Elder Paul H. Dunn, Part Four: The Female Milton

For Part One, Part Two, Part Three, or even Part Five, Part Six, or Part Seven, click on the appropriate link.

Time to head back to Conference quotes again. 

Man, but I am digging on Elder Dunn's bishop! He was a definite kindred spirit.

Again, he corners poor teenage Elder Dunn in his talk, "What is a Teacher? The bishop senses this kid is still having trouble thinking, but this bishop really cares and wants to help him. 

He comes out with another bit of wisdom for Elder Dunn to remember:

The Quote

"...example sheds a genial ray 

which men are apt to borrow. 

So first improve yourself today 

and then your friends tomorrow.’” 

Never in my life have I heard this one, so I doubted I would be able to find it.

And I didn't...but in the process of not finding it, I was pleased to hear about a writer I'd never encountered before, one Lydia Sigourney, who was often referred to as 'the female Milton'.

 

The quote seems often attributed to her, but I was unable to find it in the works I have access to at the moment.

It's definitely a scriptural sort of quote though, reminding me very much of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, where He said: 

 

And why beholdest thou the mote 

that is in thy brother’s eye, 

but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, 

Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; 

and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, 

first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; 

and then shalt thou see clearly 

to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

 

She wrote a lot of works, poetry and stories, and I'm looking forward to learning more about my third cousin seven times removed in days to come. Hoping for yet another historical kindred spirit in her.

Elder Paul H. Dunn, Part Three: Nursery Rhyme Wisdom from the Bishop

 For Part One, Part Two, or Part Four, or even Part Five, Part Six, or Part Seven, click on the appropriate link.

Elder Paul H. Dunn's bishop wasn't done with him yet. In his talk, "What is a Teacher?", that bishop came after him many days, determined to get him to think something. Another quote he learned from this bishop came out thus:

 

The Quote

‘There was a wise old owl 

who sat in an oak, 

and the longer he sat 

the less he spoke. 

The less he spoke, 

the more he heard. 

Oh, Paul, why can’t you be like that wise old bird?’” 

 

Why indeed? 

This is a nursery rhyme that was popular in the 1800s, and is sometimes attributed to John D. Rockefeller, though at this point I'm doubtful he originated the rhyme.

 

This is the Mother Goose I remember...

 

Children's rhymes are an interesting branch of literature - they're so old that a lot of the original meanings behind them get lost in language that's gone out of style, or places that are so far removed from our current experience that we can't relate. 

But there's a lot of teaching in them, combined with rhyming, that helps us remember better. Most of us can probably come up with a nursery rhyme or two from childhood. That rhyming scheme makes them stick really well in the mind.

This quote is in fact real though, and it can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, first compiled in 1951, but the poems within are much older than that.

 

Is it, in fact, really smarter not to speak though? 

Sometimes, not speaking means not engaging with what's being said, or being afraid to speak. These are not wisdom, but they're the same action.

The wisdom, I think, comes through listening. Finding those who are wiser than we are, and listening, is a good way of learning. 

Something I'm still learning, especially in regards to advice, is to stop giving so much. People will tell me things, but I only give advice if it's sought now. At least, I try. Sometimes the temptation to share all that I've learned and try and tell people things gets to be too much, and then I dump. Hence this blog, I guess, right? We like to tell everyone everything we know.

But God doesn't do that. He listens while I run my mouth off, and it's only when I stop and listen to Him that I learn.