Richard Green Parker

“ Mother. Yes, my dear, all the works of God are wonderful; and what is very surprising is, that many of his most wonderful works are so common, so continually before our eyes, that we do not deem them wonderful until we have been made to think much about them, by talking about them, as you and I have talked about the rain, and the clouds, and light, and its colors.
Daughter. I have been thinking, mother, about Alice and the fire. You told me that the fire did not make the heat, any more than I make the little mouse or the bird when I open the cage door and let them out. ”

“ The fire comes from the heat, my dear. Now, you know that heat is produced by rubbing two things together; and that some things, like the spirits of turpentine, take fire very easily, or with very little heat; and others, like the hard wood, require to be heated some time,—or, in other words, require much heat,—to make them take fire, or to burn. Some things require only as much heat to make them take fire as can be obtained by rubbing them together very quickly, like the wood which Robinson Crusoe's man Friday used. ”

“ LESSON XLI. What does it Mean to be Tempted.—M.H., in the Rose-bud.
1. "Mother," said little Frank, "I wish you would tell me what it means to be tempted. I heard you say, the other day, that people are tempted to do many wicked things;—pray tell me, mother, if such a little boy as I am is ever tempted?"
2. "Yes, my child, every day you live; and when I have told you what temptation is, I think you will confess that you have not only been tempted, but often yielded to temptation.
3. "To be tempted, means to be drawn by the offer of present pleasure to do what is wrong. ”

“ Now, there was nothing to produce the heat but the match, the shavings, the wood and the coal; and the heat must have been in them. The fire only served to set it free, and let it come out of the match, the wood, and the coal.
Daughter. But, mother, how did the heat get into the wood and coal?
Mother. It is not known, my dear, how the heat got into the wood and coal, any more than how the fruit gets on to a tree. We say that it grows on the tree; but what growing is, and how it is caused, are among the secrets of God. ”

“ I have heard of a king, my son, who has done more than this; but not an earthly king. Earthly kings are limited in their power; for they are but men. But the king of whom I speak is the Lord of the whole earth. ”

“ Why, the heat comes from the fire, mother.
Mother. Then, my dear, you know at least one of the effects of fire. It produces, or rather sends out, heat.
Daughter. But does not the fire make the heat, mother?
Mother. If you had a little bird, or a mouse, in a cage, and should open the door and let it out, should you say that you made the little bird, or the mouse? ”

“ What a glorious monument of human invention, that has thus triumphed over wind and wave; has brought the ends of the earth in communion; has established an [Pg 202] interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of the north all the luxuries of the south; diffused the light of knowledge and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound together those scattered portions of the human race, between which Nature seemed to have thrown an insurmountable barrier! ”

“ It is to keep us from this great evil that God has given us this voice within, to warn us not to follow temptation, though the sin appear but a trifling one, and though it hold out the promise of pleasure, as the little ship did. ”

“ There is so much real suffering in life, that it is a pity to have any which is merely imaginary; and though, while you are a little girl, living with indulgent friends, your whims might all be gratified, a constant and uniform regard to them will be impossible by and by, when you are old enough to mingle with the world. ”

“ You see, then, how useful a book a dictionary is at school, and how important it is that you should have one. If your parents cannot give you a very good one, any one is better than none.
12. But if you have no dictionary, or if you cannot find the word you wish to find in the dictionary, you must then wait for a convenient time to ask your teacher, and he will always be pleased to find that you are trying to understand the words in your lesson. ”

“ You must not regard it as your misfortune that others do not love you, but your fault. It is not beauty, it is not wealth, that will give you friends. Your heart must glow with kindness, if you would attract to yourself the esteem and affection of those by whom you are surrounded.
9. You are little aware how much the happiness of your whole life depends upon the cultivation of an affectionate and obliging disposition. ”

“ Have not you too gone about the earth like an evil genius; blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry; plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice, merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? ”

“ There is no virtue without a characteristic beauty to make it particularly loved by the good, and to make the bad ashamed of their neglect of it.
A sacrifice was never yet offered to a principle, that was not made up to us by self-approval, and the consideration of what our degradation would have been had we done otherwise. ”

“ I mean, my dear, that everything contains heat.
Daughter. Everything contains heat, mother, did you say? Why, then, is not everything warm? Some things, mother, are very cold; as ice, and snow, and that marble slab.
Mother. Yes, my child, everything contains heat, as I shall presently show you. When Alice goes to make a fire in a cold day, she does not carry the heat with her, and put it into the fire, nor into the wood, nor the coal, does she? ”

