C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Meditation
He is divinely bent on meditation.
Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy.
In maiden, meditation, fancy-free.
Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit.
Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass, whereby, in her long remove, she discerneth God, as if He were nearer at hand.
The man of meditation is happy, not for an hour or a day, but quite round the circle of his years.
It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most on Divine truth, that will prove the choicest, wisest, strongest Christian.
Where a man has a passion for meditating without the capacity of thinking, a particular idea fixes itself fast, and soon creates a mental disease.
Though reading and conversation may furnish us with many ideas of men and things, yet it is our own meditation must form our judgment.
Meditation is that exercise of the mind by which it recalls a known, truth,—as some kinds of creatures do their food, to be ruminated upon.
Meditation is the life of the soul; action is the soul of meditation; honor is the reward of action; so meditate, that thou mayst do; so do, that thou mayst purchase honor; for which purchase, give God the glory.
The art of meditation may be exercised at all hours, and in all places; and men of genius, in their walks, at table, and amidst assemblies, turning the eye of the mind inwards, can form an artificial solitude; retired amidst a crowd, calm amidst distraction, and wise amidst folly.
Profound meditation in solitude and silence frequently exalts the mind above its natural tone, fires the imagination, and produces the most refined and sublime conceptions. The soul then tastes the purest and most refined delight, and almost loses the idea of existence in the intellectual pleasure it receives. The mind on every motion darts through space into eternity; and raised, in its free enjoyment of its powers by its own enthusiasm, strengthens itself in the habitude of contemplating the noblest subjects, and of adopting the most heroic pursuits.
Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit; and our wandering thoughts in prayer are but the neglects of meditation and recessions from that duty; and according as we neglect meditation, so are our prayers imperfect, meditation being the soul of prayer and the intention of our spirit.
Meditation is a busy search in the storehouse of phantasy for some ideas of matters, to be cast in the moulds of resolution into some forms of words or actions; in which search, when I have used my greatest diligence. I find this is the best conclusion, that to meditate on the best is the best of meditations; and a resolution to make a good end is a good end of my resolutions.