Jacob L. Carl Grimm born 1785.

Elizabeth Peabody died 1894.

Years rush by us like the wind, we see not whence the eddy comes, nor whitherward it is tending, and we seem ourselves to witness their flight without a sense that we are changed:  and yet time is beguiling man of his strength, as the winds rob the trees of their foliage.

    —­Sir Walter Scott.

    The bell strikes one.  We take no note of Time
    But from its loss.  To give it, then a tongue
    Is wise in man; as if an angel spoke
    I feel the solemn sound.  If heard aright
    It is the knell of my departed hours: 
    Where are they?

    —­Edward Young.

    Days should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom.  And
    the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding.  It is not the
    great that are wise, Nor the aged that understand justice.

    —­Job 32. 7, 9.

Lord God, help me to see my mistakes, and bring me to the realization of my life.  Grant that I may no longer use the time that thou gavest me to learn in, heedlessly, but to give it my best thought and care.  Amen.

JANUARY FIFTH

Stephen Decatur born 1779.

Robert Morrison born 1782.

Thomas Pringle born 1789.

    Let me go where’er I will,
    I hear a sky-born music still: 
    It sounds from all things old,
      It sounds from all things young,
    From all that’s fair, from all that’s foul,
      Peals out a cheerful song.

    It is not only in the rose,
      It is not only in the bird,
    Not only where the rainbow glows,
      Nor in the song of woman heard,
    But in the darkest, meanest things
    There alway, alway something sings.

    ’Tis not in the high stars alone,
      Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
    Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone,
      Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
    But in the mud and scum of things
    There alway, alway something sings.

    —­Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his
    handiwork.

    —­Psalm 19. 1.

Almighty God, grant that my life may no longer be a noise, but be kept in tune with the sublimest melodies, that wherever I am, there may be no discords in the songs of my soul.  Through thy loving-kindness may my songs resound.  Amen.

JANUARY SIXTH

Epiphany, or Twelfth-Day.

Joan d’Arc born 1412.

David Dale born 1739.

    ’Twas even so! and thou the shepherd’s child,
      Joanne, the lowly dreamer of the wild! 
    Never before and never since that hour
      Hath woman, mantled with victorious power,
    Stood forth as thou beside the shrine didst stand,
      Holy amidst the knighthood of the land.