RICHES-not Wanting. That's true plenty, not to have, but not to want riches. Chrysostom. RICHES AND AVARICE. See! satisfy the infinite cravings of man for action. According to our present modes of education, how many of our daughters are subject to an ennui-a misery unknown to the poor, and more intolerable than the weariness of excessive toil. The idle young man, spending the day The diff'rence 'twixt the covetous and prodigal ! in exhibiting his person in the street, ought Ben Jonson. RICHES AND POVERTY. When I compare together different classes, as existing at this moment in the civilized world, I cannot think the difference between the rich and the poor, in regard to mere physical suffering, so great as is sometimes imagined. That some of the indigent among us die of scanty food, is undoubtedly true; but vastly more in this community die from eating too much than from eating too little, vastly more from excess than starvation. So as to clothing, many shiver from want of defence against the cold; but there is vastly more suffering among the rich from absurd and criminal modes of dress, which fashion has sanctioned, than among the poor from deficiency of raiment. Our daughters are oftener brought to the grave by their rich attire, than our beggars by their nakedness. So the poor are often overworked; but they suffer less than many among the rich, who have no work to do, no interesting object to fill up life, to not to excite the envy of the over-tasked poor; and this cumberer of the ground is found exclusively among the rich. W. Ellery Channing. Riches do not consist in having more gold and silver, but in having more in proportion, than our neighbours; whereby we are enabled to procure to ourselves a greater plenty of the conveniences of life than comes within their reach, who, sharing the gold and silver of the world in a less proportion, want the means of plenty and power, and so are poorer. Locke. RIDICULE-Dangers of. 'Tis dangerous, too, in these licentious times, Grow by degrees approved, and almost aim at RIGHT-is Might. A man is right and invincible, virtuous, and on the road towards sure conquest, precisely while he joins himself to the great deep law of the world, in spite of all superficial laws, temporary appearances, profit-and-loss calculation; he is victorious while he co-operates with that great central law-not victorious otherwise; and surely his first chance of cooperating with it, or getting into the course of it, is to know with his own soul that it is that it is good, and alone good. This is the soul of Islam; it is properly the soul of Christianity; for Islam is definable as a confused form of Christianity; had Christianity not been, neither had it been. Christianity also commands us, before all, to be resigned to God. We are to take no counsel with flesh and blood; give ear to no vain cavils, vain sorrows and wishes; to know that we know nothing; that the worst and cruellest to our eyes is not what it seems; that we have to receive whatsoever befalls us as sent from God above, and say, "It is good and wise-God is great! Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Islam means in its way denial of self-annihilation of self. This is yet the highest wisdom that Heaven has revealed to our earth. Carlyle. RIGHT-Practicability of. It is common for men to say that such and such things are perfectly right, very desirable -but, unfortunately, they are not practicable. Oh, no. Those things which are not practicable, are not desirable. There is nothing really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-directed pursuit. There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and moral world. If we cry like children for the moon, like children we must Burke. Characteristic Streams and rivers-in fact, all watercurrents-act chiefly in a mechanical way, and their influence depends partly on the nature of the rocks over which they run, the rapidity of their flow, and the size or volume of water. If the rocks over which they pass be of a soft or friable nature, they soon cut out channels, and transport the eroded material in the state ROGUERY. of mud, sand, or gravel, to the lower level of some lake, to their estuaries, or to the bed of the ocean. Their cutting as well as transporting power is greatly aided by the rapidity of their currents; hence the power of mountaintorrents compared with the quiet and sluggish flow of the lowland river. It has been calcu lated, for example, that a velocity of three inches per second will tear up fine clay, that six inches will lift fine sand, eight inches sand coarse as linseed, and twelve inches fine gravel; while it requires a velocity of twentyfour inches per second to roll along rounded pebbles an inch in diameter, and thirty-six inches per second to sweep angular stones of the size of a hen's egg. During periodical rains and landfloods, the currents of rivers | often greatly exceed this velocity; hence the tearing up of old deposits of gravel, the sweeping away of bridges, and the transport of blocks many tons in weight-an operation greatly facilitated by the fact that stones of ordinary specific gravity (from 2.5 to 2·8) lose more than a third of their weight by being immersed in water. David Page. RIVULET-Music of the. While we view, Amid the noon-tide walk, a limpid rill Gush through the tickling herbage, to the thirst Of summer yielding the delicious draught Of cool refreshment; o'er the mossy brink Shines not the surface clearer, and the waves With sweeter music murmur as they flow. ROBBERS-Character of. Akenside. They