hours do we keep! 
 How quietly we sleep! 
 
 What peace, what unanimity! 
 How innocent from the lewd fashion 
 Is all our business, all our recreation! 
 
 O, how happy here's our leisure! 
 
 O, how innocent our pleasure! 
 
 O ye valleys! O ye mountains! 
 
 O ye groves, and crystal fountains! 
 
 How I love, at liberty, 
 
 By turns to come and visit ye! 
 
 Charles Cotton 
 
 Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; 
 A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there, 
 Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with 
 elsewhere. 
 
 An exile from home, splendour dazzles in vain; 
 O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! 
 The birds singing gaily, that came at my call, 
 Give me them, and the peace of mind, dearer 
 than all! 
 
 John Howard. Payne. 
 
 165
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 CORIDON'S SONG 
 
 Oh, the sweet contentment 
 The countryman doth find! 
 That quiet contemplation 
 Possesseth all my mind; 
 
 Then care away, 
 
 And wend along with me. 
 
 or courts are full of flattery, 
 As hath too oft been tried; 
 The city full of wantonness, 
 And both are full of pride: 
 
 Then care away, 
 
 And wend along with me. 
 
 But, oh! the honest countryman 
 
 Speaks truly from his heart; 
 
 His pride is in his tillage, 
 
 His horses and his cart; 
 Then care away, 
 And wend along with me. 
 
 Our clothing is good sheep-skins, 
 Gray russet for our wives; 
 'Tis warmth, and not gay clothing, 
 That doth prolong our lives; 
 
 Then care away, 
 
 And wend along with me. 
 166
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 The ploughman, though he labour hard, 
 Yet on the holiday, 
 No emperor so merrily 
 Doth pass the time away; 
 
 Then care away, 
 
 And wend along with me. 
 
 This is not half the happiness 
 
 The countryman enjoys; 
 
 Though others think they have as much, 
 
 Yet he that says so lies; 
 
 Then come away, turn 
 
 Countryman with me. 
 ^ LjV 
 
 Joseph Chalkhill. 
 
 What a pleasure to give true happiness to one's 
 friends by arranging entertainments, not to dis- 
 play one's magnificence nor to prove that one is 
 up to the conventional standard, but in a way 
 to make them really happy! How very rarely 
 does it enter into the thought of one who gives 
 the banquet or reception, to make this group of 
 people enjoy an unclouded hour; to seek to 
 relieve them from care and anxiety. If this 
 were the thought, many things would be done 
 which are not attempted, and other things which 
 are done would be left undone. 
 
 167 
 
 Felix Jtdle
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 The poor, it is said, are peculiarly incited by 
 their condition to envy; and yet are we sure 
 that there is less envy among the rich, that 
 there are fewer jealousies and heartburnings 
 growing out of competitions and neglects in 
 fashionable life, than spring from indigence? I 
 am not sure that there is more discontent among 
 the needy than among those who abound. I 
 incline to think, that, on the whole, there is 
 among the latter less submission to God's Provi- 
 dence; and for this plain reason, that success 
 and abundance increase self-will. 
 
 William Ellery Charming. 
 
 & ? & 
 
 It is incontestable that in striving against the 
 feverish will to shine, in ceasing to make the 
 satisfaction of our desires the end of our activity, 
 in returning to modest tastes, to the true life, 
 we shall labour for the unity of the family. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 Ply, Vanity, thy winged feet! 
 Ambition, hew thy rocky stair! 
 Who envies him who feeds on air 
 The icy splendour of his seat? 
 
 Keep to your lofty pedestals! 
 The safer plain below I choose. 
 
 J. G. Whittier.
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 Let us remember that it is the little things that 
 make up the atmosphere. The kind word to the 
 child, the little faultfinding, the little nagging, 
 it is just these little tiny things that make the 
 comfort or discomfort of the home. 
 
 Minot J. Savage. 
 * * * 
 We ought to pray in simplicity. 
 
 Marcus Murelius. 
 
 Go on in all simplicity; do not be so anxious to 
 win a quiet mind, and it will be all the quieter. 
 Do not examine so closely into the progress of 
 your soul. Do not crave so much to be perfect, 
 but let your spiritual life be formed by your 
 duties, and by the actions which are called forth 
 by circumstances. Do not take overmuch thought 
 for to-morrow. God, who has led you safely on 
 so far, will lead you on to the end. 
 
 St. Francis tie Sales. 
 
 The poor in spirit the humble, teachable, 
 simple minds that know the bounds of their 
 ignorance, that know the depths of their own 
 sinfulness, that can bear to have their faults cor- 
 rected, that can look afar off and not claim any 
 spiritual perfections that do not belong to them, 
 that are content with saying, in silence and 
 169
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 solitude, " God be merciful to me a sinner " 
 these little thought-of men, despised often both 
 by the religious and irreligious, have their place 
 in " the kingdom of God," which, as by rightful 
 possession, is " theirs." 
 
 Dean Stanley. 
 
 The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble 
 he gods. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 RETIREMENT 
 Inscription in a hermitage 
 
 Beneath this stony roof reclined, 
 I soothe to peace my pensive mind; 
 And while, to shade my lowly cave, 
 Embowering elms their umbrage wave; 
 And while the maple dish is mine 
 The beechen cup, unstained with wine 
 I scorn the gay, licentious crowd, 
 Nor heed the toys that deck the proud. 
 
 Within my limits, lone and still, 
 The blackbird pipes in artless trill; 
 Fast by my couch, congenial guest, 
 The wren has wove her mossy nest; 
 From busy scenes and brighter skies, 
 170
 
 SIMPLICITY 
 
 To lurk with innocence, she flies, 
 Here hopes in safe repose to dwell, 
 Nor aught suspects the sylvan celL 
 
 At morn I take my customed round, 
 To mark how buds yon shrubby mound, 
 And every opening primrose count, 
 That trimly paints my blooming mount; 
 Or o'er the sculptures, quaint and rude, 
 That grace my gloomy solitude, 
 I teach in winding wreaths to stray 
 Fantastic ivy's gadding spray. 
 
 At eve, within yon studious nook, 
 
 I ope my brass embossed book, 
 
 Portrayed with many a bold deed 
 
 Of martyrs, crowned with heavenly meed; 
 
 Then, as my taper waxes dim, 
 
 Chant, ere I sleep, my measured hymn, 
 
 And at the close, the gleams behold 
 
 Of parting wings, bedropt with gold. 
 
 ^^^^^te^ Lm\ V ^r J f^& 
 
 While such pure joys my bliss create, 
 Who but would smile at guilty state? 
 Who but would wish his holy lot 
 In calm oblivion's humble grot? 
 Who but would cast his pomp away, 
 To take my staff, and amice gray; 
 And to the world's tumultuous stage 
 Prefer the blameless hermitage? 
 
 Thomas Warton.
 
 THE VALUE OF 
 
 us through the common days 
 The level stretches, white with dust, 
 When thought is tired, and hands upraise 
 Their burdens feebly, since they must. 
 In days of slowly fretting care, 
 Then most we need the strength of prayer. 
 
 Margaret E. Songster. 
 
 When I consider how my light is spent 
 Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 
 And that one talent which is death to hide 
 Lodged with me useless, though my soul more 
 bent 
 
 To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
 My true account, lest He returning chide, 
 Doth God exact day-labour, light denied? 
 I fondly ask: But Patience, to prevent 
 
 That murmur, soon replies; God doth not need 
 Either man's work, or His own gifts: who best 
 Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best: His 
 state 
 
 Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed 
 And post o'er land and ocean without rest: 
 They also serve who only stand and wait. 
 
 John Milton. 
 
 172
 
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