Learn retrenchment from the starving oyster, who spends his last
energies in a new pearly layer suited to his shrunken form.
As animals which have no organs of special sense know not light or
sound as we do, yet shrink from a hand or candle because their whole
bodies are dimly conscious, thus we have a glimmering perception of
infinite truths and existences which we cannot grasp or fully know
because our minds have no special organs for them.
The prick in the butterfly's wing will be in the full-grown insect a
great blemish. The speck in thy child's nature, if fondly overlooked
now, will become a wide rent traversing all his virtues.
As mineral poisons kill, because by their strong affinity they
decompose the blood and form new stony substances, so the soul
possessed by too strong an affinity for gold petrifies.
Our principles are central forces, our desires tangential; it requires
both to describe the curve of life.
The slightest inclination of a standing body virtually narrows its
base; the least departure from integrity lessens our foundation. The
pyramid, broad-based, yet heaven-pointed, is the firmest figure. Most
characters are inconsistent, unsymmetrical, and have a base wanting
extent in some direction.
Be not over-curious in assigning causes or predicting consequences;
the same diagonal may be formed by various combining forces.
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