But to live:  every day to live out
      All the truth that he dreamt,
    While his friends met his conduct with doubt,
      And the world with contempt.

    Was it thus that he plodded ahead,
      Never turning aside? 
    Then we’ll talk of the life that he led. 
      Never mind how he died.

    —­Ernest Crosby.

    For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the
    Lord Jehovah:  wherefore turn yourselves, and live.

    —­Ezekiel 18. 32.

Almighty God, help me to live an upright life.  Give me courage to abandon useless customs, and seeming duties that keep me from perfecting my life.  Amen.

MARCH ELEVENTH

Torquato Tasso born 1544.

Alexander Mackenzie died 1820.

Henry Drummond died 1897.

There is nothing that is puerile in nature; and he who becomes impassioned of a flower, a blade of grass, a butterfly’s wing, a nest, a shell, wraps around a small thing that always contains a great truth.  To succeed in modifying the appearance of a flower is insignificant in itself, if you will; but reflect upon it for however short a while and it becomes gigantic.

    —­Maurice Maeterlinck.

    O world, as God has made it!  All is beauty: 
    And knowing this, is love, and love is duty: 
    What further may be sought for or declared?

    —­Robert Browning.

    Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,
    neither do they spin:  yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all
    his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

    —­Matthew 6. 28, 29.

Creator of all, I do know that if I may hold myself close enough, I can hear restful music through the breeze, and find secrets in the flowers and leaves.  I rejoice that thou hast made the woods and rivers that thou dost love, so I too might possess them, and not be a tenant of them only.  May I look and study deeper the things which bring me closer to thee.  Amen.

MARCH TWELFTH

Cesare Borgia killed 1507.

Bishop Buckley born 1684.

Simon Newcomb born 1835.

    Among the happiest and proudest possessions of a man is his
    character.  It is a wreath, it is a bank in itself.  What is the
    essence and life of character?  Principle, integrity, independence.

    —­Bulwer Lytton.

    No great genius was ever without some mixture of madness, nor can
    anything grand or superior to the voice of common mortals be spoken
    except by the agitated soul.

    —­Aristotle.

    Handsome is that handsome does.

    —­Oliver Goldsmith.

    Since thou hast been precious in my sight, and honorable, and I have
    loved thee; therefore will I give men in thy stead, and peoples
    instead of thy life.