Almost all men are over-anxious.  No sooner do they enter the world than they lose that taste for natural and simple pleasures so remarkable in early life.  Every hour do they ask themselves what progress they have made in the pursuit of wealth or honor; and on they go as their fathers went before them, till, weary and sick at heart, they look back with a sigh of regret to the golden time of their childhood.—­Rogers.

Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which we endure and generally occasion ourselves.—­Beaconsfield.

Art.—­The perfection of art is to conceal art.—­Quintilian.

Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.—­Hazlitt.

Beauty is at once the ultimate principle and the highest aim of art.—­Goethe.

Art does not imitate, but interpret.—­Mazzini.

Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto his glory.—­Longfellow.

Associates.—­Be not deceived:  evil communications corrupt good manners.—­1 Corinthians 15:20.

He who comes from the kitchen smells of its smoke; he who adheres to a sect has something of its cant; the college air pursues the student, and dry inhumanity him who herds with literary pedants.—­Lavater.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.—­Solomon.

If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to limp.—­From the Latin.

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.—­La Bruyere.

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company.  In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit.  To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there.—­Quarles.

A companion of fools shall be destroyed.—­Proverbs 13:20.

Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have it.—­Lord Chesterfield.

I set it down as a maxim, that it is good for a man to live where he can meet his betters, intellectual and social.—­Thackeray.

Keep good company, and you shall be of the number.—­George Herbert.

It is best to be with those in time that we hope to be with in eternity.—­Fuller.

Astronomy.—­The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.—­Cicero.

The sun rejoicing round the earth, announced
Daily the wisdom, power and love of God. 
The moon awoke, and from her maiden face,
Shedding her cloudy locks, looked meekly forth,
And with her virgin stars walked in the heavens,—­
Walked nightly there, conversing as she walked,
Of purity, and holiness, and God. 

                                    —­Robert Pollok.