CYCLOPEDIA OF
ILLUSTRATIONS
FOR PUBLIC SPEAKERS

CONTAINING FACTS, INCIDENTS, STORIES, EXPERIENCES,
ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, ETC., FOR
ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES. WITH
CROSS-REFERENCES

Compiled and Edited by
ROBERT SCOTT AND WILLIAM C. STILES
Editors of The Homiletic Review

FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1911

Copyright 1910 by
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
(Printed in the United States of America)
Published, March, 1911

PREFACE

In estimating the prospectus of this work a well-known clergyman exprest the judgment that “A book of fresh illustrations should be made as often, at least, as once in ten years.” A somewhat extensive inquiry, to which many responses were received, has convinced the editors and publishers that a liberal use is made of collections of illustrations, by clergymen and other public speakers, and that to meet their requirements a new collection at this time would be welcomed by those whose functions and duties involve public speaking, teaching and preaching.

Paxton Hood’s definitive epigram, “Illustrations are windows,” has often been repeated in varied forms. William Morely Punshon states the relation of the illustration to the truth it is designed to serve when he says, “The illustration is but the handmaid in the palace, while truth is the queen upon the throne.” This is to affirm under a figure of speech that every good illustration should take a place of service, and is valuable only as it assists the understanding in grasping the truth more easily and apprehending it more vividly.

An illustration is regarded as something more than a brief figure of speech, as a simile or a metaphor, tho these may be often expanded to the scope and value of illustration proper. An illustration, as found in this work, whether narrative, fact or series of facts, an incident, anecdote, story, experience, or description, is intended to be such as may be used to make clear the truth or principle indicated in the title.

Inasmuch as the same story, incident or array of facts frequently may be found to suggest more than one thought, principle or truth, a system of cross-references has been used referring under some given head to other titles: or, other titles are inserted separately, with which the illustration may be used, with a cross-reference to the illustration. It is hoped that this system of cross-references may prove an acceptable and valuable feature of the book.

As the title implies, this collection is intended to be serviceable to all public speakers. It has not been the intention either to include or to exclude illustrations because they are specifically religious. We are all coming to recognize that the sacredness or the secularity of anything and everything, is far more a matter of attitude of mind in men than in any specific quality in things themselves. Whether an illustration prove to be secular or sacred is to be determined probably by the use made of it, the purpose which it serves, and the spirit in which it is employed.

It will be noted that here and there in the book there have been included entries that, on the face of them, do not seem to be in the strictest sense illustrations. We think, however, that careful examination will show even these to be susceptible of illustrative uses. Sometimes an array of facts, or a condensed table of statistics, may furnish exemplary instances and throw needed light on a topic.

In inserting poetry, we have tried to adhere to the principle that only poetry that constitutes a real illustration and is quotable, should find place in this work. A poem in its entirety has rarely been used; in most cases only such verses appear as seem to apply to the truth under illustration. The aim, farther, has been to include only such poetry as seemed to us to have true poetical merit. Sometimes this has meant only a pathetic or witty turn of the verse, or a flash of genuine humor, or the metrical illumination of a deep or important truth. In considering this kind of illustration, even tho verse brought to our attention might seem to furnish an apt illustration, if it did not appear to possess poetical merit also, it has been excluded.

The intention of the editors, through the years required to bring this collection together, has been to present a book of newly-prepared illustrations that, for the variety it includes, would not soon be surpassed. They represent research that has extended through hundreds of different publications, books, magazines, papers, of almost every class and kind. The result is a sifted residue, after inspection of a much greater number that have been excluded. It may be doubted if any similar work represents an equal amount of painstaking labor. No illustration has been included without the agreement of at least two competent examiners upon its availability.

The editors, however, are quite well aware that the value and utility of such a work and of the particular illustrations, will be different with different individuals, according to the illimitable differences of view-point, of taste, and of judgment that exist in any given circle of readers. The illustrations from nature will be more welcome to some, those from personal experience to others, and to still others, the extracts from science, or from common life, or from religious activities and experience will appeal more strongly. Some extracts supply the element of humor, which, rightly used, is a valuable asset in public address. The editors feel confident that the variety here provided will meet the different needs and tastes of the readers of this volume.

The alphabetical order of arrangement has seemed to make unnecessary any topical or word indexes. Any one desiring to examine all the illustrations closely applicable to any given topic, may do so conveniently by means of the cross-references. For instance, under “Missions” will be found cross-references to such illustrations, entered under other titles, as apply also to missions.

For the special use of preachers, many of the illustrations have a reference to a Scripture text, and two text indexes are provided. One of these is in the order of the Biblical books, chapters and verses; by turning to which the number of the illustration with which each text belongs will guide to the alphabetical place where the illustration occurs. This index will at once show whether a given text is or is not directly illustrated in the volume. The other text-index, arranged in the order of the topics, includes the text itself, in whole or in part, so that in turning from a text reference in the body of the book to this index, one can determine immediately whether the text promises to be useful in connection with the topic.

The illustrations will be found to have a secondary value in educational directions. A large amount of useful information is conveyed in compact paragraphic form. Facts from almost every department of human knowledge are to be found in these pages. Science has furnished many, including habits and doings of beasts and birds, curious and wonderful feats of surgery; ways and wonders of plant life; useful and valuable data from astronomy; the work of inventors, explorers and discoverers, etc., etc. From history and geography have been gleaned many important, curious, interesting incidents, facts, and sayings. From common and current life there will be found hundreds of useful and usable things worthy of being remembered. Literature has yielded a goodly store of her treasures. The religious life, especially as exprest in missionary work, is represented in numerous paragraphs. In short, merely as a store of useful information, this work should prove valuable.

Unusual care has been taken to make this work accurate. It is apparent without discussion that a public speaker does not wish to use, and ought not to use, even by way of illustration, material that is unreliable in any facts cited, or inaccurate in any statement made. Wherever there has been any doubt as to facts, authorities, or statements, the rule has been to exclude everything subject to such doubt.

