Foolishness Prevented—See [Prevention].
FOOLISHNESS SOMETIMES IS WISDOM
The wisdom or unwisdom of things is not always apparent on their face. Paul speaks of “the foolishness of preaching.” Most of the great inventors and discoverers were not considered wise in the initial stages of their great careers. Columbus was misunderstood and ridiculed, Watt was regarded as a dreamer, Morse found few supporters, Ericsson could not get Government support for building the Monitor, yet all these men were great and wise men. A curious instance of wise foolishness is that related of an important advertiser, who said:
We once hit upon a novel expedient for ascertaining over what area our advertisements were read. We published a couple of half-column “ads” in which we purposely misstated half a dozen historical facts. In less than a week we received between 300 and 400 letters from all parts of the country from people wishing to know why on earth we kept such a consummate fool who knew so little about American history. The letters kept pouring in for three or four weeks. It was one of the best-paying “ads” we ever printed. But we did not repeat our experiment because the one I refer to served its purpose. Our letters came from schoolboys, girls, professors, clergymen, school-teachers and in two instances from eminent men who have a world-wide reputation.
(1121)
Foot-gear—See [Bible Customs To-day].
FORBEARANCE
These lines by Harry Larkin, in the Scrap Book, seem to breathe a spirit of self-distrust and forbearance for faults in others eminently worthy of perpetuation:
Dare we condemn the ills that others do?
Dare we condemn?