“ For even though absent from school I shall get the lesson.
For even though dead I will control the trophies of the capitol.
It is now two hundred years since attempts have been made to civilize the North American savage.
Doing well has something more in it than the fulfilling of a duty. ”

“ Having taught you how to read hard words, I propose, in this lesson, to give you a few long words to read,—not for the purpose of understanding what they mean, but [Pg 58] only to make you able to read such words, when you find them in any other book.
4. The best way of getting rid of all difficulties, is to learn how to overcome them, and master them; for they cease to be difficulties, when you have overcome them. ”

“ Blue wreaths of smoke ascend through the trees, and betray the half-hidden cottage: the eye contemplates well-thatched ricks, and barns bursting with plenty: the peasant laughs at the approach of winter. ”

“ LESSON XXXVII. How to be Happy.—Child at Home.
1. Every child must have observed how much happier and more beloved some children are than others. There are some children whom you always love to be with. They are happy themselves, and they make you happy.
2. There are others, whose society you always avoid. The very expression of their countenances produces unpleasant feelings. They seem to have no friends.
3. No person can be happy without friends. The heart is formed for love, and cannot be happy without the opportunity of giving and receiving affection. ”

“ Perhaps you will be surprised to hear that everybody learns to talk and to use words in the same way that the little Spanish girl and the little infant learned them; that is, by hearing others use them in different ways, just as the word hippoi was used in the last lesson. ”

“ In this way, that little boy will find, [Pg 25] that it is not, after all, so hard work to get what he calls a hard lesson; because all that he has to do, is to read a small portion of the lesson at a time, and to repeat the reading of that small portion until he can repeat it without the book.
8. When he has done this, he can take another small portion of the lesson, and do the same with that, until, by degrees, he has learnt the whole lesson; and then he will feel happy, because he knows that his teacher, and his parents, will be pleased with him. ”

“ Your attempts at study, instead of affording you any real instruction, have only given you habits of inattention, which you will find very difficult to overcome; for your eyes have wandered over the page, while your thoughts have been with the fool's, to the ends of the earth. ”

“ We should never read accounts of great or good men without learning some profitable lesson. If we cannot, like Ledyard, defend Gibraltar, sail round the world with Captain Cook, project trading voyages to the north-west coast, study Egyptian hieroglyph ́ics, and traverse the dreary northern zone on foot,—we can, at least, learn from him the important lesson of perseverance. ”

“ The Bible tells us very plainly how much God sets his face against disobedience. "The children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord."
16. "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of dis [Pg 137] obedience." Nor is it disobedience to God that is alone hateful in his sight; for disobedience to parents is spoken of as an evil thing, too. ”

“ LESSON XXXI. Verse, or Poetry.
1. All the lessons in this book which you have thus far read have been in prose. I intend to give you some lessons in verse, or, as it is sometimes, but improperly called, poetry.
2. There is a great deal of difference [Pg 117] between verse and poetry; but as this book is intended for those who are not quite old enough to understand all these differences, I shall not attempt at present to point them out to you. ”

“ Now, this little story is called a Fable. It cannot be true, because birds do not and cannot speak.
13. But, although it is not true, it is a very useful little story, because it teaches us a valuable lesson: and that is, that it is best to do our own work ourselves, rather than to depend upon others to do it for us; for, if we depend upon them, they may disappoint us, but whatever we determine to do for ourselves, we can easily accomplish, if we go right to work about it. ”

“ I trust that, in the solitude of your sick chamber, 'the still small voice' of your many wasted hours has made itself heard, and that hereafter you will not so utterly fail to make good use of your time. ”

“ As soon as the bundle was untied, each of the sons took the sticks separately, and found that they could easily break every one of them, and scatter them, in small pieces, all about the floor.
13. "Now," said the father, "I wish you, my dear sons, to learn a lesson from these sticks. So long as you are all united in love and friendship, you need fear little from any enemies; but, if you quarrel among yourselves, and do not keep together, you see by these little sticks how easily your enemies may put you down separately." ”

“ Temptation makes us deaf to the voice within; and yielding to temptation, as you see, my son, leads us into sin; and this is why we pray, in the Lord's prayer, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver [Pg 151] us from evil,' which is sin, for there is no greater evil than sin. ”

“ Condescend to all the weakness and infirmities of your fellow-creatures; cover their frailties; love their excellences; encourage their virtues; relieve their wants; rejoice in their prosperity; compassionate their distress; receive their friendship; overlook their unkindness; forgive their malice; be a servant of servants; and condescend to do the lowest offices for the lowest of mankind.
[The semicolon is sometimes used for a question, and sometimes as an exclamation.] ”

“ Let us continue, with humble confidence, to do what we know to be pleasing in our Master's sight. Let us work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. ”