Goody

“ This distinction between virtue and goodness is not understood in England: hence the poverty of our drama in heroes. Our stage attempts at them are mere goody-goodies. Goodness, in its popular British sense of self-denial, implies that man is vicious by nature, and that supreme goodness is supreme martyrdom. ”

“ DAME GOODY was a nurse that looked after sick people, and minded babies. One night she was woke up at midnight, and when she went downstairs, she saw a strange squinny-eyed, little ugly old fellow, who asked her to come to his wife who was too ill to mind her baby. Dame Goody didn't like the look of the old fellow, but business is business ”

“ For sin never goes unpunished.
But to return to Goody Two Shoes. One day as she was walking through the village she saw some wicked boys with a raven, at which they were going to throw stones. To stop this cruel sport she gave the boys a penny for the raven, and brought the bird home with her. She gave him the name of "Ralph," and he proved to be a very clever creature indeed. She taught him to spell, and to read, and he was so fond of playing with the large letters, that the children called them "Ralph's Alphabet." ”

“ As for money, he hasn't a sixpence to bless himself with."
"Mercy on me!" cried out the Goody; "he never ought to go about such a figure when he left so much behind him. Why, there's a whole cupboard full of old clothes upstairs which belonged to him, besides a great chest full of money yonder. Now, if you will take them with you, you shall have a horse and cart to carry them. As for the horse, he can keep it, and sit on the cart, and drive about from house to house, and then he needn't trudge on foot." ”

“ Learn to live, as you would wish to die.
As you expect all Men should deal by you:
So deal by them, and give each Man his Due.
As we were returning Home, we saw a Gentleman, who was very ill, sitting under a shady Tree at the Corner of his Rookery. Though ill, he began to joke with Little Margery, and said, laughingly, so, Goody Two-Shoes, they tell me you are a cunning little Baggage; pray, can you tell me what I shall do to get well? Yes, Sir, says she, go to Bed when [44] your Rooks do. You see they are going to Rest already ”

“ Barbauld in England; but in America the taste in juvenile reading was still satisfied with the older writer’s little Charles, as the correct model for children’s deportment, and with Giles Gingerbread as the exemplary student. The child’s lessons had passed from “Be good or you will go to Hell” to “Be good and you will be rich;” or, with the Puritan element still so largely predominant, “Be good and you will go to Heaven.” Virtue as an ethical quality had been shown in “Goody Two-Shoes” to bring its reward as surely as vice brought punishment. ”

“ A gentleman was once asked what sort of a looking man Goodyear was. "If you meet a man," was the reply, "who wears an India-rubber coat, cap, stock, vest, and shoes, with an India-rubber money purse without a cent in it, that is Charles Goodyear." ”

“ Goodman, who, both living and dying, had sincerely at heart the welfare of all with whom he had any concern, could not content himself to leave the world without giving to those who had been under his care such advice as he thought necessary for their future happiness. ”

“ I placed myself within hearing, and, keeping at my elbow the half-breed French interpreter, took down in pencil the following scraps from his lecture:—‘Look up at the heavens! look around you at the earth fertile with fruit, and the animals given for our use. All these show the goodness of the Great Spirit. If he were not good, much better than any of us, he would be angry with us, for we are all bad, and disobey him; he would punish, and not forgive us. But if we are good and obey him, we are happier and more flourishing here; all goes well with us. We are but half-taught children ”

“ This includes the training of the motives also, and of all the cardinal moral virtues, such as justice, honor, chastity, veneration, kindness, &c. "Teach your children," says Goodrich in his Fireside Education, "never to wound a person’s feelings because he is poor, because he is deformed, because he is unfortunate, because he holds an humble station in life, because he is poorly clad, because he is weak in body and mind, because he is awkward, or because the God of nature has bestowed upon him a darker skin than theirs." ”

“ Savant, who has gained distinction for himself and conferred honor on his country by his scientific discoveries, and your aged friend Mr. Goodman, who, though a stranger to both wealth and fame, is drawing toward the close of a long and useful life, during which he has helped to build up and give character to the place in which he lives, have, each in his own way, earned the right to some token of deference from those who have not yet reached an equally elevated position. ”

“ It appears that the most general idea which people have formed of a Gentleman, is that of a person of fortune above the vulgar, and embellished by manners that are fashionable in high life. In this case, fortune and fashion are the two constituent ingredients in the composition of modern Gentlemen; for whatever the fashion may be, whether moral or immoral, for or against reason, right or wrong, it is equally the duty of a Gentleman to conform. And yet I apprehend, that true gentility is altogether independent of fortune or fashion, of time, customs, or opinions of any kind. ”

“ So invigorating are projects of extensive Beneficence! so powerful is the energy of Public Virtue!
"Never, indeed, was the astonishing influence of plain and simple goodness more strikingly displayed, than in the deference and respect which this private and meek individual received, not only from foreign and imperious Rulers of the Earth, but from hardened and atrocious wretches, on whom Justice herself could hardly make any mental impression, though armed with all the splendour, and all the violence of power. ”

“ You are hardly serious enough. When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so. And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes. That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.
ALGERNON.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. ”

“ Every hardship he endures, every step he advances, in his wide and laborious career of Beneficence, instead of impairing his strength, invigorates his frame; instead of diminishing his influence, increases the utility of his conduct, by making the world acquainted with the sanctity of his character. Witness, ye various regions of the earth! with what surprize, delight, and veneration, ye beheld an unarmed, and unassuming traveller instructing you in the sublime science of mitigating human misery, and giving you a matchless example of tenderness and magnanimity! ”