This effort at accuracy has led to the practise of citing the source of each extract, wherever it could be ascertained. The occasional exceptions to this have been cases where the matter was a generally circulated piece of news or some extract wherein, from the nature of the case, no question of accuracy or authorship could be involved. In addition to this, there are a few extracts, the sources of which we have been unable to trace.

It is intended that the topic heads shall cover about all the subjects which a preacher or public speaker would ever wish to discuss. But it should be said that these topics are not intended as titles for discourses. They are topics that may sometimes serve as titles, but that are primarily subjects or ideas rather than titles. They are intended to be fairly comprehensive of the range of ideas of the average speaker, and may often represent only a subhead or a passage in his discourse.

If it happens that the user of this book, coming upon these topic heads from new angles and view-points, should not at first deem them exactly descriptive or definitive of the extract with which they appear, it need only be said that such difference of instinct and judgment is inevitable to different men, and if more is seen in any extract than the editors saw, that will add nothing to the confest sense of their undoubted fallibility.

The manner in which such a work as this shall be used will be determined—and should be—by each user for himself. It may not be wholly irrelevant, however, to suggest that so far as the prose extracts are concerned, they are mostly susceptible of profitable paraphrasing and of every sort of manipulation that may fit them to the particular use desired. The chief profit in a book of illustration, doubtless, will be found, for every really vital user, far more in the suggestive values of the extracts than in the actual material furnished. Many of them are in themselves seeds and nuclei capable to be developed into a discourse. They should serve to set the mind working, provide the stimulus for new thought, and lead on to something far greater than they contain.

The editors have been assisted in the gathering of this collection by the staff of contributors whose names are given below, and whose valuable aid we take pleasure in acknowledging: The Rev. G. L. Diven; S. B. Dunn, D.D.; the Rev. William Durban (London); the Rev. Benjamin L. Herr; Mrs. Delavan L. Pierson; the Rev. David Williamson (London); Miss Z. Irene Davis. Editorial acknowledgment is extended also to Franklin Noble, D.D., for valuable suggestions, and to many clergymen who kindly responded to our request for criticism and comment upon the prospectus.

For permission to use extracts from copyrighted books, granted by publishers and authors, who, for the most part, have responded kindly to our requests, we desire to extend our thanks. Among those so responding are the following:

Felix Adler; H. R. Allenson, Ltd.; American Unitarian Association; D. Appleton & Company; The Arakelyan Press; The Arcadian Press; A. C. Armstrong & Son; Edward William Bok; Character Development League; Dodd, Mead & Company; Doubleday, Page & Company; James J. Doyle; Duffìeld & Company; E. P. Dutton & Company; Eaton & Mains; Paul Elder & Company; Ginn & Company; Gospel Publishing House; D. C. Heath & Company; Hodder & Stoughton; Henry Holt & Company; Houghton, Mifflin Company; J. B. Lippincott Company; Longmans, Green & Company; Lutheran Publication Society; The MacMillan Company; A. C. McClurg & Company; Morgan & Scott, Ltd.; Neale Publishing Company; The Pilgrim Press; G. P. Putnam’s Sons; Fleming H. Revell Company; Seeley & Company, Ltd., London; Sherman, French & Company; Small, Maynard & Company, Inc.; Smith, Elder & Company; Frederick A. Stokes Company; Student Volunteer Movement; Sunday-school Times Company; E. B. Treat & Company; University of Chicago Press; The Young Churchman Company; Young People’s Missionary Movement.

A great many of the illustrations have been taken from periodical literature, including monthly and weekly magazines and daily and weekly papers, both secular and religious. We desire to acknowledge our obligation to all these publications, some of which are here indicated:

Ainslee’s Magazine; Andover Review; Appleton’s Magazine; Atlantic Monthly; Art Amateur; Belford’s Magazine; Book Chat; Building; Cassell’s Family Magazine; Chamber’s Journal; Christian Statesman; Christian World Pulpit; Collier’s Weekly; Contemporary Review; Cornhill Magazine; Cosmopolitan; Country Life in America; Decorator and Furnisher; Electricity; Electrical Review; English Illustrated Magazine; Everybody’s Magazine; Forest and Stream; Fortnightly Review; Forward; Good Health; Grace and Truth; Hampton’s Magazine; Harper’s Bazar; Harper’s Magazine; Harper’s Weekly; Health; Home Magazine; Indoors and Out; Journal of Education; Judge’s Magazine; Leslie’s Weekly; Life; Lippincott’s Magazine; McClure’s Magazine; Machinery; Magazine of American History; Metropolitan Magazine; Missionary Review of the World; Munsey’s Magazine; National Geographic Magazine; National Monthly; New England Magazine; Nineteenth Century; North American Review; Open Court; Overland; Penn Monthly; Phrenological Journal; Popular Science Monthly; Pottery Gazette; Progress Magazine; Puck; Putnam’s Monthly; Reader Magazine; Review of Reviews; School Journal; Scribner’s Magazine; St. Nicholas; Strand Magazine; Success Magazine; Sunday-school Times; Sunset Magazine; System; Temple Bar; The American Journal of Theology; The American Magazine; The Argonaut; The Automobile Magazine; The Booklover’s Magazine; The Bookman; The Century Magazine; The Chautauquan; The Critic; The Delineator; The Epoch; The Forum; The Gentleman’s Magazine; The Independent; The Literary Digest; The Metropolitan; The Mid-Continent; The Monthly Review; The National Magazine; The Outlook; The Popular Science Monthly; The Quiver; The Reader; The Saturday Evening Post; The Scrap Book; The Statesman; The Sunday Magazine; The Survey; The Tennesseean; The World To-day; Washington Craftsman; Revue Scientifique; Wide Awake; Wide World Magazine; Woman’s Home Companion; World’s Work; Youth’s Companion.

Cyclopedia of Illustrations
For Public Speakers

ABBREVIATION

I remember a lesson in brevity I once received in a barber’s shop. An Irishman came in, and the unsteady gait with which he approached the chair showed that he had been imbibing of the produce of the still run by North Carolina moonshiners. He wanted his hair cut, and while the barber was getting him ready, went off into a drunken sleep. His head got bobbing from one side to the other, and at length the barber, in making a snip, cut off the lower part of his ear. The barber jumped about and howled, and a crowd of neighbors rushed in. Finally, the demonstration became so great that it began to attract the attention of the man in the chair, and he opened one eye and said, “Wh-wh-at’s the matther wid yez?” “Good Lord!” said the barber, “I’ve cut off the whole lower part of your ear.” “Have yez? Ah, thin, go on wid yer bizness—it was too long, anyhow!”—Horace Porter.

