Give to me to mind my own business at all times, and to lose no good opportunity of holding my tongue.
Help me not to cry for the moon or over spilled milk.
Grant me neither to proffer nor to welcome cheap praise; to distinguish sharply between sentiment and sentimentality, cleaving to the one and despising the other.
When it is appointed for me to suffer, let me, so far as may humanly be possible, take example from the dear well-bred beasts, and go quietly, to bear my suffering by myself.
Give me to be always a good comrade, and to view the pa.s.sing show with an eye constantly growing keener, a charity broadening and deepening day by day.
Help me to win, if win I may; but--and this, O Powers! especially--if I may not win, make me a good loser. AMEN.
AL. G. FIELD.