Precept & Practice – MAY 20 – Small Courtesies

Let us attend to the habits, tastes, and even the little whims, of those who surround us, especially when they are our superiors or our kinsfolk.   Who does not know those thousand and one details, insignificant or ordinary without doubt, but to which certain people, principally the aged or nervous, attach such great importance, that a neglect of one or other of them puts them in a bad humour for a whole day?   For example, slamming a door, running in the passages, making a noise in coming upstairs, folding a garment in such or such a way, bringing letters at a certain time, being punctual in keeping an appointment, playing one particular game instead of another, avoiding certain seasoning in preparing food, not gathering certain flowers or fruit in the garden, listening patiently to stories that one has heard hundreds of times.   An independent spirit will despise those details, saying they are minute, and in despising them will spoil all the pleasure of a person towards whom perhaps, for many reasons, he ought to pay respect and gratitude.   A more obliging Christian would accommodate himself to what was asked of him, and thus would please Almighty God, make himself loved by his superiors, and enjoy that sweet satisfaction which charity produces when joined with humility. 

From the French – Translated and adapted by Catherine M. Welby

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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