were, in truth, great rascals, and belonged to that class of people who find things before they are lost. ROBIN-a Domestic Visitant. Grimm. The fowls of heaven, Tamed by the cruel season, crowd around The winnowing store, and claim the little boon One alone, Which Providence assigns them. The redbreast, sacred to the household gods, Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky, In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man His annual visit. Half afraid, he first Against the window beats, then brisk alights On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor, Eyes all the smiling family askance, And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is!! Till, more familiar grown, the table crumbs Thomson. Attract his slender feet. ROGUERY-Unhappiness of. After long experience of the world, I affirm, before God, I never knew a rogue who was not Junius. unhappy. Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold The acts commenced on this ball of Earth: Upon my tongues continual slanders rise; Upon which in every language I pronounce, Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. Shakspeare. Hosts raised by fear, and phantoms of a day; Astrologers, that future fates foreshow; Projectors, quacks, and lawyers not a few; And priests and party-zealots, numerous bands, With home-born lies, or tales from foreign lands; Each talk'd aloud, or in some secret place, Thus flying east and west, and north and south, News travell'd with increase from mouth to mouth : So from a spark, that, kindled first by chance, With gathering force the quick'ning flames advance, Till to the clouds their curling heads aspire, And towers and temples sink in floods of fire. Pope. RUMOUR-an Evil Messenger. Rumour was the messenger Of defamation, and so swift, that none RUMOURS-Spreading. The art of spreading rumours may be compared to the art of pin-making. There is usually some truth, which I call the wire; as this passes from hand to hand, one gives it a polish, another a point, others make and put on the head, and at last the pin is completed. John Newton. SABBATH. SABBATH-Hallowing of the. Now on earth the seventh Evning arose in Eden, for the sun The importance of the religious observance of the Sabbath is seldom sufficiently estimated. The violation of this duty by the young is one of the most decided marks of incipient moral degeneracy. Religious restraint is fast losing its hold upon that young man, who, having been educated in the fear of God, begins to spend the Sabbath in idleness or in amuse- ! ment. And so also of communities. The desecration of the Sabbath is one of those evident indications of that criminal recklessness, that insane love of pleasure, and that subjection to the government of appetite and passion, which forebodes that the "beginning of the end" of social happiness, and of true national prosperity, has arrived. Hence we see how imperative is the duty of parents, and of legislators, on this subject. The head of every family is obliged, by the command of God, not only to honour this day himself, but to use all the means in his power to secure the observance of it by all those committed to his charge. He is thus not only promoting his own, but his children's happiness; for nothing is a more sure antagonist force to all the allurements of vice, as nothing tends more strongly to fix in the minds of the young a conviction of the existence and attributes of God, than the solemn keeping of this day. And hence, also, legislators are false to their trust, who, either by the enactment of laws, or by their example, diminish, in the least degree, in the minds of a people, the reverence due to that day which God has set apart for Himself. Wayland Hark to the sailors' shouts the rocks rebound, SALUTATION-Importance of. As a man's salutation, so is the total of his character: in nothing do we lay ourselves so open as in our manner of meeting and salutation. Lavater. SALUTATION-Various Modes of. Of all the different modes of salutation in various countries, there is none so graceful as that which prevails in Syria. At New Guinea the fashion is certainly picturesque; for they place upon their hands the leaves of trees as symbols of peace and friendship. An Ethiopian takes the robe of another and ties it about his own waist, leaving his friend partially naked. In a cold climate this would not be very agreeable. Sometimes it is usual for persons to place themselves naked before those whom they salute as a sign of humility. This custom was put in practice before Sir Joseph Banks when he received the visit of two Otaheitan females. The inhabitants of the Philippine Islands take the hand or foot of him they salute, and gently rub their face with it, which is at all events more agreeable than the salute of the laplanders, who have a habit of rubbing noses, applying their own proboscis with some degree of force to that of the person they desire to salute. The salute with which you are greeted in Syria is at once most graceful and flattering; the hand is raised with a quick but gentle motion, to the heart, to the lips, and to the head, to intimate that the person saluting is willing to serve you, to think for you, to speak for you, and to act for you. Farley. Inscribed above the portal, from afar, SARCASM-Language of. Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have, long since, as good as renounced it. Carlyle. SARDONIC MAN. There was a laughing devil in his sneer, SATAN-Ambition of. Here we may reign secure; and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Milton. |