A chance may win that by mischance was lost;
    That net that holds no great takes little fish;
  In some things all, in all things none are crost;
    Few all they need, but none have all they wish. 
  Unmingled joys here to no man befall;
    Who least, hath some; who most, hath never all.

Robert Southwell.

TO-DAY

The past did not behold to-day; the future shall not.  We must use it now if it is to be of any benefit to mankind.

  So here hath been dawning
    Another blue day;
  Think, wilt thou let it
    Slip useless away?

  Out of Eternity
    This new day is born;
  Into Eternity,
    At night will return.

  Behold it aforetime
    No eye ever did;
  So soon it for ever
    From all eyes is hid.

  Here hath been dawning
    Another blue day;
  Think, wilt thou let it
    Slip useless away?

Thomas Carlyle.

UNAFRAID

  I have no fear.  What is in store for me
    Shall find me ready for it, undismayed. 
  God grant my only cowardice may be
    Afraid—­to be afraid!

Everard Jack Appleton.

From “The Quiet Courage.”

BORROWED FEATHERS

Many good, attractive people spoil the merits they have by trying to be something bigger or showier.  It is always best to be one’s self.

  A rooster one morning was preening his feathers
    That glistened so bright in the sun;
  He admired the tints of the various colors
    As he laid them in place one by one. 
  Now as roosters go he was a fine bird,
    And he should have been satisfied;
  But suddenly there as he marched along,
    Some peacock feathers he spied. 
  They had beautiful spots and their colors were gay—­
    He wished that his own could be green;
  He dropped his tail, tried to hide it away;
    Was completely ashamed to be seen.

  Then his foolish mind hatched up a scheme—­
    A peacock yet he could be;
  So he hopped behind a bush to undress
    Where the other fowls could not see. 
  He caught his own tail between his bill,
    And pulled every feather out;
  And into the holes stuck the peacock plumes;
    Then proudly strutted about. 
  The other fowls rushed to see the queer sight;
    And the peacocks came when they heard;
  They could not agree just what he was,
    But pronounced him a funny bird.

  Then the chickens were angry that one of their kind
    Should try to be a peacock;
  And the peacocks were mad that one with their tail
    Should belong to a common fowl flock. 
  So the chickens beset him most cruelly behind,
    And yanked his whole tail