Chapter D: W. Whittle tells of a soldier who was posted in a forest to (3)

By his employees Mr. Geo. W. Childs was fairly idolized; yet he
demanded of every man the full measure of his duty, but he paid
the best of wages. His rule was that every man should receive
more than enough for a living--receive a compensation enabling
him to lay something by for a rainy day. He encouraged thrift
and providence among all in his employ. He surrounded them with
every comfort, introduced for their benefit every appliance
conducive to health, and annually, at Christmas-time, every
person in his employ was substantially remembered.--Washington
_Craftsman_.

(900)

ENCOURAGEMENT

Thirty years ago, in a poor schoolhouse in a back district, a
boy at the foot of the class unexpectedly spelled a word that
had passed down the entire class.

“Go up ahead,” said the master, “and see that you stay there.
You can if you work hard.”

The boy hung his head. But the next day he did not miss a word
in spelling. The brighter scholars knew every word in the
lesson, hoping there might be a chance to get ahead. But there
was not a single one. Dave stayed at the head. He had been an
indifferent speller before, but now he knew every word.

“Dave, how do you get your lessons so well now?” said the master.

“I learn every word in the lesson, and get my mother to hear me
at night; then I go over them in the morning before I come to
school. And I go over them at my seat before the class is called
up.”

“Good boy, Dave!” said the master. “That’s the way to have
success. Always work that way and you’ll do.”

Dave is to-day the manager of a big lumber company, and he
attributes his start to the words:

“Go up head, and see that you stay there. You can, if you work
hard.” (Text.)--_Genesee Courier._

(901)

* * * * *

The old should not dampen the high aspirations of the young. This is Cale Young Rice’s thought in the following verse:

You who are old,
And have fought the fight,
And have won or lost or left the field,
Weigh us not down
With fears of the world, as we run!
With the wisdom that is too right,
The warning to which we can not yield--
The shadow that follows the sun
Follows forever--
And with all that desire must leave undone,
Tho as a god it endeavor,
Weigh, weigh us not down!
But gird our hope to believe
That all that is done
Is done by dream and daring--
Bid us dream on!
That earth was not born
Or heaven built of bewaring--
Yield us the dawn,
You dreamt your hour--and dared, but we
Would dream till all you despaired of be.
Would dare, till the world,
Won to a new wayfaring,
Be thence forever easier upward drawn!
(Text.)--_The American Magazine._

(902)

* * * * *

When the Duke of Wellington was arranging his forces at the
fateful battle of Waterloo his raw recruits outnumbered his
veteran troops, and so to encourage them by the example of
those skilled in war and tried in bravery, he put a veteran
between every two of the recent recruits. Thus strengthened,
they all withstood the fierce charges of the French cavalry and
helped win the day for the allies. So when the Christian hosts
go forth to battle it is well to have the tried and experienced
Christians intermingled with those yet young in the spiritual
life. It gives them courage and helps them to withstand
temptations and trials by which they would otherwise be swept
away.--S. PARKES CADMAN.

(903)

* * * * *

An old minister, the Rev. Richard Knill, once placed his hands
on the head of a little boy and lovingly predicted that he, too,
would become a preacher. That boy was C. H. Spurgeon. A boy was
standing on the steps leading to a platform on which a minister
wished to ascend. He patted the lad’s head and hoped he would
become a preacher of the gospel. That youth afterward went to
the university and there became the means of the conversion
of a young student. That student was J. Wilbur Chapman, the
evangelist.

(904)

See IMPROVEMENT; MONEY, EARNING.

END OF THE WORLD

At some future time the sun will pass from the gaseous, or
semigaseous, into the liquid stage, and from that moment it
will begin to lose temperature rapidly. There is, therefore, a
definite end in sight, a time beyond which the sun will cease
to shine and the world, as it now exists, will come to an
end.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The Solar System.”

(905)

=End, Unknown=--See HAPPINESS AS A GOD.

ENDEAVOR

When the dust of the workshop is still,
The dust of the workman at rest,
May some generous heart find a will
To seek and to treasure his best!

From the splendor of hopes that deceived;
From the wonders he meant to do;
From the glories nearly achieved;
From the dreams that nearly came true.

From his struggle to rise above earth
On the pinions that would not fly;
From his sorrows; oh, seek for some worth
To remember the workman by.

