He that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. Be temperate in all things. Watch against anger, neither speak nor act in it; for, like drunkenness, it makes a man a beast, and throws people into desperate inconveniences. Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise; Next, my children, be temperate in all things; Be also plain in your apparel; The heart of the wicked is little worth. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. It is not enough to speak, but to speak true. Speak not evil of any man. dying prayers. Be sure you speak no evil of any, no, Be no busybodies; meddle not with other folk's In your families remember Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, their integrity to the Lord; and do as you have them for examples. Let the fear and service of the Living God be encouraged in your houses, and that plainness, sobriety, and moderation in all things as becometh God's chosen people; and as I advise you, my dear children, do you counsel yours if God should give you any. Yea, I counsel and command them as my posterity, that they love and serve the Lord God with an upright heart, that He may bless you and yours from generation to generation. And as for you, who are likely to be concerned in the government of Pennsylvania, and my parts of East Jersey, especially the first, I do charge you before the Lord God and His holy angels, that you be lowly, diligent, and tender, fearing God, loving the people, and hating covetousness. Let justice have its impartial course, and the law free passage. Though to your loss, protect no man against it; for you are All pride is willing pride. Truth hath better deeds, than words, to grace it. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due. Be not afraid of sudden fear. not above the law, but the law above you. Live there- Oh! the Lord is a strong God, and he can do Finally, my children, love one another with a true endeared love, and your dear relations on both sides, and take care to preserve tender affection in your children to each other. So farewell to my thrice dearly-beloved wife and children! Yours, as God pleaseth, in that which no waters can quench, no time forget, nor distance wear away, but remains for ever, WILLIAM PENN. Worminghurst, fourth of sixth month, 1682. The tongue of the just is as choice silver. The path of the just is as a shining light. Duties cannot have too much diligence. Well begun is half done. ACTIVITY NOT ALWAYS ENERGY. HERE are some men whose failure to succeed in life is a problem to others, as well as to themselves. They are industrious, prudent, and economical; yet, after a long life of striving, old age finds them still poor. They complain of ill-luck; they say fate is against But the real truth is that their projects miscarry because they mistake mere activity for energy. Confounding two things essentially different, they suppose that if they are always busy, they must of a necessity be advancing their fortune; forgetting that labour misdirected is but a waste of activity. them. The person who would succeed in life is like a marksman firing at a target-if his shot misses the mark, it is but a waste of powder; to be of any service at all, it must tell in the bull's-cye or near it. So, in the great game of life, what a man does must be made to count, or it had almost as well be left undone. The idle warrior, cut from a block of wood, who fights the air on the top of a weather-cock, instead of being made to turn some machine commensurate with his strength, is not more worthless than the merely active man who, though busy from sunrise to sunset, dissipates his labour on trifles, when he ought skilfully to concentrate it on some great end. Some look up, others look down. Boast not thyself of to-morrow. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. Never venture, never win. Every person knows some one in his circle of cases, what is done is either not done at the right Energy, correctly understood, is activity propor- Look before you leap. To everything there is a season. |