“ Humility! What have I to do with it, O Allan? Let humility be the part of the humble-souled and lowly, but for those who reign as I do, and they are few indeed, let there be pride and the glory they have earned. Now I have told thee of the Truth thou sawest in thy vision and wouldst thou hear the Lesson? ”

“ Oh, how must our affection, the purest, brightest, that ever lighted a human breast, be endeared by our mutual calamities! But virtue is ever triumphant, virtue is never deserted of the watchful care of heaven. My trials, my lovely shepherdess, have been feeble indeed, when compared with yours. Your integrity is unrivalled, and your innocence has surpassed all that the bards have sung in their immortal lays. ”

“ I could not be checked by any fear of overstepping the modesty of Truth in the celebration of Virtue, so solid and so extensive, that the malevolence of Envy could not diminish its weight, the fondness of Enthusiasm could not amplify its effects. ”

“ I replied, with a murmur that I could not suppress, "the Man whose well-deserved praises I most anxiously expected to hear in this region, belonged not to any one of these eminent classes in human life—he had no profession but that of Humanity."
"Be patient," said the sweetest of my aetherial guides, with a rebuke that was softened by a smile of indulgence! "Let not your zeal for the honour of an individual, however meritorious, make you unjust, or insensible, to the merit of others! ”

“ How large a portion of folly, vice, and wickedness, have arisen from mere mistakes concerning this most important of human qualities! so important, that the real dignity of man can only rise in proportion as this virtue is perfectly understood, and properly cherished! In the same proportion, let me add, our courageous Philanthropist will be found entitled to the praise of every upright mind, to the homage of every feeling heart.
"If we take the word Courage" in the most common and simple sense of that term, as a generous and noble contempt of personal hardship and danger ”

“ Grant that I may take nothing to myself of all the good done, but thank Thee with humble joy for having used such an one as myself to promote Thy glory. Grant that my rejoicing may be in Thee; so, in profiting others, shall mine own soul be profited. ”

“ There are others, tried and true and firm believers in my innocence, who have offered me freedom, but my honor would not be clear. There is just one way out of the present coil, and that road leads up the scaffold—and down again. ”

“ Her Memoirs are dated at the “Prison of St. Pelagie, August 9th, 1793,” and she thus commences: “Daughter of an artist, wife of a philosopher, who, when a minister of state, remained a man of virtue; now a prisoner, destined, perhaps, to a violent and unexpected death,—I have known happiness and adversity; I have learned what glory is, and have suffered injustice. Born in an humble condition, but of respectable parents, I passed my youth in the bosom of the arts, and amidst the delights of study; knowing no superiority but that of merit, no grandeur but that of virtue.” ”

“ Was there possible such a thing as goodness in men, a goodness that was not stuffy and hateful? Like most young men I had a contempt of goodness. Had I been making a mistake? The man before me now did not, like Judge Turner, say wise and witty things that remained fixed in the mind and that could afterward be passed off in conversations as one’s own. Later in New York and in other American cities I was to see a good many men of a sort not unlike Judge Turner but few like Alonzo Berners. ”

“ In the last chapter have been exhibited specimens of gentility, so considered by different classes; by one class, power, youth, and epaulets are considered the ne plus ultra of gentility; by another class, pride, stateliness, and title; by another, wealth and flaming tawdriness. But what constitutes a gentleman? It is easy to say at once what constitutes a gentleman, and there are no distinctions in what is gentlemanly, [316] as there are in what is genteel. ”

“ Draw nigh, goodman and grandsire, and take again the house and lands of Wethermel, as ye had them aforetime before yesterday was a day. So the goodman came to him and kissed him, and thanked him kindly and humbly, and the women came and embraced him and hung about him. ”

“ If I did, Joey, I should no longer be happy, no longer be my own master, and do as I please; in fact, I should no longer be the gentleman, that is, the gentleman by profession, as near as I can be one—the man who has his liberty, and enjoys it. ”

“ For the poor and the famished doth kindness prepare
A world of diversion and excellent fare.
To swing in the hammock, disport in the breeze,
To lie in the shade of magnificent trees—
Oh, this is like quaffing from luxury's bowl
The life-giving essence for body and soul!
[Pg 33] Nor distance nor time shall efface from the mind
The influence gentle, the ministry kind;
While gratitude fondly enhallows the thought
Of a home and a holiday never forgot.
Ah, one is remembered of saintliest men
To lovely Geneva who comes not again ”

“ In another way the useful is called good, not on account of its pleasing, but of its doing good. All which, therefore, is righteousness, being a good thing, both as virtue and as desirable for its own sake, and not as giving pleasure ”

“ She went up to him and put her beautiful face close to his disturbed one. "Are you so different from the men of our world, Monsieur, or is it only those grand yeux of yours, with their serious expression, that make you seem different—and better?" ”

“ Thus I begin: “All is not gold that glitters, “Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters. “When Ignorance enters, Folly is at hand: “Learning is better far than house and land. “Let not your virtue trip; who trips may stumble, “And virtue is not virtue, if she tumble.” I give it up—morals won’t do for me; To make you laugh, I must play tragedy. One hope remains—hearing the maid was ill, A Doctor comes this night to show his skill. ”

“ One could see at a look that he considered himself a gentleman, that he lived in the country, and that the highest exercise of his gentility had been to stalk about from one mud-hole to another, with his hands in his pockets. ”

“ Then the town pitied their want of wisdom in taking such a step. 'Rashness; they would have made a better income in Hocbridge, where they are known! There is no doubt that they would.'
But what is Wisdom really? A steady handling of any means to bring about any end necessary to happiness.
Yet whether one's end be the usual end--a wealthy position in life --or no, the name of wisdom is seldom applied but to the means to that usual end. ”