Home › Mary Howitt › Mary Howitt

Mary Howitt

Beginning Life.

ET me say to every one that is beginning life:

Do not begin with exaggerated ideas of your own worth. Do not think that you, without The three sons of an eastern lady were invited to furnish her with an expression of their love, before battle, ought to be victor, and walk from the beginshe went a long journey. One brought a marble ning with those laurels about your head which are to tablet, with the inscription of her name; another pre- be twined there, if at all, only at the end of the camsented her with a rich garland of fragrant flowers; paign. Do not mistake your own turbulent pride. the third entered her presence and thus accosted her: Do not mistake your own false interpreting, lying "Mother, I have neither marble tablet nor fragrant nosegay, but I have a heart; here your name is engraved, here your memory is precious, and this heart, full of affection, will follow you wherever you travel, and remain with you wherever you repose."