enough the fault is their own, but more frequently that of their early training.-REV. DAVID BEARNE, S.J. Every man should remember that his life will be the happier for making habits to be his allies, smoothing his pathway, instead of enemies that heap up barriers in the way. Whatever we do regularly, we soon do easily, and at last pleasurably. The full joy of one's work never comes until the working becomes habitual, until the action is automatic, and almost unconscious. This principle is illustrated in the persons of those pianists who have achieved supreme excellence and gained world-wide fame. They all tell us that in the beginning of their career their path was irksome, that with difficulty they found the keys, that they followed the musical score slavishly, and that for a long time some invisible demon seemed to make their fingers always strike a discord. With practice, however, came ease, and the fingers began to think for themselves. Education is not confined to the brain. Wherever there is a nerve, there lies hidden the susceptibility of education. And so, through incessant practice, the nerves gained power, habits became allies, and at length they needed no light to shine on the page; they needed no page to watch; but they sat with closed eyes in the dim twilight and the fingers unconsciously missed all the discords, hit all the melodies, and, at their call, up came all the spirits that dwell in the realm of sweet sound. When work has reached the stage that by the long practice it is habitual and automatic, the hours of work become the hours of one's greatest happiness. Every author understands the principle. At the beginning he urged himself to the task; he worked fitfully, feared that he must wait for the spirit to move; but at last, through his attention to habit, the time came when, at the stroke of nine, his intellect began to work, his imagination kindled into a glow, creative work became a delight, and happiness was diffused throughout his entire being.-ANON. One secures happiness for oneself only by endeavouring to secure it for others.-BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE. Happiness in its full extent is the utmost pleasure we are capable of.-LOCKE. The secret of happiness lies in this: our regarding those who are more unfortunate than ourselves.-G. PICOT. Happiness consists in the possession of a lot in harmony with our faculties.-MADAME DE STAËL. The elements of happiness are: a good conscience, honesty of purpose, and uprightness of conduct.-SENECA. True happiness, so far as we are concerned, is something negative; it consists above all in the absence of evil.-MADAME DU DEFFANT. Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose.-COWPER. Happiness! 'Tis that smiling cottage, its thatched roof all covered with moss and blooms. It must be viewed from without; once you enter, you behold it no longer.-ALPHONSE KARR. How many we would make happy if we persuaded them that they are happy.-FREMY. To happiness nothing contributes so little as wealth, or so much as health.-SCHOPENHAUER. Happiness is a ball that we run after while 'tis rolling and start again when it stops.-MADAME DE PUYSIEUX. Our happiness is only our misery more or less comforted.— DENIS. True happiness contains as much of abnegation as of pleasure. -MAXIME DU CAMP. Men's happiness and misery depend not less on their humour than on Fortune.-LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. The happiness of comforting the afflicted is the greatest we can taste in this life.-MADAME DE GENLIS. In strictness, any condition may be denominated happy in which the amount or aggregate of pleasure exceeds that of pain; and the degreee of happiness depends upon the quantity of this excess.-PALEY. Men disagree exceedingly in their opinions as to that which constitutes happiness: nay, the same man sometimes places it in one thing, sometimes in another-in health or in riches, according as he happens to be sick or poor.-GROTE. O happiness, our being's end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content, whate'er thy name; A well-known doctor of Minneapolis, who has made a speciality of nervous diseases, has found a new remedy for the blues.' "If you keep the corners of your mouth turned up, you can't feel blue." The directions for taking are: "Smile, keep on smiling, don't stop smiling." It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well, just try turning up the corners of your mouth, regardless of your mood, and see how it makes you feel. The doctor treats his nervous patients to medicine when necessary, but when the case is one of pure melancholy, without bodily fill, he simply recommends the smile cure. He makes the patient remain in his office and smile. If it isn't the genuine article, it must at least be an upward curvature of the corners of the mouth, and the better feelings follow inevitably.-ANON. It is certainly very curious how rarely we stop to reflect upon the duty of being conscious of our happiness, of being pleasant, in fact, for the sake of other people's happiness. And it is so simple a duty, too, always at our hand! Perhaps just pleasantness has not a very heroic sound; but the human heart that, knowing its own bitterness, can yet carry itself cheerfully, is not without heroism. Indeed, if that human heart does no more than hold its tongue about its own aches and pains, it has a certain moral value that the world cannot afford to lose. "Pleasantness" does not sound as well as self-sacrifice or wisdom or spirituality, but it may include all these great words.