Candlesticks and incense not being portable into the maintop, the sailor perceives these decorations to be, on the whole, inessential to a maintop mass. Sails must be set and cables bent, be it never so strict a saint's day; and it is found that no harm comes of it. Absolution on a lee-shore must be had of the breakers, it appears, if at all; and they give plenary and brief without listening to confession.

Come, ye cold winds, at January's call, On whistling wings, and with white flakes bestrew The earth.

The secret of language is the secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle

God will put up with a great many things in the human heart, but there is one thing that He will not put up with in it--a second place. He who offers God a second place, offers Him no place.

I cannot but think it an evil sign of a people when their houses are built to last for one generation only.

Wherever men are noble, they love bright colour; and wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them—in sky, sea, flowers, and living creatures.

The spirit needs several sorts of food of which knowledge is only one.