Character and Conduct – 27 January – Seeing One’s Life in Perspective

IF we wish to cultivate our higher nature we must have solitude.   It is vitally necessary at times that we should be able to get away from every other being on the face of the earth.   What thoughtful person does not love to be alone;  to be surrounded with no objects but the fields and the trees, the mountains and the waters, to hear nothing but the rustling of the foliage and the songs of the birds, and to feel the fresh breeze of heaven playing upon his cheeks?   Moreover, when we are very much in contact with human life, when we are mingling with it, we are liable to become too conscious of its turbid side, or drearily oppressed with its commonplace features.   To see human life, and weigh it in its many aspects, we need at times to go away and be as it were on a pinnacle, where we can take it all in with one sweeping glance.   Solitude can affect us somewhat as religious worship does.   It can take us out of the consciousness of where we belong, away from the ordinary selfish instincts by which we may be dominated.

Too much solitude may be dangerous, just as too much of the sense of mystery may be.   Yet something of it is essential to our advance in spiritual life.   A man must go away where he can feel the mystery of his own being.   Moreover, a certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the full growth of the mind, and it is in solitude that great principles are first thought out, and the genius of eminent men formed, for solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the real parent of genius.   Solitude, moreover, is essential to any depth of meditation or of character, and is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations.

H. W. SMITH

ONE sees one’s life in perspective when one goes abroad, and to be spectators of ourselves is very solemn.

HENRY DRUMMOND

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing the her readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.