Golden Gleams Of Thought

Text extracted from opening pages of book: GOLDEr GffiM OF THOUGHT, FEOM THE WOKDS OF LEADING ORATORS, DIVINES, PHILOSOPHEKS, STATESMEN AND POETS. REV. S. P. LINN, Author of Living Thouglits of Leading Thinkers. THOUGHTS THAT BREATHE, AND WORDS THAT BUEN. Gray CHICAGO: JANSBN, MoC& TJBG, & COMPANY, 1888'. TO ALL WHO REALIZE THAT LIFE IS EARNEST, AND WHO FEEL THEIR NEED OF MENTAL AND MORAL STIMULUS. ( 3) Remember that the * secret studies of an author are the sunken piers upon which is to rest the bridge of his fame, spanning the dark waters of oblivion. They are out of sight; but without them no superstructure can stand secure. LONGFELLOW. ( 4) PREFACE. THE hearty welcome extended to Living Thoughts of Leading Thinkers, and the many congratulations received from those who profess to have been not only entertained but helped by its perusal, have encouraged me, after so long an interval, to make another effort in the same direc tion. I can only hope that the second attempt may meet with as cordial a reception. S. P. L. CINCINNATI, Nov. 3 1881. ( 5) OUT whitest pearl we never find. HOLMES. It is icith words as with sunbeams the more they are di the deeper they burn. SOUTHEY. ( 6) OOUTEISTTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. FOCUSED BAYS 9 II. DIAMOND FLASHES ....... 17 III. CLUSTERED SPARKLES . . . . . .25 IY. LIGHTED FAGOTS ....... 32 V. LIVE-COALS 39 VI. WHITE-HEAT 46 VII. ELECTRIC SPARKS 53 VIII. FIRE-BRANDS 64 IX. SIGNAL LIGHTS 82 X. SIGNAL LIGHTS ( Continued) 88 XI. SIGNAL LIGHTS ( Continued) 99 XII. SIGNAL LIGHTS ( Continued) 107 XIII. SIGNAL LIGHTS ( Concluded) 120 XIV. PULPIT TORCHES 132 XV. WATCH FIRES 145 yj W ATCH FIRES ( Continued) ..... 154 XVII. WATCH FIRES ( Concluded) 164 XVIII.VIOLET-FLAMES 172 XIX. VIOLET-FLAMES ( Concluded) 188 XX. SUNBURSTS ........ 205 XXI. ECHOES 221 ( 7) 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XXII. FIREFLIES ......, . 230 XXIII. LIFE-MOTTOES 239 XXIV. FLYING EMBERS 259 XXV. NUT-SHELLS 267 XXVI. KEYNOTES 274 XXVII. MEMOEY GEMS 284 XXVIII. RARE BRILLIANTS 295 XXIX. SUMMEB DRIFTWOOD 310 XXX. SMOLDERING FRAGMENTS 327 XXXI. BURNING GLASSES 344 XXXII. GOLDEN NUGGETS 861 XXXIII. LIGHT INEXTINGUISHABLE 381 XXXIV. VESPER VOICES ....... 388 XXXV. EVENING LAMPS 399 XXXVI. PARTING BEACONS 415 GOLDEN GLEAMS OF THOUGHT. Lectio inquirit, vneditatio invenit; Oratio pulsat, contemplatio degustat. ( Heading seeks, meditation finds; Prayer asks, contemplation tastes), AUGUSTINE. i. FOCUSED EATS.' Tis his at last who says it best, A VEKSE may find him who a sermon flies. George Herbert. THOUGHT is the property of those only who can entertain it. Emerson. I LOVE to lose myself in other men's minds. Charles Lamb. WORDS only live when worthy to be said. JSulwer* WORDS are things, and a small drop of ink Falling-like dew upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. Byron. ( 9) 10 GOLDEN GLEAMS, WHAT gems of painting or statutarj are in the world of art, or what flowers are in the world of nature, are gems of thought to the cultivated and thinking. Holmes. IT is the masterful will that compresses a life-thought into a pregnant word or phrase, and sends it ringing through the centuries. William Mathers. THE multiplicity of facts and writings is become so great that everything must now be reduced to extracts. Voltaire. As the highly colored birds do not fly around in the dull, leaden plains of a sandy desert, but amid all the settings ofnature's leaves and blossoms, and lights and shades na ture's framework of their picture so there are truths which do not appear well in arid fields of philosophic in quiry, but which demand the colored air and the bowers of poetry to be the setting of their charms. David Swing* OUR thoughts are ever forming our characters, and what ever they are most absorbed in will tinge our lives. P/ iila. Ledger. IDEAS strangle statutes. Wendell Phillips. IDEAS go booming through the world louder than cannon; thoughts are mightier than armies. JKev. Dr. W. M. Paxton. IDEAS often reach th