Fluency

“ There is much useless and quite vapid talking,—members making speeches without even an attempt at a new point or a new argument, to which no one listens, but which are endured with patience. It is understood that when a gentleman has taken the trouble to get a seat, and is willing to sacrifice his time, he should be allowed to air his voice, and to learn by practice to speak with fluency. ”

“ That they do, I have begun to believe, is simply because of what they bring to their travels. They bring (to repeat) quiet but unflagging enthusiasm, considerable cultivation, the habit of thoroughness in anything they undertake, excellent digestions and equable tempers. All of which lands us bump up against the inevitable platitude that invariably stands guard at the other end of almost every train of thought. ”

“ There it stands on the proud summit of human greatness, and could that colossal form be invested with life and consciousness, and think, and feel, and see, as Franklin; thought, and felt, and saw, with what mingled emotions of amazement and delight would it contemplate the changed aspect and condition of the world, and how would its throbbing heart be filled with ecstacy and wonder as its vision rested upon its own loved native land. ”

“ For, if it be reasonable to suppose and talk of faculties as distinct beings that can act, (as we do, when we say the will orders, and the will is free,) it is fit that we should make a speaking faculty, and a walking faculty, and a dancing faculty, by which these actions are produced, which are but several modes of motion; as well as we make the will and understanding to be faculties, by which the actions of choosing and perceiving are produced, which are but several modes of thinking. ”

“ If we are materialists because we do not admit the existence of a unit-faculty of the soul, but recognise several primitive faculties, we ask whether the ordinary division of the faculties of the soul into understanding, will, attention, memory, judgment, imagination, and [67] affections and passions, expresses nothing more than a primitive unit-faculty? ”

“ Her mien, her shape, her temper, eyes, and tongue,
Are sure to conquer,—for the rogue is young;
And all that's madly wild, or oddly gay,
We call it only pretty Fanny's way.
Let time, that makes you homely, make you sage;
The sphere of wisdom is the sphere of age. ”

“ As far back as I can remember, I find that my dominant faculty, the one that has been present in every crisis of my life, great or small, and which is present to-day, has been the faculty, I mean the power and the need of duplication. There have always been in me, as it were, two distinct persons; one who went, came, acted, felt, and another who looked at the first go, come, act, and feel with an impassable curiosity. ”

“ Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. ”

“ My expression arose from my being at that moment in idea a partner of your seclusion, and feeling that I should want in the same situation that energy and activity which is the support of your solitude. I am fond of society ”

“ Surely the power thus to ease the overstrained heart is one of the most delightful possessions that man can have. Dr. Flynn, I will say no more than that I sincerely trust your future career will be as creditable as your past, that your success in your profession will be commensurate to your merits, and that you may often enjoy the heartfelt gratification which I have just endeavoured to describe. ”

“ In the course of the evening, his lordship whispered to one of the flunkies to bring in some things—they could not hear what—as the company might like them. The wise ones thought within themselves that the best aye comes hindmost ”

“ In fine, I am so necessary to the making of all society and manner of life both delightful and lasting, that neither would the people long endure their governors, nor the servant his master, nor the master his footman, nor the scholar his tutor, nor one friend another, nor the wife her husband, nor the usurer the borrower, nor a soldier his commander, nor one companion another, unless all of them had their interchangeable failings, one while flattering, other while prudently conniving, and generally sweetening one another with some small relish of folly. ”

“ They are universally more influenced by firmness, boldness, and decision, than by the most sound and conclusive arguments, the most mild, inoffensive, and conciliating conduct. They are either insensible to, or regardless of, the latter sort of argument. ”

“ Spencer or any one else deny that, whatever sanction the human and relative conception of "power" draws from the inner certainties of our own sensations, that same, or a still higher, sanction can also be claimed for the conception of an infinite and eternal "Wisdom"? ”

“ Gertrude Flint was the standard by which each in my mind was measured. How could I help contrasting the folly, the worldliness, and the cold-heartedness around me with the cultivated mind, the self-sacrificing and affectionate disposition of one who possesses every quality that can adorn life? ”

“ We may therefore define character as an expression of the organization of the wishes resulting from temperament and experience, understanding by “organization” the general pattern which the wishes as a whole tend to assume among themselves. ”

“ If I see one of them talking in the street to a man who lives beyond his means, a voice within me cries, 'Will he not lead him into some piece of folly?' In short, you see that I feel myself humble and dependent enough, and am far from wishing to add a feeling of obligation towards a rich kinsman, and from turning a friend into a master and patron. ”

“ From the aptitude or inaptitude which they will here be found to display, we will, as certainly as from any other criterion whatever, arrive at a just estimation of their mental powers, and the possibility of extending to them some, or all, of the blessings of civilization. ”

“ It was daily dinned into my cars that the little things of life were the noblest, and that all the great people I mooned about said the same. I usually retorted to the effect that I was well aware that it was noble, and that I could write as good an essay on it as any philosopher. It was all very well for great people to point out the greatness of the little, empty, humdrum life. ”

“ Whichever groups of sensations within a soul awaken most readily, begin to speak, and give the word of command—these decide as to the general order of rank of its values, and determine ultimately its list of desirable things. ”

“ He was so rapidly improving in politeness, that I encouraged him by a smile. As a citizen of Sandwich, I may say that we take it as a compliment when we are told that our town is a melancholy place. And why not? Melancholy is connected with dignity. And dignity is associated with age. And we are old. I teach my pupils logic, among other things—there is a specimen. Whatever may be said to the contrary, women can reason. They can also wander; and I must admit that I am wandering. Did I mention, at starting, that I was a governess? ”