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ABDICATION

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” If men who are obscure and quiet and tempted to envy the glory of kings they might profitably meditate on the speech that Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Richard II while he abandons his crown:

I give this heavy weight from off my head

And this unwieldy scepter from my hand,

The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;

With mine own tears I wash away my value,

With mine own hands I give away my crown,

With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,

With mine own breath release all duteous oaths.

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Aberration, Mental—See [Absent-mindedness].

Abhorrence, Instinctive—See [Antipathy, Instinctive].

ABILITIES

Lord Bacon says that “natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study.” Conversely untrained talents are like wild plants that degenerate when left to themselves.

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Ability Commanding Trust—See [Confidence].

Ability, Determining—See [Worth, Estimating].

ABILITY, GAGE OF

Mr. Edmund Driggs, of Brooklyn, gives a motto that came into his life like an influence, and greatly helped him toward success. At the age of fifteen he left home to engage with an older brother in the freighting business on the Hudson River. The first duty he performed on the vessel was to go aloft to reef the pennant-halyards through the truck of the topmast, which was forty feet above the top of the mainmast, without any rigging attached thereto. When the sailing-master had arranged the halyards over his shoulder, with a running bowline under his right arm, he ordered him aloft. The new sailor looked at the sailing-master and then aloft, and then asked the question, “Did anybody ever do that?” “Yes, you fool,” was the answer. “Do you suppose that I would order you to do a thing that was never done before?” The young sailor replied, “If anybody ever did it, I can do it.” He did it. That maxim has been his watchword through life. Tho he is now over seventy years of age, he is still engaged in active business life, and whatever enterprise he undertakes the watchword still is, “If anybody ever did it, I can do it.” (Text.)—Wilbur F. Crafts, “Successful Men of To-day.”

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ABILITY, USELESS

Plutarch says that a traveler at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedæmonian, “I do not believe you can do as much.” “True,” said he, “but a goose can.”

There are many who have abilities to do greater things who are content to boast of some accomplishment as useless as standing on one leg.

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Abnormality—See [Deformity].

ABSENT-MINDEDNESS

A Canadian farmer, noted for his absent-mindedness, went to town one day and transacted his business with the utmost precision. He started on his way home, however, with the firm conviction that he had forgotten something, but what it was he could not recall. As he neared home, the conviction increased, and three times he stopt his horse and went carefully through his pocketbook in a vain endeavor to discover what he had forgotten. In due course he reached home and was met by his daughter, who looked at him in surprize and exclaimed, “Why, father, where have you left mother?”—Leslie’s Weekly.

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There are many firm believers in the theory that most people are crazy at times, and facts seem to support their belief. The following will possibly remind a number of our readers of some incident in their experience, which at the time of its occurrence seemed to them most unaccountable:

A wise man will step backward off a porch or into a mud-puddle, a great philosopher will hunt for the spectacles that are in his hand or on his forehead, a hunter will sometimes shoot himself or his dog. A working girl had been feeding a great clothing knife for ten years. One day she watched the knife come down slowly upon her hand. Too late she woke out of her stupor with one hand gone. For a few seconds her mind had failed, and she sat by her machine a temporary lunatic and had watched the knife approach her own hand. A distinguished professor was teaching near a canal. Walking along one evening in summer, he walked as deliberately into the canal as he had been walking along the path a second before. He was brought to his senses by the water and mud and the absurdity of the situation. He had on a new suit of clothes and a new silk hat, but, tho the damage was thus great, he still laughs over the adventure. Our mail collectors find in the iron boxes along the streets all sorts of papers and articles which have been put in by some hand from whose motions the mind has become detached for a second. A glove, a pair of spectacles, a deed, a mortgage, a theater ticket, goes in, and on goes the person, holding on to the regular letter which should have been deposited. This is called absent-mindedness, but it is a brief lunacy.—Public Opinion.

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Absentees—See [Excuses].

Absolution—See [Forgiveness, Conditions of].

ABSORPTION

The Italian mothers get for nurses the most beautiful persons, because they believe that by constantly looking into such faces the infant will unconsciously take on some of the beauty of the nurse.

This may be a fiction; but we do know that where there is mutuality of interest and deep affection, persons thrown closely together, in the process of the years, take on traits each of the other.

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See [Beautiful Life, Secret of; Language, Formation of].

Absorption in One’s Art—See [Thoroughness].

ABSORPTION, MENTAL

The anecdote is a familiar one in the history of painting, of the artist employed upon the frescoes of a dome, who stept back to see from a better point of view the work which he had done, and became so absorbed in comparing the scenes which he had depicted with the forming idea as it lay in his mind, that still proceeding backward he had reached the edge of the lofty scaffolding, when a pupil, observing his instant peril, and afraid even to shout to him, rushed forward and marred the figures with his trowel, so calling back and saving the master. The mind, engrossed in its own operation, had forgotten the body, and was treating it as carelessly as the boy treats the chip which he tosses on the wave.—Richard S. Storrs.

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See [Assimilation].

ABSTAINERS LIVE LONG

An interesting investigation was conducted by the Associated Prohibition Press in April, 1909, as to the causes of death in the city of Chicago of all men who had reached the age of sixty years and over, and whose death was reported during that month. Every death reported in Chicago during this month of April was carefully investigated for the purpose of securing an accurate memorandum of the age, nationality, and cause of death.

Out of 155 men concerning whose deaths this data was obtained, it was found that 73 had been total abstainers, 75 moderate drinkers, and 4 were said to be heavy drinkers. The age ranged from 60 to 92 years.

On the basis of the facts secured in this investigation, the drinking men, by their use of alcoholic poison, shortened their lives nearly four years.