If in vain; if time sweeps all away,
And no laurel from that dust springs;
’Tis enough that a loyal heart say,
“He tried to make beautiful things.”
(Text.)--EDEN PHILLPOTTS, _The Pall Mall
Magazine_ (London).

(906)

ENDEAVOR, CONSTANT

Parsifal emphasizes the fact that “heaven is not gained with
a single bound.” After Parsifal had won the great victory and
gained the Sacred Spear, still he had not grown enough to be
worthy to rule in the council-chambers of Monsalvat. He had
to grow to new heights. Thus, many years yet of struggle,
temptation, and trial awaited him. Self-mastery and spiritual
supremacy are attained, not by one victory, but by many. They
come only as the rich fruition of a life of strenuous endeavor,
a life of loyalty to duty and to love. (Text.)--B. O.
FLOWER, _The Arena_.

(907)

ENDURANCE

Look at things as they are, and you will see that the clever
unjust are in the place of runners, who run well from the
starting-place to the goal, but not back again from the goal;
they go off at a great pace, but in the end only look foolish,
slinking away with their ears down on their shoulders, and
without a crown; but the true runner comes to the finish and
receives the prize and is crowned. And this is the way with the
just; he who endures to the end of every action and occasion
of his entire life has a good report and carries off the prize
which men bestow. (Text.)--PLATO.

(908)

ENDURANCE OF PAIN

The incident below, printed in the New York _Times_, illustrates how pride and resolution will fortify a man to endure pain:

“Whom do you s’pose I’ve got inside here? Old one-eyed Ben
Tillman! And if I don’t make him squeal nobody can. I won’t do
a thing to him--oh, my!” And the dentist-surgeon brandished his
forceps gleefully and returned to the pleasure of torturing the
senator.

Next day the same young man came again. “Well, did you succeed
in making Tillman yell?” he asked. The dentist shook his head
sadly. “No,” he replied in a disappointed tone. “I couldn’t make
him flinch. He didn’t make a sound, and, d’ye know, when he got
out of the chair he turned to me with a smile and said: ‘Say,
doctor, I didn’t know before that you ran a painless dental
shop.’” (Text.)

(909)

ENDURING ART

You can go down into the narrow vault which Nero built as
a retreat from the great heat, and you will find the walls
painted all over with fanciful designs in arabesque, which
have been buried beneath the earth fifteen hundred years; but
when the peasants light it up with their torches, the colors
flash out before you as fresh as they were in the days of St.
Paul.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

(910)

ENEMIES

Mr. Vernon L. Kellogg, with a child friend, were watching an ant-dragon as he caught an ant in a sandpit-trap.

“But, see,” cried Mary, “the ant has stopt sliding. It is going
to get out!”

Ah, Mary, you are not making allowance for all the resources of
this dreadful dragon of the pit. Not only is the pit a nearly
perfect trap, and the eager jaws at the bottom more deadly than
any array of spikes or spears at the bottom of an elephant pit,
but there is another most effective thing about this fatal
dragon’s trap, and that is this: it is not merely a passive
trap, but an active one. Already it is in action. And Mary sees
now how hopeless it is with the ant. For a shower of sand is
being thrown up from the bottom of the pit against the ant and
it is again sliding down. The dragon has a flat, broad head
and powerful neck muscles, and has wit enough to shovel up and
hurl masses of dry sand-grains against the victim on the loose
slopes. And this starts the avalanche again, and so down slides
the frantic ant.--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

(911)

=Enemies Among Animals=--See SUBTLETY AMONG ANIMALS.

ENEMIES, AVOIDING

It would often be well for men to avoid enemies as did these sagacious rooks:

A curious incident in the recent history of the Gray’s Inn
settlement of rooks is mentioned by a London correspondent
in the Manchester _Guardian_. It appears that a couple
of carrion crows settled in the gardens, and one day it was
discovered that the rookery was deserted. The benchers, who are
particularly proud of their rooks, gave orders for the carrion
crows to be destroyed, and the gardener prepared pigeon’s eggs
with good doses of arsenic. The crows swallowed them and seemed
to grow fatter and healthier. At last strychnine was used, and
the pair were poisoned. Then a curious thing happened. Not a
rook had been seen for weeks at Gray’s Inn, but the next day
they were all back as tho advised by telegram.

(912)

ENEMIES CONVERTED

Count Witte, Russian Prime Minister, summoned his secretary one
day and gave him this order:

“Make out a full list of the authors of the articles that are
directly against me in the daily press.”

