Precept & Practice – APRIL 8 – Amenity

He is tender without being weak, strong without being coarse, lowly without being servile.   He has conviction without intolerance, enthusiasm without fanaticism, holiness without Pharisaism, passion without prejudice.   This man alone never made a false step, never struck a jarring note. 

Dr. Watson (The Mind of the Master)

Of Joubert…..  The moroseness of age and infirmity never touched him, and he never quarrelled with a friend or lost one.   From these miseries he was preserved by that quality in him of which I have already spoken;  a quality which is best expressed by a word, not of common use in English, – alas, we have too little in our national character of the quality which this word expresses his inborn, his constant amenity. 

Matthew Arnold (Essays in Criticism)

oooOOOooo

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