Close as were his intimacies and wide as were his benevolences, the circle of his affections was latterly narrow, indeed. Yet he hated excitement as much as he craved it. He wrote:
“I am persuaded there are few things morally so bad as excitement of the nerves in any way; nothing—to borrow a military word and use it in a military sense—nothing demoralizes so much as excitement. It destroys the tone of the heart; leaves an exhaustion which craves stimulus, and utterly unfits for duty. High-wrought feeling must end in wickedness; a life of excitement is inseparable from a life of vice. The opera, the stage, the ballroom, French literature, and irregular life—what must they terminate in?”
What Men Grind Their Axes On.
Not many people realize that there is a special sort of whetstone for nearly every purpose. The proper sharpening stones or abrasives for use in various professions and trades and in household work are exhibited in the division of mineral technology in the older building of the United States National Museum, at Washington, D. C.
The exhibit shows specimens of the crude and partially prepared stones and the finished products ready for use, as well as a series of photographs which illustrate the operations of mining and preparing them.
Probably the first stone used for abrasive purposes was sandstone, a very widely distributed rock, and it is still used to-day. Its coarse grit and even grain first attracted attention, while the rough edge that it gave was all that was then required.
With the progress of the arts there began a search for various stones which could be used for sharpening objects of different sorts, so that to-day, not only sandstones, but mica schists, slates, and emery stones are used, besides several artificial compounds.
The hard, white, compact sandstones found near Hot Springs, Arkansas, are among the best whetstones known, equaling, if not surpassing, the Turkey stone, which for years has been considered one of the best. This Arkansas stone is known as novaculite, and occurs in two or three grades, intended for use with certain tools.
The hard, flintlike stone should be used only to sharpen instruments made of the very best steel, requiring very keen edges and points, such as those used by surgeons, dentists, and jewelers.
The other grades, although composed of the same ingredients, are more porous, the sand grains are not as close together, and a rougher edge is given to the sharpened tool. Because of their more porous nature, these stones cut faster, proving suitable for the finer-edged tools of carpenters, machinists, and engravers, and for honing razors.