The secretary went to work, and with the aid of his office force
in a week prepared a list of about a thousand articles, with the
writer’s names appended. The clippings were properly classified,
put in an album, and dutifully handed to the Premier.

“In how many instances,” he asked, “have I been commended?”

“In three, your excellency.”

“Very well; now select the most abusive and personal of the
unfavorable articles, and let me know the names of the writers.”

This list, too, was duly prepared and presented.

“Shall I bring this to the attention of the public prosecutor?”
queried the secretary.

“For what purpose?”

“Why, to institute proceedings under the statutes regulating the
press.”

“No, I do not wish it,” said the Premier. “I wish to select
from these journalists my most aggressive critic and make him
my advocate and spokesman. I shall offer him the editorship of
my organ. Experience has taught me that the best champion and
most faithful defender is the man who has been your bitterest
assailant.” (Text.)

(913)

=Enemies of Character=--See SELF-CONFLICT.

=Enemy of the World, An=--See MYSTERY, VALUE OF.

ENERGY

What unused energy still awaits utilization by man is indicated in the following calculation:

The tremendous amount of energy received from the sun may be
illustrated in another way. Ordinary steam-engines, whether
for railroad or factory use, are rated by their horse-power; a
hundred-horse-power engine will drive a small steamer or operate
a mill of some two hundred and fifty looms. Now, thirty calories
of heat per minute, if completely utilized, would produce 2.8
horse-power. Neglecting atmospheric absorption, therefore, each
square meter of the earth’s surface receives from the sun, when
directly overhead, sufficient energy to run a 2.8 horse-power
engine; or one horse-power is received for every four square
feet of surface. The absorption of the air cuts this down about
forty per cent, so that on a clear day at sea-level, with
the sun directly overhead, sufficient energy to produce one
horse-power is received on each six and a half square feet of
surface.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The Solar System.”

(914)

See MOMENTUM.

=Energy, Economy of=--See ECONOMY OF ENERGY.

ENERGY, INDOMITABLE

Seldom has there been seen a more inspiring example of
indomitable energy triumphing over fate than that which the
Engraver Florian is now giving to the world, says the New York
_World_.

Six years ago, while at work upon the designs for the new French
bank-notes, he was suddenly stricken by paralysis. His right
side became as if dead; he was bereft of speech; the hand whose
skill had made him famous was useless forever. Did he complain?
Did he resign himself to the inevitable? Did he sit down in
despair and allow his young wife and daughters to support him?
Not for a moment. He let the women work, it is true, but only
while he learned to engrave with the left hand.

Hour after hour, day after day, month after month he passed,
struggling with that awkward, untrained left hand, drawing at
first crudely like a little child, then with ever-increasing
precision. Gradually he educated the refractory member to
obey his will. Drawing, water-color painting, designing for
typographers succeeded one another, until to-day he has again
attained absolute mastery over the engraver’s tools. Arsene
Alexandre, the famous art critic, saw him at work recently, his
wooden block screwed to a table, his left hand plying the tools
with all the deftness his now dead right hand formerly possest,
his speechless lips smiling and his face radiant with happiness.

(915)

ENGLISH, ERRORS IN

The following specimens of false syntax are given by the _Printers’ Register_:

A man who was suddenly taken sick “hastened home while every
means for his recovery was resorted to. In spite of all his
efforts he died in the triumphs of the Christian religion.” “A
man was killed by a railroad car running into Boston supposed to
be deaf.” A man writes, “We have decided to erect a schoolhouse
large enough to accommodate five hundred scholars five stories
high.” On a certain railway the following luminous direction
was printed: “Hereafter when trains in an opposite direction
are approaching each other on separate lines, conductors and
engineers will be requested to bring their respective trains
to a dead halt before the point of meeting, and be careful not
to proceed till each train has passed the other.” A steamboat
captain, advertising an excursion, says: “Tickets, twenty-five
cents; children half-price to be had at the office.” An Iowa
editor says: “We have received a basket of fine grapes from our
friend W., for which he will please accept our compliments,
some of which are nearly two inches in diameter.”--_Printers’
Register._

(916)

=English Passage, Superb=--See SOLACE OF THE SEA.

