Your ShelfYour Projects

A Smile

50%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 21, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 16.

Read the full edition

A Smile

By Henry Ward Beecher

NOTHING on earth can smile but man! Gems may flash reflected light, but what is a diamond-flash compared to an eye-flash and a mirth-flash? Flowers can not smile; this is a charm that even they can not claim. It is the prerogative of man; it is the color which love wears, and cheerfulness, and joy—these three. It is a light in the windows of the face, by which the heart signifies it is at home and waiting. A face that can not smile is like a bud that can not blossom, and dries up on the stalk. Laughter is day, sobriety is night, and a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both—more bewitching than either.—Henry Ward Beecher.