In the aggregate, therefore, by means of its subtle poison, alcoholic liquor helped to deprive these 79 victims of a total of more than 334 years of active life which their abstaining contemporaries had lived to enjoy.—“American Prohibition Yearbook.”

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Abstinence as an Example—See [Example].

ABSTINENCE, DIFFICULTY OF

There was a certain ancient colored gentleman who was addicted to the habit of excessive drink. When asked why he didn’t quit he replied:

“It’s dis here way, boss. Jus’ as long as I kin quit when I wants ter I ain’t in no danger. Jus’ as soon as I fin’ I kain’t quit I’s gwine t’ swar off.”

There are numbers of drinking men who keep right on because they think they can stop when they want to. They frequently find out too late that they can not quit.

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ABSURD NOTIONS

I stumbled upon an English book of etiquette the other day. In it I found this curious statement: “A gentleman may carry a book through the streets if it is not wrapt, but if it is done up in wrapping paper it becomes a parcel and must be carried by a servant.” The wrapping-paper makes a wonderful difference. And so absurd are the fashionable ideas of refinement and gentility.—Obadiah Oldschool, The Interior.

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ABSURDITY IN NOMENCLATURE

All who have seen the ancient maps of North Carolina will remember Win-gin-da-coa as its name. This was the first thing said by a savage to Raleigh’s men. In reply to the question, “What is the name of this country?” he answered, “Win-gin-da-coa.” It was afterward learned that the North Carolina aborigine said in this phrase, “Those are very fine clothes you have on.” And so North Carolina carried a fashion-plate label to unsuspecting readers.—Edward Eggleston.

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Abundance and Incompetency—See [Opportunities Unutilized].

Acceleration of Life—See [Fast Living].

Accident as a Minor Thing—See [Misfortune, Superiority to].

Accident—See [Loss and Profit].

ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY

Argand, the inventor of the famous lamp which bears his name, had been experimenting for some time in trying to increase the light given out by his lamp, but all to no purpose. On a table before him one night lay an oil-flask which had accidentally got the bottom broken off, leaving a long-necked, funnel-shaped tube. This Argand took up carelessly from the table and placed—almost without thought, as he afterward related—over the flame. A brilliant white light was the magical result. It is needless to add that the hint was not lost by the experimenter, who proceeded to put his discovery into practical use by “inventing” the common glass lamp-chimney. Hundreds of discoveries which have been heralded to the world as the acme of human genius have been the result of merest accident—the auger, calico printing and vulcanization of rubber being among the number.—St. Louis Republic.

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See [Discovery, Accidental; Insulation].

ACCIDENTAL SUCCESS

Protogenes, the Greek painter, was an impatient man. In painting a picture of a tired, panting dog, he met with satisfactory success except that he failed in every attempt to imitate the foam that should have been seen on the dog’s mouth. He was so much provoked over it, that he seized the sponge with which he cleansed his brushes, and threw it against the picture with the intention of spoiling it. It happened to strike on the dog’s mouth, and produced, to the astonishment and delight of the painter, the very effect that he had labored so persistently to imitate.—Frank H. Stauffer, The Epoch.

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ACCIDENTS

Man’s increasing wisdom and growing regard for his fellow man will some day result in a better state of things than is here indicated:

According to an estimate made by Mr. Frederick L. Hoffman, of the Prudential Insurance Company, the annual rate of fatal accidents in American cities is between 80 and 85 in each 100,000. On a basis of 80,000,000 population, this would mean a yearly loss of about 65,000 lives. By the same authority it is calculated that 1,664,000 persons are badly injured every year, and that some 4,800,000 receive wounds of a less serious character. We have a yearly list of fatalities somewhere between 64,000 and 80,240, and of serious maimings of 1,600,000; whereas two great armies, employing all the enginery of warfare, could succeed in slaughtering only 62,112 human beings yearly. (Text.)

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ACCOMMODATION

According to a story told by Rev. J. Ed. Shaw, of Hammonton, N. J., a man should always adapt himself to local conditions if he wants to slip along without falling over his feet.

Some time ago, Mr. Shaw said, a little colored congregation over in Jersey invited a preacher friend of his to occupy their pulpit at the coming Sunday evening service, and the good dominie, wishing to encourage the colored brethren, readily complied.

Reaching the church where he was the only paleface present, the preacher delivered a sermon full of helping advice, made an eloquent prayer, and then announced that the service would be closed by singing the hymn, “Wash Me and I Shall Be Whiter Than Snow.” At this point one of the darksome congregation rose to his feet.

“Look heah, pahson,” said he impressively. “Yo’ will hab to ’scuse me, but I rise to a point ob ordah.”

“What is it?” asked the preacher, with large symptoms of surprize floating over his features.

“It am dis way,” replied the parishioner. “Yo’ hab ebidently made a mistake in de crowd. Dis am a cull’ed congregashun, an’ s’nce all de pump watah an’ sof’ soap in de county can’t make de words ob dat hymn come true, I jes’ wish dat yo’ would change her to some uddah tune.”—Philadelphia Evening Telegraph.

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ACCOMPLISHMENT

Among the influential public men who were wild in their unreasonable prejudice against Grant and cried aloud for his dismissal, was Col. Alexander K. McClure, of Philadelphia. He could not see how the President could sustain himself if he persisted in retaining Grant. So he went to Washington to counsel with Mr. Lincoln, and urge him in the name of the people to remove Grant without delay. I will let the Colonel tell in his own way the result of his visit to the President:

“I appealed to Lincoln for his own sake to remove Grant at once, and in giving my reasons for it I simply voiced the admittedly overwhelming protest from the loyal people of the land against Grant’s continuance in command.... When I had said everything that could be said from my standpoint, we lapsed into silence. Lincoln remained silent for what seemed a very long time. He then gathered himself up in his chair and said in a tone of earnestness that I shall never forget: ‘I can’t spare this man; he fights.’ That was all he said, but I knew that it was enough, and that Grant was safe in Lincoln’s hands against the countless hosts of enemies.”—Col. Nicholas Smith, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

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See [Work versus Worker].

Accounting—See [Balance, A Loose].

Accuracy—See [Punctiliousness in Little Things].

