Precept & Practice – MAY 31 – Humour

Few things show the true nature of a man more than his humour.   The finest humour always comes from the finest spirit.   The play of his spirit was one of the loveliest things about him.   He thoroughly enjoyed life, and when he was with congenial persons his happy spirit flowed out in sheer joy.   He was intensely human.   He was as far removed from the ascetic as a man could be.   He believed that religion meant the abundant life, the full life, not a cramped and contracted one, and in the completest way, he practised this faith.   The result was that he got into touch with all kinds of persons, and had a way of entering almost any life.   He would pass naturally and with perfect ease from the strain of work, or from solemn meditation of spirit to complete relaxation in happy innocent play, as though one were as truly a part of life as the other.

(Said of John Wilhelm Rowntree)

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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