FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH
Montaigne born 1533.
Mary Lyon born 1797.
Sir John Tenniel born 1820.
Soul, rule thyself; on passion,
deed, desire,
Lay thou the laws of thy deliberate
will.
Stand at thy chosen post,
Faith’s sentinel:
Though Hell’s lost legions
ring thee round with fire,
Learn to endure.
—Arthur Symonds.
The confidence in another
man’s virtue is no slight evidence of a
man’s own, and God willingly
favors such a confidence.
—Montaigne.
Though a host should encamp
against me,
My heart shall not fear:
Though war should rise against
me,
Even then will I be confident.
—Psalm 27. 3.
My Father, may I ever be kept in remembrance of my virtue, and may I be sensitive to its strength. As I go on my way, keep me within control of the impetuous desires of my nature, and in call of the duties and obligations of my daily life. Amen.
FEBRUARY TWENTY-NINTH
Anne Lee born 1736.
G.A. Rossini born 1792.
John Landseer died 1852.
Happy is he and more than
wise
Who sees with
wondrous eyes and clean
This world through all the
gray disguise
Of sleep and custom
in between.
—G.K. Chesterton.
In the morning, when thou findest thyself unwilling to rise, consider with thyself presently, if it is to go about a man’s work that I am stirred up. Or was I made for this, to lay me down, and make much of myself in a warm bed.
—Marcus Aurelius.
Arise and be doing, and Jehovah be with thee.
—1 Chronicles 22. 16.
Gracious Father, help me to take of the wealth of my day, while it is in season, and accessible. May I not be ignorant of the abundance in which I live, and be found in overwhelming regret. Forgive me for all that I have missed in life, and make me more watchful of that which is to come. Amen.
MARCH
Spring still makes spring
in the mind,
When sixty years
are told;
Love makes anew this throbbing
heart,
And we are never
old.
Over the winter glaciers,
I see the summer
glow,
And through the wild-piled
snowdrift
The warm rosebuds
below.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson.
MARCH FIRST
Alexander Balfour born 1767.
Frederick Francois Chopin born 1809.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens born 1848.
William Dean Howells born 1837.