Precept and Practice – OCTOBER 17 – The Final Touchstone of Character

When they talk to me in praise of the rich Rothschild, who gives away thousands out of his enormous income that children may be educated, sick people clothed, and old people cared for, I am touched, and I praise him too.   Only in spite of my being touched, and in spite of my praise, I cannot help remembering some poor labouring people who took into their wretched cottage a little girl, who was kin to them, and had been left an orphan.   ‘If we take Kitty into our home,’ said the wife, ‘our last penny will go for her keep.   We shan’t be able to buy even salt for our porridge.’   ‘Well, then, let us eat it without salt,’ said the man.   There is a long step between Rothschild and that labourer.

‘He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.’

Turgenev

Money is, in the use men make of it, the final touchstone of character.

Bishop Potter

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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