that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and God in him! Then we should have no need to be
told to cultivate sweetness and light, for they would seem to us the only
temper which could make life tolerable in any corner of the universe.

_Essay on the Critical Spirit_. 1871.

The Contemplative Life. April 18.

"Woman is no more capable than man of living on mere contemplation. We
must have an object to whom we may devote the fruits of thought, and
unless we have a real one in active life we shall be sure to coin one for
ourselves, and spend our spirits on a dream."

"True, true," chimed in the counsellor, "spirit is little use without
body, and a body it will find; and therefore, unless you let people's
brains grow healthy plants, they will grow mushrooms."

_MS. unfinished Story_. 1843.

Sudden Death. April 19.

"What better can the Lord do for a man, than take him home when he has
done his work?"

"But, Master Yeo, a sudden death?"

"And why not a sudden death, Sir John? Even fools long for a short life
and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a short death
and a merry one? Let it come as it will to old Yeo!"

_Westward Ho_! chap. xxxii. 1855.

Prayer and Praise. April 20.

Pray night and day, very quietly, like a little weary child, to the good
and loving God, for everything you want, in body as well as soul--the
least thing as well as the greatest. Nothing is too much to ask God
for--nothing too great for Him to grant: glory be to Thee, O Lord! And
try to thank Him for everything . . . I sometimes feel that eternity
will be too short to praise God in, if it was only for making us live at
all! And then not making us idiots or cripples, or even only ugly and
stupid! What blessings we have! Let us work in return for them--not
under the enslaving sense of paying off an infinite debt, but with the
delight of gratitude, glorying that we are God's debtors.

_Letters_. 1843.

The Divine Spark. April 21.

Man? I am a man, thou art a woman--not by reason of bones and muscles,
nerves and brain, which I have in common with apes, and dogs, and
horses--I am a man, thou art a man or woman, not because we have a flesh,
God forbid! but because there is a spirit in us, a divine spark and ray
which nature did not give, and which nature cannot take away. And
therefore, while I live on earth, I will live to the spirit, not to the
flesh, that I may be indeed a m