ACCUSATION INSUFFICIENT

When Numerius, governor of the Narbonnoise Gaul, was impeached for plunder of his province, he defended himself, and denied the charge and explained it away so skilfully that he baffled his accusers. A famous lawyer thereupon exclaimed, “Cæsar, who will ever be found guilty, if it is sufficient for a man to deny the charge?” To which Julian retorted, “But who will appear innocent, if a bare accusation is sufficient?” (Text.)

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ACHIEVEMENT

The Denver Republican recently contained this brief account of a farmer working heroically on a one-man railroad, and remarked that it is typical of the individual spirit that has achieved great things in the West:

The story of the Kansas farmer, who, with a scraper and a pair of mules, is building a fifty-mile railroad, would indicate that the supply of courageous men is not entirely exhausted.

The farmer who is tackling this tremendous job alone and who is serenely indifferent to all the jeers of his neighbors, scorned to admit defeat when he could not interest any one with capital in the road which he deemed necessary. He went to work with such material as he had at hand and, somehow, even without seeing the man or knowing aught of his project, one can not help sharing the farmer’s belief that he is to “carry the thing through.”

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was kind and courteous to his army, both to officers and soldiers. He shared the toils and hardships of those who were under his command. He gave them, too, their share of the glory which he acquired, by attributing his success to their courage and fidelity. At one time, after some brilliant campaign in Macedonia, some persons in his army compared his progress to the flight of an eagle. “If I am an eagle,” replied Pyrrhus, “I owe it to you, for you are the wings by means of which I have risen so high.”

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ACQUAINTANCES

If we could prove by statistics the number of acquaintances a man had fifty years ago, and those which the modern man has, the difference would be enormous. The tendency is everywhere to enlarge one’s circle—ambitious people with discernment, but the foolish, blindly, without any interest or inclination to guide them. I once heard a woman announce with pride, “I have 2,000 visits to make this winter.” She flaunted this fact before her less favored friends, who had only 1,000 names on their visiting lists. Could there be anything more futile than this thirst for increasing one’s bowing acquaintances? What useless ballast are these interminable lists, in which no place is left for an hour’s intelligent or affectionate intercourse. The habit of going from drawing-room to drawing-room gives certain persons a style in conversation that is as flat as a well-drest stone, not one spontaneous word in it, not an angle, not a defined form!—Dora Melegari, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”

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Acquiescence in Temptation—See [Desires, Inordinate].

ACQUIESCENCE TO PROVIDENCE

Each branch of a vine is bound to a certain point of its wall or its conservatory. It is not growing just where and how it would spontaneously and naturally choose, but is affixt there contrary to its natural bent, in order that it may catch the sunbeams at that point and cover that spot with beautiful foliage and luscious fruit.

Sorrow is like the nail that compels the branch to grow in that direction; inevitable circumstance is like the rough strip of fiber which bends the branch, and pain is like the restraint which is suffered by the branch which would have liked to wander at its own will. We are not to murmur or repine at our lot in life, but are to remember that God has appointed it and placed us there. (Text.)

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ACQUISITION

An interesting side-light on the kind of men who attend the classes of the city evening technical schools was given by a commissioner of the Board of Education in a recent address to young men:

“I visited the forge-room” (said he), “where a class of twenty-five young blacksmiths were shaping and welding various models of iron bars and iron blades. It was an inspiring scene. No man, however indolent or indifferent to the world’s work, could have looked on without having his ambitions revived. The glowing metal yielded to the hammer blows of these youthful artizans, because interest in their work and a desire to become producers directed their bare and brawny arms. I walked about unnoticed. They felt no interest in commissioners of education. At one of the anvils I noticed a particularly fine, well-built young fellow. He was wholly absorbed in his work, so when I picked up the book he had partly hidden under his cap on his toolbench it did not attract his attention. What book do you think it was? Oh, no, not a treatise on tool-work in iron; that would have been fine. It was something even finer than that. The book was a copy of Vergil’s ‘Eneid’ and the marginal notes on the pages show that he was as ambitious to acquire a taste for good literature as for the possession of technical skill.”—New York Press.

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ACTING, ACTOR AFFECTED BY

The following remembrance of Henry Irving is given by his friend and associate Ellen Terry:

My greatest triumph as Desdemona was not gained with the audience, but with Henry Irving! He found my endeavors to accept comfort from Iago so pathetic that they brought the tears to his eyes. It was the oddest sensation, when I said, “Oh, good Iago, what shall I do to win my lord again?” to look up—my own eyes dry, for Desdemona is past crying then—and see Henry’s eyes at their biggest, luminous, soft, and full of tears! He was, in spite of Iago and in spite of his power of identifying himself with the part, very deeply moved by my acting.

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ACTION, INSTANT

I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and get quietly up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. “In a few years,” reasons one of them, “I shall have gained a standing, and then I shall use my power for good.” Next year comes, and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought. His ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say. The great occasion that was to have let him loose on society was some little occasion that nobody saw, some moment in which he decided to obtain a standing. The great battle of a lifetime has been fought and lost over a silent scruple. But for this the man might, within a few years, have spoken to the nation with the voice of an archangel. What was he waiting for? Did he think that the laws of nature were to be changed for him? Did he think that a “notice of trial” would be served on him? Or that some spirit would stand at his elbow and say, “Now’s your time?” The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time. And the compensation for beginning at once is that your voice carries at once. You do not need a standing. It would not help you. Within less time than you can see it, you will have been heard. The air is filled with sounding-boards and the echoes are flying. It is ten to one that you have but to lift your voice to be heard in California, and that from where you stand. A bold plunge will teach you that the visions of the unity of human nature which the poets have sung were not fictions of their imagination, but a record of what they saw. Deal with the world, and you will discover their reality. Speak to the world, and you will hear their echo.—John Jay Chapman.

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Activity and Light-giving—See [Light and Activity].

Activity and Thought-training—See [Thinking, How Coordinated].

Actors Become Preachers—See [Evangelism, Unusual].

