e nice little attentions
and the carefully selected words for the stranger and the passer-by,
but have as much regard for the ones of our own intimate family
circle. We should be happy to do most for them who do most for us. One
of our students of human happiness says to us: "Get into the way of
idealizing what you have; let the picturesqueness of your own
imagination play round the village where you do live, instead of the
one where you wish to live; weave a romance round the brother you have
got, instead of round the Prince Perfect of a husband whom you have
not got." And Marcus Aurelius says: "Think not so much of what thou
hast not, as of what thou hast; but of the things which thou hast,
select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been
sought if thou had'st them not."

Culture, itself, is but a composite expression of our simple, every-day
virtues. It must be measured by its outward manifestation of
regard for the pleasure, happiness and advancement of others. Literary
culture will open up the windows of the soul that the light of virtue
from within may shine forth and dispel the darkness of vice with which
it comes in contact. "Unless one's knowledge of good books--his
literary scholarship--has so taken hold upon him as to make him
exemplary, in a large measure, he cannot be said to be cultured," says
one of our students of higher ethics. "His learning should cultivate a
choice and beautiful address, a cheerful and loving countenance, a
magnificent and spirited carriage, a refinement of manner, an
agreeable presence."

The extent to which we may feel a sense of peaceful satisfaction at
the end of a day, depends upon how we have lived that day. We soon
learn that the day means most for us in which we do most for others.
If we have lived for self alone, it has been

A LOST DAY

Count that day truly worse than lost
You might have made divine,
Through which you sprinkled bits of frost
But never a speck of shine.

"At the end of life," says Hugh Black, "we shall not be asked how much
pleasure we had in it, but how much service we gave in it; not how
full it was of success, but how full it was of sacrifice; not how
happy we were, but how helpful we were; not how ambition was
gratified, but how love was served. Life is judged by love; and love
is known by her fruits."

The every-day virtues include very many fine little traits that serve
unconsciously to ma