-MARGARET DELAND. A LESSON FROM A PROOF-SHEET It soon a very different aspect wears. Even so some lives, if we but lightly scan, R. M. SILLARD. NOTES ON NEW BOOKS 1. Tales of Fairy Folks, Queens and Heroes. By Alice Furlong. Dublin, Belfast and Cork: Browne & Nolan. Ltd. Price 2s. This book catches our interest at once, not so much by its frontispiece as by its dedication. "To Douglas Hyde, whose wand of magic has opened again to us the gates of glass in loughs and seas and the fairy portals of green, green hills in Eirinn; to George Sigerson, who has sung for us the music of the raths; and to Eleanor Hull, chanting her tale of longforgotten kings and queens and heroes, to the measure in which winds blow and waters run; to these three of one heart, as to an Irish Shamrock, this little book is dedicated." It is worthy of such dedication, for it is Irish genius in a very Irish form. Wonderful ingenuity and liveliness of imagination have been shown in devising and weaving together the rapid succession of incidents that make up each of the eleven stories; and the incidental little touches of description, often limited to a phrase or an epithet, could only have been given by a poet such as the author of Roses and Rue had already proved herself to be. Her exquisite prose is rendered still more fresh and original by the skilful adoption of that Gaelic idiom which was in great measure the secret of the spell exercised by the late "Fiona Macleod." To one prosaic critic who demurred to this innovation this answer was given. "First, that idiom itself appeals strongly to me. It seems to me vigorous and fresh after effete and hackneyed modes of English speech which have been written and spoken ad nauseam. Secondly, I wanted to keep all personal note out of the book, to make the tales sound as they might sound from the mouth of an old Connaught story-teller sitting in the twilight over a turf fire. And lastly -though it does not really rank last with me--I use this fine, strenuous Anglo-Irish idiom, because it is a help to all who aspire towards making Irish a living tongue again. Irish construction, difficult in itself, becomes easy if we are familiar with Anglo-Irish idiom-which is, mainly, Irish literally translated or English following some law of Irish speech." We are curious to see the reception given by the critics and the public to this remarkable little work, which is much more than a story-book for children. 2. Sodality of Our Lady. Hints and Helps for those in Charge. By Father Elder Mullan, S.J. New York: P. J. Kennedy & Sons. London: R. & T. Washbourne. 1907. Pp. xv.+242. Price 4s. There are few organizations in the Church of greater importance than the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In schools and colleges such as that in which it began originally, and still more in town and country parishes, what an efficient instrument it is for the sanctification of souls!-how many sins it prevents, what virtuous lives it renders possible! How many millions of souls are affected by the blessed influence of those daughters of Eve who become the Children of Mary! Happy, indeed, is Father Elder Mullan in having secured in this glorious work such a share as he has gained by the present book and by the new Sodality Manual previously published, The Book of the Children of Mary. The latter is intended for public and private use among the Sodalities, but these Hints and Helps are addressed not to the members of the Sodality, but to those who are in charge of it. For Father Directors and Directresses of Sodalities it will be exceedingly useful and interesting. No doubt the local circumstances will in many cases be different from those that Father Mullan has in view; but his suggestions are sure to be stimulating and instructive even for those directors who will find it necessary to modify considerably in practice the arrangements suggested. This book is the first of its kind. It fulfils its aim admirably. 3. The Story of Our Lord for Children. By Katharine Tynan. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker. This beautifully printed, well illustrated, and neatly bound little book tells simply and fully the events of the earthly life of our Divine Redeemer, and gives many of His wonderful lessons and parables. Mrs. Hinkson uses the exact words of Scripture as far as she can, abridging the narrative with great skill. Any child who has fairly mastered these 170 small pages will already have acquired a substantial knowledge of the divinest of books, the New Testament, and laid a good foundation for solid religious instruction. 4. Home for Good. By Mother Mary Loyola, of the Bar Convent, York. London: Burns & Oates. Price 3s. 6d. This is the newest of the many admirable books that of late years have issued from the old historical convent of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin at York-an Order that is represented in Ireland by Loretto Abbey, Rathfarnham, and its numerous off-shoots from Killarney in the south to Letterkenny in the north. Like its predecessors, Home for Good has the great advantage of being edited by Father Herbert |