ADAPTABILITY

As an illustration of adaptability to circumstances and the willingness to take chances in order to achieve results of any kind, of the men who open up a new country to civilization, a recent incident is instructive:

A little schooner reached Seattle recently from Nome, on Bering Sea. She had made the voyage down during the most tempestuous season of the year in the North Pacific, and had survived storms which tried well-found steamships of the better class. Yet there was not a man on board, from the captain down, who had ever made a voyage at sea, save as passengers, on a boat running to Alaska. There were no navigating instruments on board save a compass and an obsolete Russian chart of the North Pacific.

These men wanted to come out for the winter, and there was no other way within their means to accomplish the trip. They got hold of the schooner and they started with her. They were not seamen or navigators, simply handy men who were accustomed to doing things for themselves. This was out of the routine, but they did it.

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The men who made the voyage down from Nome in a little schooner without any previous knowledge of seamanship probably saw nothing remarkable in the feat. They were used to doing things that had to be done with the material that came to hand, whether they knew anything about how it should be done or not.—Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

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ADAPTATION

If we are unable to bring our surroundings into subjection to our desires, we can often moderate our desires to the measure of our surroundings.

The colonel of a volunteer regiment camping in Virginia came across a private on the outskirts of the camp, painfully munching on something. His face was wry, and his lips seemed to move only with the greatest effort.

“What are you eating?” demanded the colonel.

“Persimmons, sir.”

“Good heavens! Haven’t you got any more sense than to eat persimmons at this time of the year? They’ll pucker the very stomach out of you!”

“I know, sir. That’s why I’m eatin’ them. I’m tryin’ to shrink me stomach to fit me rations.”

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Numerous are the animals that, escaping persecution, have adapted themselves to the altered conditions. Was this adaptation unconscious on their part? There was room and to spare when it was in progress, and did not choice enter into the problem? Or was it mere chance that they stayed near or even in habitations, and with no more volition than the autumn leaves that now filled the air?

It may be mere coincidence, but the skunk that lived under the doorstep yet gave no sign of its presence; the raccoon that occupied a clothes-line box and was not suspected; the opossum that lived in a hollow tree within ten feet of the house and was discovered only by accident—all suggest to me that they considered the several situations, and realizing their advantages in the matter of food supply, were willing to take the chances; yet a fine bit of primitive woodland was not fifty yards away.—C. C. Abbott, New York Sun.

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Why should we not adapt our moral seed-sowing for character to the different types of men as carefully as agriculturists do after close study of the different types of soil?

“The greatest surprize to the agriculturist,” said Mr. David G. Fairchild, “and one which will throw into confusion the calculations of the economist, will come through the utilization of what are now considered desert lands, for the growing of special arid-land crops requiring but a fraction of the moisture necessary for the production of the ordinary plants of the eastern half of the United States, such as corn and wheat.

“We are finding new plants from the far table-lands of Turkestan and the steppes of Russia and Siberia, which grow luxuriantly under such conditions of aridity that the crops of the Mississippi Valley farms would wither and die as tho scorched by the sirocco.”—The Technical World.

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See [Poisons and Medicine].

Adaptation, Lack of—See [Accommodation].

ADAPTING THE BIBLE

The postulate that any portion of the Scripture is as serviceable as any other portion for the purpose of stimulating and nourishing the moral and religious growth of children, regardless of their age—the Bible itself refutes this postulate. In 1 Peter 2:2, “As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word.” We have a very plain assertion of the need of different food for different stages of growth in the spiritual life, the assertion clothing itself in terms of the food for the several stages of the physical life. In 1 Cor. 3:2, “I have fed you with milk and not with meat,” we have the same truth set forth by another writer, who employs the same physical analogy. When we turn to Hebrews we find the author employing in more detail the same analogy to teach the same fact—Heb. 5:12–14. Here we really have granted, embryonically, it may be, the principle that is striving to-day for recognition at the hands of the religious teaching world.—A. B. Bunn Van Ormer, “Studies in Religious Nurture.”

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Adding More—See [Margins of Life].

Adjustment—See [Unfitness].

Admiration, Unspontaneous—See [Praise-seeking].

Adolescence—See [Loyalty, Spirit of].

Adolescent Folly—See [Kindness].

Adoption—See [Sympathy, Practical].

ADVANCEMENT, RAPID

When things all move so fast, Christian men must be wide-awake if they would have morals and religion keep pace with material progress:

Such is the pace at which we live to-day that, while millions of people in this country have not yet got up to the stage of “civilization” represented by the use of gas, but when they encounter it casually employ it suicidally, other millions have outgrown and discarded it, and will have none of it even for a curling-iron or a chafing-dish, let alone for lighting. To put it briefly, the use of electricity for lighting in New York State alone has increased over 2,000 per cent in ten years, and the use of electricity for power, also from central stations, has increased in the decade nearly 1,200 per cent. And yet the electricians are inclined to think they have only just started in. (Text.)—The Electrical World and Engineer.

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ADVANTAGE, WORKING TO THE BEST

If we all worked at what we could do best, not only would more work be done, but most of life’s friction and worry would be eliminated.

The English are a ballad-loving people, and few singers could sing a ballad like Antoinette Sterling. She sometimes, but rarely, sang classical music. She knew where she was the strongest, and she wisely kept in that direction, with the result that she shared the same popularity which the English people extended to Sims Reeves, the favorite tenor balladist. It was enough to insure the success of a new song to have it sung by Madam Sterling, and success in London means heavy royalties to singer as well as composer. (Text.)—Chicago Tribune.

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ADVERSITY

The whole tenor of the New Testament inculcates the principle of resignation under adverse conditions, and more. For the follower of Jesus Christ must not be merely a passive sufferer but a strenuous and persevering combatant against opposing force.

Tourists along the shores of the Mediterranean express their surprize at the insipidity of the fishes served up for food. This flavorless quality is easily accounted for. The fish around the shores of Spain, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor are mostly caught in the quiet lagoons or calm waters of protected bays and gulfs, where they swim lazily and slowly, or bask indolently in the quietude. How different is the life of battling with storm and tempest on the part of the creatures that inhabit the rough waters around the Orkneys, the Shetlands, and the Hebrides of Scotland! Fish caught there is always delicious. (Text.)

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See [Affliction Producing Virtue].

