There is a remembrance of the dead to
which we turn even from the charms of the living. Oh, the grave! the
grave! It buries every error--covers every defect. From its peaceful
bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can
look down upon the grave even of an enemy, and not feel remorse that he
should ever have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies
mouldering before him?
LESSON LXIII
ECONOMY OF TIME
One of the most important lessons to be learned in life is the art of
economizing time. A celebrated Italian was wont to call his time his
estate; and it is true of this as of other estates of which the young
come into possession, that it is rarely prized till it is nearly
squandered. Habits of indolence, listlessness, and sloth, once firmly
fixed, cannot be suddenly thrown off, and the man who has wasted the
precious hours of life's seed-time finds that he cannot reap a harvest
in life's autumn. Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost
knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine; but lost
time is gone forever. In the long catalogue of excuses for neglect of
duty, there is none which drops more often from men's lips than the
want of leisure. People are always cheating themselves with the idea
that they would do this or that desirable thing, "if they only had the
time." It is thus that the lazy and the selfish excuse themselves from
a thousand things which conscience dictates should be done.
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