Chapter I: Preface (1)

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.

(1)

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.

(2)

=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.

(3)

=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.”

(4)

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._

(7)

=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.

(8)

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.

(9)

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.”

(10)

=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_.

(12)

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.

(13)

=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_.

(14)

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_.

(15)

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.)

(16)

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_.

(17)

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.”

(18)

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.)

(19)

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.”

(20)

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.”

(21)

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.”

(22)

=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.

(25)

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.

(26)

=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.

(27)

* * * * *

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.”

(29)

* * * * *

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_.

(30)

* * * * *

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._

(31)

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.”

(32)

=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._

(33)

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.)

(35)

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.

(36)

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.

(37)

* * * * *

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._

(38)

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.

(39)

=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_.

(40)

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.

(41)

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.

(42)

=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.)

(43)

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.

(44)

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.)

(45)

=Afraid of the Darkness=--See FEAR OF MAN.

AFFLUENCE, THE PRINCIPLE OF