ADVERSITY HELPING GENIUS

There is an apprenticeship to difficulty, which is better for excellence sometimes than years of ease and comfort. A great musician once said of a promising but passionless young singer who was being educated for the stage: “She sings well, but she lacks something which is everything. If she were married to a tyrant who would maltreat her and break her heart, in six months she would be the greatest singer in Europe.”—James T. Fields.

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ADVERTISING

Mr. George Hibbard discovers a new literature in process of development, born of the needs of modern advertising. In The Booklover’s Magazine he writes:

The modern advertisement is worth looking at, whether it is the sounding proclamation of some big corporation, with facts and figures both weighty and impressive, or the light eye-catching notice of some simple trade or contrivance. All forms of literary composition find place in the advertising pages: history, story, verse. Many advertisements measure up to the test of good literature. In truth, there is often an uncommon amount of character in them. A word here or a phrase there is often singularly vivid as “local color,” and behind many an advertisement it is possible to see a vigorous personality. Nor are there lacking in this new literature qualities of humor, both intentional and unintentional. One generation writes an epic, another an advertisement; who shall say that one manifestation is not as important as the other.

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Going into a green field surrounded by beautiful trees, we were once shocked by seeing painted upon a large rock the injunction, “Prepare to meet thy God.” This was the work of some ardent religionist who was entirely unconscious that this was a holy place. God was there, altho he knew it not, else he would not have intruded in that sacred place with his vulgar application of a venerable injunction.—The Christian Register.

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See [Publicity]; [Wholeness].

Advertising, Novel—See [Foolishness Sometimes is Wisdom].

ADVERTISING, PERSISTENCY IN

Any patent medicine, however worthless, will make its advocate rich if he will only persist in advertising it. The dear public succumb in the long run. They can not stand up under the continuous force of his big-lettered suggestions. They rather enjoy being humbugged. What splendid advantage the big stores take of this weakness on our part! All they need do is to keep offering suggestions of cheapness or of the supposed worth and imagined usefulness of their wares, and multitudinous innocent ones, whose sole interests the advertiser seems to have at heart, take hold of the tempting bait.—Robert MacDonald.

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Advice, Bad—See [Success too Dear].

Advice, Benefiting by—See [Mind-healing].

ADVICE, DISREGARDED

We were so sure in the Philippines that we could not get too much light that we built our houses to admit it in floods, and contemptuously disregarded the English and Dutch experience of two centuries. We called people lazy if they hid themselves at midday, and we bravely went abroad in the full glare of the light. Even the heavily pigmented Filipinos darkened their houses, and were astounded at our foolishness in doing what they did not dare to do. Collapse always came in time—if not a real collapse, at least a degree of destruction of nervous vigor which demanded a return to darker climates to escape chronic invalidism or even death.—Major Charles E. Woodruff, Harper’s Weekly.

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ADVICE, UNWELCOME

Andy McTavish was “no feelin’ juist weel,” so he went to the doctor and stated his complaints.

“What do you drink?” demanded the medico.

“Whusky.”

“How much?”

“Maybe a bottle a day.”

“Do you smoke?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

“Two ounces a day.”

“Well, you give up whisky and tobacco altogether.”

Andy took up his cap and in three steps reached the door.

“Andy,” called the doctor, “you have not paid for my advice!”

“Ahm no’ takkin’ it,” snapt Andy, as he shut the door behind him.

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AERIAL ACHIEVEMENT

Gen. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, in the world’s first aerial liner, at the ripe age of nearly seventy-two years, performed a magnificent flight of 250 miles from Friedrichshafen to Düsseldorf. The New York Times says of him:

He presents one of the finest examples in history of effort concentrated on a single object, of failure after failure borne with courage, of refusal to give up, of final triumph.

He has had a career which in the case of most men would have been regarded as sufficiently full of honor many years ago. He served in the American civil war as a cavalry officer on the Union side, becoming an intimate friend of the late Carl Schurz, and when he returned to Europe he took part in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

As late as 1907 such words as these could be written about Count von Zeppelin and generally regarded as describing him: “He has sacrificed half a century of time, his wealth, his estates, his reputation, his happiness, his family life, in a futile attempt to solve the problem of flying. It is practically certain that after fifty years of unexampled perseverance Count Zeppelin is doomed to complete failure. There is something unspeakably tragic in the fate of this high-minded aristocrat.”

His failures continued for some time after this verdict was written, but at length the world was startled by the splendid flights made by his dirigible “No. 4,” and when that vessel was wrecked in August, 1908, the German Government and the German people combined to aid the old patriot and inventor to make good his loss.

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Aeroplane—See [Tendencies, Inherited].

Affection, Disinterested—See [Friends, Keeping].

Affection for Animals—See [Animals, Absurd Fondness for].

Affections Misplaced—See [Animals, Absurd Fondness for].

AFFLICTION

At some famous pottery works a visitor selected for purchase an exquisite model of Dante and Beatrice. The price was, however, far greater than he anticipated, being treble what had been asked for some other specimens of the potter’s handiwork. “Why is this so much more expensive?” he asked. “Because it has passed more often through the furnace,” was the reply.

God sends His children sometimes through repeated furnaces of affliction in order that their characters may attain a rare and priceless perfection. (Text.)

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AFFLICTION PRODUCING VIRTUE

The editor of The United Presbyterian writes thus:

On a recent evening during a severe hailstorm we opened our door to observe the progress of the storm, and were surprized to find the air laden with the odor of nasturtiums. There were porch-boxes containing nasturtiums, geraniums and other flowering and foliage plants. Beds of nasturtiums were by the street’s side and at the side of the lawn, and into these the hail had fallen, beating down and breaking the vines until the porch floor and the ground beneath the boxes and the vines were covered with ends of broken sprays, leaves and bright bits of yellow and gold, scarlet and maroon of the mangled flowers. But the air was full of the sweetness of the crusht and wounded vines. They were returning good for evil in the misfortune that had come upon them. For every wound that the hail had made they were giving out the fragrance of a beautiful spirit. Tho bruised and broken, they were filling the whole atmosphere with an aroma which was in beautiful contrast to the adverse rain of hail that still rattled on the roofs and walks and fell among the prostrate vines. Blest is that life which can yield its sweetest fragrance when the storms are at their highest. We have all known men and women who, when lacerated with pain, prostrate under the hand of God, have made the very atmosphere of the sick-room redolent with the incense of Christian hope and trust.

