June 15
Be still and know
Companions of the Way (Morning)SILENCE and Secrecy! Altars might still be raised to them (were this an altar-building time) for universal worship. Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full formed and majestic, into the daylight of life, which they are henceforth to rule. . . . All the considerable men I have known . . . forbore to babble of what they were creating and projecting. Nay, in thy own mean perplexities, do thou thyself but hold thy tongue for one day: on the morrow how much clearer are thy purposes and duties; what wreck and rubbish have those mute workmen within thee swept away, when intrusive noises were shut out! . . . Speech too is great, but not the greatest. . . . Speech is silvern, Silence is golden; . . . Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity.
THOMAS CARLYLE
LISTENING