Of course the brilliant idea of foisting her precious daughter upon the "select" society of the metropolis was original with Mrs. Merrick.

These rare and precious flowers were arranged in bronze baskets with sprays of maidenhair.

They had their palaces in the city and their villas in the country, their parks and gardens, their fish-ponds and game-preserves, their pictures and marbles, their expensive furniture and costly ornaments, gold and silver vessels, gems and precious works of art.

But the "Meditations" of the good emperor survive, like the writings of Epictetus, St. Augustine, and Thomas à Kempis: one of the few immortal books,immortal, in this case, not for artistic excellence, like the writings of Thucydides and Tacitus, but for the loftiness of thoughts alone; so precious that the saints of the Middle Ages secretly preserved them as in accord with their own experiences.

Stoicism, if it did not soar to God and immortality, yet aspired to the freedom and triumph of what is most precious in man.

And yet the piety of Noah, the faith of Abraham, the wisdom of Moses, and the stoicism of Aurelius have proved alike a spiritual power,the precious salt which was to preserve humanity from the putrefaction of almost universal selfishness and vice, until the new revelation should arouse the human soul to a more serious contemplation of its immortal destiny.

The imperial "Meditations" are without art or arrangement,a sort of diary, valuable solely for their precious thoughts; not lofty soarings in philosophical and religious contemplation, which tax the brain to comprehend, like the thoughts of Pascal, but plain maxims for the daily intercourse of life, showing great purity of character and extraordinary natural piety, blended with pithy moral wisdom and a strong sense of duty.

And then, what gold and silver vessels ornamented every palace, what pictures and statues enriched every room, what costly and gilded and carved furniture was the admiration of every guest, what rich dresses decorated the women who supped at gorgeous tables of solid silver, whose very sandals were ornamented with precious stones, and whose necks were hung with priceless pearls and rubies and diamonds!

He declares that "those things which are most valued are empty, rotten, and trifling,"these are his very words; and that the real life of the people, even in the days of Trajan, had ceased to exist,that everything truly precious was lost in the senseless grasp after what can give no true happiness or permanent prosperity.

They were the precious salt to preserve what was worth preserving in a rapidly dissolving Empire.

As the soul was immortal and the body was mortal, that which was an impediment to the welfare of what was most precious was early denounced.

He hates death for nothing so much as because he fears it will take him away before he has paid all the ill-will he owes, and deprive him of all those precious feuds he has been scraping together all his lifetime.

Vives, is very ridiculous, is to them most precious elaborate stuff, they admired for it, and as proud, as triumphant in the meantime for this discovery, as if they had won a city, or conquered a province; as rich as if they had found a mine of gold ore.

For learning and virtue in a nobleman is more eminent, and, as a jewel set in gold is more precious, and much to be respected, such a man deserves better than others, and is as great an honour to his family as his noble family to him.

A poor man drinks in a wooden dish, and eats his meat in wooden spoons, wooden platters, earthen vessels, and such homely stuff: the other in gold, silver, and precious stones; but with what success?

I am thy drudge in the world's eyes, yet in God's sight peradventure thy better, my soul is more precious, and I dearer unto him.

Etiam servi diis curae sunt, as Evangelus at large proves in Macrobius, the meanest servant is most precious in his sight.

Granatus, a precious stone so called, because it is like the kernels of a pomegranate, an imperfect kind of ruby, it comes from Calecut; "if hung about the neck, or taken in drink, it much resisteth sorrow, and recreates the heart."

"That almost all jewels and precious stones have excellent virtues" to pacify the affections of the mind, for which cause rich men so much covet to have them: "and those smaller unions which are found in shells amongst the Persians and Indians, by the consent of all writers, are very cordial, and most part avail to the exhilaration of the heart.

Most men say as much of gold and some other minerals, as these have done of precious stones.

Evonimus hath a precious aquavitae to this purpose, for such as are cold.

that in old diseases which have gotten the upper hand or a habit, the manner of living is to more purpose, than whatsoever can be drawn out of the most precious boxes of the apothecaries.

The treasures beneath the surface are as precious as those above.

Good-will is therefore what is most precious in man.

Gold, silver, brass, iron, precious stone, and vessels, armor, spices, raiment, harness, horses, mules, sheep, goats, &c., are in various places enumerated, but servants, never.