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AFFLICTION, USES OF

The Scriptures say that “It is good to be afflicted,” and experience has her own confirmatory word:

The waters go out over the fields, leaving a waste, where pasture and corn-field had been, and then gradually subside. What have the waters done? Have they ruined the labors of the year? They who do not know Egypt might think so indeed, but the peasants know that to that yearly flood they owe the fertility of the land, that it is that which makes the crops grow and enables them to gather in the harvest. So it is with the river of the grace of God: the waters at times overflow their banks, and one seems to be overwhelmed; the soul is borne down by the flood, all her fruitful land is covered by the waters—waters of desolation, bereavement, affliction. “I am overwhelmed, undone; God has smitten me; my life is all wrong; I shall never smile again.” Nay, the flood which terrifies thee is the water of the river of God. The water is washing away the impurity of thy soul, giving thee fertility; the fruits of love, patience, charity, shall grow now; it is not a flood of desolation, but of blessing and fruitfulness. (Text.)

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Afraid of the Darkness—See [Fear of Man].

AFFLUENCE, THE PRINCIPLE OF

The structural provisions of the living organism are not built on the principle of economy. On the contrary, the superabundance of tissues and mechanisms indicates clearly that safety is the goal of the animal organism. We may safely state that the living animal organism is provided in its structures with factors of safety at least as abundantly as any human-made machine.

The moral drawn from these facts is that to govern the supply of tissue and energy by means of food, nature indicates for us the same principle of affluence which controls the entire construction of the animal for the safety of its life and the perpetuation of its species. In other words, we should eat not just enough to preserve life, but a good deal more. In such cases safety is more important than economy.—S. J. Meltzer, Science.

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AGE

“There are in the suburbs of Rome,” says Cosmos, “two farms where antique medals are made in large quantities. This would seem to be a singular agricultural product, yet nothing is more exact. The people who devote themselves to this odd industry cause to be swallowed by turkeys coins or medals roughly struck with the effigy of Tiberius or Caligula. After remaining for some time in the bodies of the fowls, the little disks of metal become coated with a remarkable ‘patina.’ If this coating were only the result of the gastro-intestinal voyage, it would be easy to secure it by treating the coins to be aged with dilute hydrochloric acid, for instance. But the mechanical action of the tiny stones contained in the gizzard is added to the purely chemical action of the gastric juice, partially effacing the figures and toning down the hardness of the features. It is to be feared that some of the specimens in our public collections have been obtained by this curious process.”

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AGE AND EXPERIENCE

We might find an argument against the “dead line” in such facts as the following:

We make a great mistake in America when we lay our older men on the shelf, while they are still in their prime as counselors. Benjamin Franklin was sent to France as a minister when he was seventy years old, and the best work he did for his country, he did between his seventy-first and seventy-eighth years. The State of New York had an absurd statute which removed Chancellor Kent from the bench because he was sixty-five. After that time he wrote and published his “Commentaries,” a book recognized as one of the most important books in the study of our jurisprudence. So much good did the country gain from one of the frequent absurdities of New York legislation. In England, Lord Palmerston and Mr. Gladstone are recent instances, well remembered, of the force which statesmen gain, almost by the law of geometrical progression, from their memory of the experiments which fail, from what I call organic connection with the national life of the last two generations.—Edward Everett Hale, The Chautauquan.

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AGE AND ORATORY

This is the description of one who had the privilege of hearing Gladstone, in the autumn of 1896, make his last great oration in Liverpool:

See the old man with slow and dragging steps advancing from the door behind the platform to his seat before that sea of eager faces. The figure is shrunken. The eyelids droop. The cheeks are as parchment. Now that he sits, his hands lean heavily upon his staff. We think, “Ah, it is too late; the fire has flickered out; the speech will be but the dead echo of bygone glories.” But lo! he rises. The color mantles to his face. He stands erect, alert. The great eyes open full upon his countrymen. Yes, the first notes are somewhat feeble, somewhat painful; but a few minutes pass, and the noble voice falls as the solemn music of an organ on the throng. The eloquent arms seem to weave a mystic garment for his oratory. The involved sentences unfold themselves with a perfect lucidity. The whole man dilates. The soul breaks out through the marvelous lips. Age? Not so! this is eternal youth. He is pleading for mercy to an outraged people, for fidelity to a national obligation, for courage and for conscience in a tremendous crisis. And the words from the Revised Version of the Psalms seem to print themselves on the listener’s heart: “Thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honor.” (Text.)

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AGE, THE NEW

Frederick Lawrence Knowles writes this optimistic outlook for the future:

When memory of battles,

At last is strange and old,

When nations have one banner

And creeds have found one fold,

When the Hand that sprinkles midnight

With its powdered drift of suns

Has hushed this tiny tumult

Of sects and swords and guns;

Then Hate’s last note of discord

In all God’s worlds shall cease,

In the conquest which is service,

In the victory which is peace! (Text.)

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AGENTS, INSIGNIFICANT

Nature shows how the weakness of God is immeasurably stronger than men; so does history with equal clearness. The oft-quoted saying, “Providence is always on the side of the big battalions,” is one with an imposing sound, but it is disproved by history over and over again. Some of the decisive battles of the world were won by the small battalions. More than once has the sling and the stone prevailed against the Philistine army. Battles are won by the big brain; and wherever that may be, slight weapons and resources are sufficient for splendid victories. Now the all-wise God sits on the throne of the world, and we are often filled with astonishment at the insignificant agents with which heaven smites its foes, and causes victory to settle on the banners of right and justice. The world’s Ruler defeated Pharaoh with frogs and flies; He humbled Israel with the grasshopper; He smeared the splendor of Herod with worms; on the plains of Russia, He broke the power of Napoleon with a snowflake. God has no need to dispatch an archangel; when once He is angry, a microbe will do. (Text.)—W. L. Watkinson, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

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AGGREGATION