orners.

There have been neighborhood Angels, who watched beside the dying
sinner, sustained orphans and widows, and endured great troubles
sublimely like martyrs. But if a dusty shoe trod upon a freshly washed
floor, or husband or child came tardily to the breakfast-table, or
lingered outside the door after regulation hour for retiring--lo, the
Angel became a virago, or a droning mosquito with persistent sting.

The New Philosophy demands serenity and patience through small trials,
as well as fortitude in meeting life's larger ills.

It demands, too, that we seek to avoid giving others unnecessary
irritation by a thoughtless disregard of the importance of trifles.

A man is more likely to keep calm if he wakes in the night and
discovers that the house is on fire, than he is if, on being fully
prepared to retire, he finds the only mug on the third story is missing
from his wash-stand, or the cake of toilet-soap he asked for the day
before has been forgotten.

A mother bears the affliction of a crippled child with more equanimity
than she is able to bring to bear upon the continual thoughtlessness of
a strong one.

To be kind, means to be thoughtful.

The kindest and most loving heart will sometimes forget and be
careless; but it cannot be perpetually forgetful and careless of
another's wishes and needs, even in the merest trifles.

Concentration

The New Thought includes _concentration of thought_, in its teaching;
and he who learns that important art is not liable to frequently forget
small or large duties.

It is he who scatters, instead of concentrates his mind powers, who
keeps himself and others in a state of continual irritation by
forgetting, mislaying, and losing, three petty vices which do much to
mar domestic or business life.

Concentration is a most difficult acquirement for the mature mind which
has been allowed to grow in the habit of thought scattering.

Wise is the mother, and as sure as wise, who teaches her child to
finish each task begun before attempting another, for that is the first
step in concentration.

Prentice Mulford, that great and good pioneer in the field of practical
New Thought, tells us to apply our whole mental powers to whatever we
do, even if it is merely the tying of a shoe, and to think of nothing
else until that shoe is tied, then to utterly forget the shoe string,
when we turn to another duty or employment. The next lesson in
concentration he gives us, is