Precept & Practice – MARCH 8 – Little Foxes

‘Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines:  for our vines have tender grapes.’

‘Little Foxes,’ by which I mean those unsuspected, unwatched, insignificant little causes that nibble away domestic happiness, and make home less than so noble an institution should be.   You may build beautiful, convenient, attractive houses- you may hang the walls with lovely pictures and stud them with gems of Art;  and there may be living there together persons bound by blood and affection in one common interest, leading a life common to themselves and apart from others;  and these persons may each of them be possessed of good and noble traits;  there may be a common basis of affection, of generosity, of good principle, of religion;  and yet, through the influence of some of these perverse, nibbling, insignificant little foxes, half the clusters of happiness on these so promising vines may fail to come to maturity.   A little community of people, all of whom may be willing to die for each other, may not be able to live happily together;  that is, they may have far less happiness than their circumstances, their fine and excellent traits, entitle them to expect.

The reason for this in general is that home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve;  it is life’s undress rehearsal, its back-room, its dressing-room, from which we go forth to more careful and guarded intercourse, leaving behind us much débris of cast-off and everyday clothing.

H. Beecher Stowe (Little Foxes)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW