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Leaves of Life, for Daily Inspiration is a devotional calendar that presents a year‑long sequence of brief meditations, prayers, and literary excerpts. The opening pages establish the format: each day is headed by the month and date, followed by a mixture of historical notes, quotations from poets and philosophers, and a short prayer or reflective thought. The book’s subject headings, devotional literature, meditations, calendars, devotional exercises, are reflected in this structure, which weaves together biblical verses, moral maxims, and seasonal observations into a daily ritual of contemplation.
The voice is unmistakably that of a late‑nineteenth‑ to early‑twentieth‑century moralist, employing a formal, reverent style that balances poetic language with didactic counsel. Its tone is earnest, often invoking Scripture, classic poets, and contemporary thinkers to encourage self‑examination and gratitude. Readers who appreciate structured spiritual practice, enjoy the cadence of historic quotations, and seek a gentle, scholarly companion for everyday reflection will find this work a fitting guide for their devotional routine.
The opening · free to read
W.B. Conkey, Hammond, Ind. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, copyrighted 1912.
National W.C.T.U., Evanston, Ill. Frances E. Willard.
American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. W.E. Winks.
Rand, McNally & Company, Chicago, Ill. Marie Bashkirtseff.
Tennesseean and American, Nashville, Tenn. G. Rice.
Cosmopolitan Magazine, New York, N.Y. O. Henry.
The H.M. Rowe Company, Baltimore, Md. Edwin Leibfreed: Poems.
Permission from President Wilson for the excerpts from his speeches.
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass. Kate Douglas Wiggin, Richard Watson Gilder, Josephine Peabody, John Hay, Hugo Muensterberg, Edith Thomas, Lyman Abbott, John Burroughs, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Joel Chandler Harris, Lucy Larcom, Bret Harte, Bayard Taylor, Alice Freeman Palmer, Thomas W. Higginson.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, N.Y. Henry van Dyke: Music and Other Poems. Maltbie D. Babcock: Thoughts for Every Day Living. Sidney Lanier: Poems of Sidney Lanier. Robert Bridges: Robert Bridges' Poems. George Meredith: Last Poems. James Anthony Froude: Short Studies on Great Subjects. Robert Louis Stevenson: Poems and Works. W.E. Henley: Poems. Eugene Field: Western Verse.
G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London. Arthur Christopher Benson: Along the Road, Silent Isle, From a College Window, Joyous Gard, Lord Vyet and Other Poems.
Little, Brown & Company, Boston, Mass. Emily Dickinson, Laura E. Richards, Edward Everett Hale.
George H. Doran Company, New York, N.Y. Sir Oliver Lodge, Arnold Bennett, J. Stalker, A.H. Begbie.
Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, N.Y. Percy C. Ainsworth, E.H. Divall, Margaret E. Sangster, J.H. Jowett, George Matheson.
Longmans, Green & Company, New York and London. William James.
Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, N.Y. Maurice Maeterlinck, Hamilton Mabie, Ian Maclaren, Jerome K. Jerome, G.K. Chesterton, Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, Mass. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, John B. Tabb, Ernest Crosby.
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Boston, Mass. Paul Hamilton Hayne.
Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York Charles Wagner, Edwin Markham, Helen Keller.
E.P. Dutton Company, New York. George Macdonald.
Janus am I; oldest of potentates; Forward I look, and backward, and below I count, as god of avenues and gates, The years that through my portals come and go.
I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow; I chase the wild fowl from the frozen fen; My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow, My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men.
--Henry W. Longfellow.
Old things need not be therefore true, O brother men, nor yet the new; Ah! still awhile the old thought retain, And yet consider it again!
We! what do we see? each a space Of some few yards before his face; Does that the whole wide plan explain? Ah, yet consider it again!
Alas! the great world goes its way, And takes its truth from each new day; They do not quit, nor can retain, Far less consider it again.
--Arthur Hugh Clough.
There are two sorts of content; one is connected with exertion, the other habits of indolence. The first is a virtue; the other a vice.
--Maria Edgeworth.
Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, And to thy tabernacles.
--Psalm 43. 3.
Almighty God, lead me in the search for life. Teach me what is important and what is unimportant; what is false, and what is true. Remove the hindrances that keep me from the worthiest deeds, and grant that I may have the peace that comes with surrender of self to thy will. Amen.
To what profit we could use the time for our present task that we spend in impatient waiting and wondering over the future! So often the future is just one step up from the present, but some of us miss it by preferring to wait for an elevator.
--M. B. S.
Prepare to live by all means, but for heaven's sake do not forget to live. You will never have a better chance than you have at present. You may think you will have, but you are mistaken.
--Arnold Bennett.
He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. He that lives on hope will die fasting.
--Benjamin Franklin.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest.
--Ecclesiastes 9. 10.
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