Precept & Practice – MAY 8 – Castles in the Air

There are a good many people who build castles in the air, cloud-capped, and live in hovels…..

There is the castle of joy – the castle some call personal happiness, others, an ideal harmony between the self and the environment.   Whatever we call it, we all long for it.   It is not perhaps the loftiest castle, but it is full of exquisite surprises, with orchards and rose-gardens, and everywhere a sense of home.   Within its walls we are glad at heart, with a gladness that does not pall.   We accomplish noble work  and do not season it with blunders.   There is a wonderful charm about us, and we are rich in friends, also we are supremely necessary to the people we love best.   It is easy to be good in that castle, and our goodness becomes phenomenal:  we mellow like sun-kissed peaches.   Our true selves are set free, and God and man have a chance of seeing what we really are like.

Meanwhile, in daily life, we sit in desolation, and say that it is quite impossible to build up real happiness out of the little things that surround us.   Other people have the great things, the gifts and opportunities and human love and recognition, poured out in fullest measure.   These are the porphyry marble, and granite:  we are left with rubble and clay.

It is a mistake.   We are never forced back from the great things upon the little things, but we are being forced back perpetually from the little things upon the greatest things of all.   If we open our eyes and see, nothing is really wanting, except the resolve to build. 

May Kendal

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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