The Girl Wanted: A Book of Friendly Thoughts. Waterman Nixon
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The Girl Wanted: A Book of Friendly Thoughts
PREFACE
The pleasure of giving to the public this volume has been brought about by the publication of the author’s work entitled, "Boy Wanted," which he presented as "a book of cheerful counsel to his young friends and such of the seniors as are not too old to accept a bit of friendly admonition."
The warm welcome accorded that book, and the many requests it has called forth for a similar companion volume for girls, has prompted the author to prepare the series of papers offered herewith, with the hope that they, too, may find as many youthful friends (between the ages of seven and seventy) awaiting them.
In the present volume, as in "Boy Wanted," the fine prose thoughts are selected from the writings of a very large number of the world’s foremost teachers and philosophers of all times, while the author, with a due sense of modesty, lays claim to all such examples of versification as are to be found within this book.
In these days when the women of the world, with such splendid success, are writing books for the moral guidance and spiritual uplift of the men and youth of every land, an author need not feel called upon to apologize when he presumes to address his remarks to readers of the opposite sex, as did John Ruskin, to such fine purpose, in the "Pearls for Young Ladies."
Since his own mother, wife, sisters, daughters and many of his best friends belong to the feminine half of humanity, any man who is a careful observer, a logical reasoner, and an adequate writer ought to be able to say something of worth and interest to the women and girls to whom he is permitted to address himself. If in this volume the author is able to impart to others, in a small degree, the beneficent influence he has received through the splendid precepts and noble examples of the women to whom he owes so much, he will deem himself grandly rewarded for the labor of love herein set forth.
Nor is the author unconscious of the great purpose that should underlie the writing of a series of papers designed to direct the daughters of our land toward the greatest factor in the making and the perpetuity of a nation – a noble and beautiful womanhood. For observation has taught the world that —
We’re almost sure to find good men,
When, all in all, we choose to take them,
Are, nearly nine times out of ten,
What mothers, wives and sisters make them.
CHAPTER I
CHOOSING THE WAY
What can be expressed in words can be expressed in life. – Thoreau.Yes, my good girl, I am very glad that we are to have the opportunity to enjoy a friendly chat through the medium of the printed page, with its many tongues of type.
It is faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth looking at. – Oliver Wendell Holmes. Just here I have a favor to ask of you, and that is that you will consent to let us talk chiefly about yourself and the manner in which you are going to live all the golden to-morrows that are awaiting you.
The habit of viewing things cheerfully, and of thinking about life hopefully, may be made to grow up in us like any other habit. – Smiles. In a discussion of the topics which are to follow, it will be well for you to understand that there has never been a period in the world’s history when a girl was of more importance than she is just now. Indeed, many close observers and clear thinkers are of the opinion that there never has been a time when a girl was of A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any state of the market. – Charles Lamb. quite so much importance as she is to-day.
Some of our most able writers tell us that we are just on the threshold of "the women’s century," and that the great advance the world is to witness in the forthcoming years is to be largely inspired by, and redound to the glory of, the women of the earth.
The old days never come again, because they would be getting in the way of the new, better days whose turn it is. – George MacDonald. Come what will, the future is sufficiently alluring to cause you to cherish it most fondly and to determine that you will make the years that are before you as bright and beautiful and as "worth while" as it is possible for you to do.
It is a glorious privilege to dwell in the very forefront of time, in the grandest epoch of the world’s history and to feel that we are permitted to be observers of, and if it may so be, active participants in, the fascinating events that are occurring all about us.
The man who has learned to take things as they come, and to let go as they depart, has mastered one of the arts of cheerful and contented living. – Anonymous. Yet with all the grand achievements that are being encompassed in every field of human endeavor, the world to-day, needs most, that which the world has ever most needed – words helpful and true, hearts kind and tender, hands willing and ready to lift the less fortunate over the rough places in the paths of life, goodness and grace, gentle women and gentlemen.
Cheerfulness is the very flower of health. – Schopenhauer. And so here we find ourselves, just at this particular spot and at this very moment, with all of the days, months, years – yes, the whole of eternity – still to be lived!
There are people who do not know how to waste their time alone, and hence become the scourge of busy people. – De Bonald. At first thought it seems like a great problem, does this having to decide how we are going to live out all the great future that is before us. Yet, when we come to think it over, we see that it is not so difficult after all; for, fortunate mortals that we are, we shall never have to live it but one moment at a time. And, better still, that one moment is always to be the one that is right here and just now where we can see it and study it and shape it and do with it as we will.
Just this minute!
Not what has happened to myself to-day, but what has happened to others through me – that should be my thought. – Frederick Deering Blake. Surely it will not require a great deal of effort on the part of any one of us to live the next sixty seconds as they should be lived. And having lived one moment properly, it ought to be still easier for us to live the next one as well, and then the next, and the next until, finally, we continue to live them rightly, just as a matter of habit.
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come. – Lowell. When we come to understand clearly that time is the thing of which lives are made, and that time is divided into a certain number of units, we can then pretty closely figure out, by simple processes in arithmetic, how much life is going to be worth to us.
What we are doing this minute, multiplied by sixty, tells us what we are likely to accomplish in an hour.
The highest luxury of which the human mind is sensible is to call smiles upon the face of misery. – Anonymous. What we do in an hour, multiplied by the number of working hours in every twenty-four, tells us what we may expect to achieve in a day.
What we do in a day, multiplied by three hundred and sixty-five, shows us what it is probable we shall accomplish in a year.
He who is plenteously provided for from within, needs but little from without. – Goethe. What we do in a year, when multiplied by the number of years of youth and health and strength, we have reason to believe are yet before us, sets forth the result we may hope to secure in a lifetime. For it is not hard for us to comprehend that. Each day should be distinguished by at least one particular act of love. – Lavater.
If, ever, while this minute’s here,
We use it circumspectly,
We’ll live this hour, this day, this year,
Yes, all our lives, correctly.
As the work of the builder is preceded by the plans of the architect, so the deeds we do in life are preceded by the thoughts we think. The thought is the plan; the deed is the structure.
Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more; and none can tell whose sphere is the largest. – Gail Hamilton. "As the twig is bent the tree is inclined." Wordsworth tells us: "The child is father of the man." Which means, also, that the child is mother of the woman. That