Don't be exacting.--An exacting temper is one against which to guard
both one's heart and the nature of those who are under our control and
influence. To give and to allow, to suffer and to bear, are the graces
more to the purpose of a noble life than cold, exacting selfishness,
which must have, let who will go without, which will not yield, let who
will break. It is a disastrous quality wherewith to go through the
world; for it receives as much pain as it inflicts, and creates the
discomfort it deprecates.

Verily, good works constitute a refreshing stream in this world,
wherever they are found flowing. It is a pity that they are too often
like oriental torrents, "waters that fail" in times of greatest need.
When we meet the stream actually flowing and refreshing the land, we
trace it upward, in order to discover the fountain whence it springs.
Threading our way upward, guided by the river, we have found at length
the placid lake from which the river runs. Behind all genuine good
works and above them, love will, sooner or later, certainly be found.
It is never good alone; uniformly, in fact, and necessarily in the
nature of things, we find the two constituents existing as a complex
whole, "love and good works," the fountain and the flowing stream.

Never give up old friends for new ones. Make new ones if you like, and
when you have learned that you can trust them, love them if you will,
but remember the old ones still. Do not forget they have been merry
with you in time of pleasure, and when sorrow came to you they sorrowed
also. No matter if they have gone down in social scale and you up; no
matter if poverty and misfortune have come to them while prosperity
came to you; are they any less true for that? Are not their hearts as
warm and tender if they do beat beneath homespun instead of velvet?
Yes, kind reader, they are as true, loving and tender; don't forget old