MARCH FOURTH

It is perfectly obvious that men do necessarily absorb, out of the influences in which they grow up, something which gives a complexion to their whole after-character.
—Anthony Froude.

All common things, each day's events
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
—Henry W. Longfellow.

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.
—Shakespeare.

And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth.
—1 Samuel 17. 49.

My Father, I would remember that my life may decline from the neglect of small things; for as thou dost nourish the wheat from flakes of snow, and supply the springs from drops of rain, so thou wilt strengthen my soul from every little blessing. I pray that I may not forget to watch my habits, and keep track of the hours that culture and sustain my life. Amen.