Precept and Practice – JULY 2 – Atmosphere

None of us can live to himself.   For evil or good, for condemnation or blessing, we must exercise a necessary influence over others.   There is going from us hour by hour either a helpful or a baneful influence;  our conversation, our conduct, our character all breathe it forth.   And if we would have this influence to be a virtue and a blessing among our fellows, we must not only speak aright and act aright, but also be aright and think aright. For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he;  and so also, though unconsciously perhaps, is, in the long-run, his influence upon his fellow-men.

(Bishop Diggle – Sermons for Daily Life)

If we are ignorant, and foolish, if we are intellectual slaves, we spread that kind of atmosphere around us.   Is not an awful responsibility…..   laid upon us (so subtly that we often do not notice it) not to propagate error,

(G. Hodgson – The Life of the State)

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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