“ He saw my state of mind at once, and smiling, said, "My good Specimen, do not think we would hurt you by thought, word, or knife; you are far too valuable and instructive to us to allow one hair of your head to be hurt. ”

“ Your Quaker correspondent, sir (for here again I will suppose the subject of my letter to resemble Dr. Franklin) , praised your frugality, diligence, and temperance, which he considered as a pattern for all youth: but it is singular that he should have forgotten your modesty and your disinterestedness, without which you never could have waited for your [Pg 96] advancement, or found your situation in the mean time comfortable; which is a strong lesson to show the poverty of glory, and the importance of regulating our minds. ”

“ He looked at me with great earnestness for a moment or two, his face literally glowing with pleasure, and said, "My dear Specimen, we have to-day been moving among the higher intellects of our people, who make it part of their nature never to be surprised, and above all things never to be rude. ”

“ The human organs of hearing must in your day have been but crude instruments, if it required so much exertion on the part of the speaker to make others hear." As I now saw a number of the same type of mortals as those that had acted as my guides gliding about, I asked the Recorder what position these people occupied in society, and he said,—"These people correspond with the uneducated working classes and the people of inferior intellectual capacity of your day. ”

“ It is the lot of few to indulge their inclinations this way; and of these few, how scanty is the proportion of individuals qualified for the important task, either by original endowment, by previous pursuits and habits, or by the necessary education, or by a proper train and temper of mind! Fortunately, however, the objects of pursuit are as numerous as the taste of man is various, and something is left even to the most humble intentions. ”

“ The doctor of this village, together with his assistant, the rector, and two women living close by, are among these I speak of, besides others. Let them speak for themselves if you will not believe my word.
The phenomenon to which I have above alluded was the power, if I may so call it, of dividing herself in two, or becoming two separate beings; that is to say, of making a duplicate of herself. ”

“ It is plainly to be seen, that in view of so desirable an end, we have gone beyond what duty required of us, and have exposed ourselves with a freedom that at another time would scarcely have been consistent with the dignity of our position. ”

“ But I don't care to confess I made my money by flukes. If, having no tenderness, you have two attributes—profound cunning and perfect audacity—nothing can keep you back. I'm a common-place man, I say; but I know what constitutes power. ”

“ However, dependence upon the supreme arbiter of all things, and resignation to the dispensations of infinite wisdom are, not only our duty and interest, but also our greatest comfort. Though storms and tempests rage without, it has been, and it shall be my study to keep all within calm and serene. ”

“ I challenge the world to bring one single natural fact to militate against the principles here announced. I will debate the question with any skilled medical, legal or clerical authority, and I claim, without fear of contradiction, that the world does not hold a head whose character will differ from that which Phrenology ascribes to it, when the developments of the brain are measured in the light of these modifying conditions. ”

“ When they are considered as our own acts; in other words, when we consider our own Prudence, Bravery, Justice, and Beneficence, we have associations with them of the following kind. With our own acts of Prudence and Bravery, we associate good to ourselves; that is, either Pleasure, or the cause of Pleasure, as the immediate consequent. ”

“ You will find a varied tissue of adventures, checkered with alternate extremes of prosperity and adversity, but amidst its joys and sorrows, you will not fail to discern the hand of Almighty God leading me by his good Providence, watching over me, and making all things work together for my good. ”

“ It is my happy privilege to-night to disabuse your minds of this conception, and to present Phrenology in its true light, and I bespeak from you the thoughtful consideration which an honest man may demand from honest thinking men and women in the investigation of a practical science. ”

“ The only fence against the world, is, a thorough knowledge of it, into which a young gentleman should be enter'd by degrees, as he can bear it; and the earlier the better, so he be in safe and skilful hands to guide him. ”

“ The volitions that are driven back on every occasion and excluded, to make way for the volitional act, are variously denominated in ordinary speech and by psychologists as appetites, tendencies, impulses, affections, wishes, velleities, desires, aspirations, passions. ”

“ When such contacts happen with us it is invariably an experiment, never a matter of course. Our upper classes self-consciously regard themselves as doing something rather quaint—experiencing a new sensation, while the lower classes eye them with mixed emotions I have never been able satisfactorily to analyze. ”

“ That such a large body should exist and adhere to what were in those days considered by many to be strange notions, was a curious phenomenon, and one that afterwards proved to be a design of Providence to gradually prepare a people that might live under an altered condition of things. ”

“ I heard a woman's voice say, 'Doctor, he is better; do say my darling is better,' And then I heard a strong, kindly voice say: 'Yes, the crisis is past, I can now give you some hope, but the greatest prudence must be exercised, a relapse would have terrible results. ”

“ A member of the American Philosophical Society, founded in his own city by Franklin "to promote useful knowledge," Furness was true to the motto of the society and lived the life of a true philosopher. ”

“ If we are to attribute to man the possession of a governing attribute not possessed by other parts of the animal creation, where are we to draw the boundary line, and say "here the ego— the will—the reason—emerges"? ”

“ I yield myself, if need there be;
And yet I think, in equity,
Each should confess his sins with me;
For laws of right and justice cry,
The guiltiest alone should die."
"Sire," said the fox, "your majesty
Is humbler than a king should be,
[Pg 201]
[Pg 202]
And over-squeamish in the case. ”