ENGROSSMENT IN BUSINESS

The character is shaped by that which engrosses the attention most. Rev. W. F. Crafts, Ph.D., says:

A profane sea-captain came to a mission station on the Pacific,
and the missionary talked with him upon religious subjects. The
captain said, “I came away from Nantucket after whales; I have
sailed round Cape Horn for whales; I am now up in the Northern
Pacific Ocean after whales. I think of nothing but whales. I
fear your labor would be entirely lost upon me, and I ought to
be very frank with you. I care for nothing by day but whales,
and I dream of them at night. If you should open my heart I
think you would find the shape of a sperm-whale there.”

(917)

=Enlarging Objects=--See SCIENCE, IMPROVEMENTS BY.

ENLIGHTENMENT

The difference between the savage and the enlightened man is often due to Christian civilization.

John Williams tells how the Raratongans were excited and
overawed when, for the first time, they saw him send a written
message to his wife. He requested a chief, who was helping, to
take the chip to Mrs. Williams; but, thinking the missionary
to be playing a joke on him, he asked, “What must I say?”
“Nothing,” said Mr. Williams; “the chip will say all that I
wish.” “But can a chip talk? Has it a mouth?” He got what
he went for, and, still more perplexed, could only exclaim:
“See the wisdom of these English! They can even make chips
talk!”--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(918)

ENTHUSIASM

The most terrific heat known to science is a torch operated
by oxygen and acetylene, radiating a heat of 6,300 degrees,
by means of which it is possible to weld aluminum, heretofore
regarded as an impossibility. The torch makes a flame that will
cut through two inches of solid steel in less than a minute and
pierce a twelve-inch piece of the hardest steel in less than ten
minutes--a task that would take a saw almost twenty hours to
accomplish.

When the soul burns with the heat of great enthusiasm, it will burn through obstacles that are entirely insuperable to ordinary efforts.

(919)

=Enthusiasm for One’s Work=--See ART, DEVOTION TO.

ENTICEMENT

In the legend, the Duchess Isabella, wishing earnestly to obtain
some object, was instructed by the crafty court astrologer to
kiss day by day for a hundred days a certain beautiful picture,
and she would receive the fulfilment of her wish. It was a
sinister trick, for the picture contained a subtle poison
which stained the lips with every salutation. Little by little
the golden tresses of the queenly woman turned white, her
eyes became dim, her color faded, her lips became black; but,
infatuated, the suicidal kiss was continued until before the
hundred days were complete the royal dupe lay dead.

So we yield ourselves to the sorcery of sin; despite many warnings, we persist in our fellowship with what seems truth, beauty, liberty, pleasure, until our whole soul is poisoned and destroyed. (Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(920)

See ALLUREMENT, FATAL.

ENVIRONMENT

The Seminole Indians have a tradition regarding the white man’s
origin and superiority. The Great Spirit made three men of
fair complexion and then led them to a lake and bade them leap
in. One immediately obeyed, and came out of the water whiter
than before; the second did not leap in until the water became
slightly muddy, and when he bathed he came out copper-colored;
the third leaped in when the water was black with mud and he
came out black.

Every man has some choice as to the kind of environment into which he will plunge, and the color of his character will ultimately show his choice.

(921)

* * * * *

The gardener bird of New Guinea builds its nest, and lays out a
garden-plot in front, of grass and mosses; and when the female
bird is sitting on her eggs the mate flies about in search of
the brightest-colored leaves and flowers, which are placed upon
this plateau of garden.

Many men have been reclaimed and encouraged by surrounding them with a beautiful environment.

(922)

* * * * *

Surely, it is not environment that makes temperament. Bittern
and blackbird both frequent bogs, yet the bittern is a
lonely misanthrope, whom I more than half suspect of being
melancholy-mad, while the blackbird is as cheery and as fond of
his fellows as a candidate.--WINTHROP PACKARD, “Wild
Pastures.”

(923)

* * * * *

You may take a piece of wax, and a piece of meat, and some sand,
and some clay, and some shavings, and put them in the fire, and
see how they act. One goes to melting, and one to frying, and
one to drying up, and one to hardening, and one to blazing; and
every one acted on by the same agent.

So, under identical moral influences and in the same environment, one man goes wrong, another repents, and another remains indifferent. Not what is done to us but what we do is the thing that determines character and destiny.

(924)

ENVIRONMENT, ADAPTATION TO

Joseph Cook taught that character tends to assume a fixt type, as marked as in the case of mice, cited below:

Mice were originally natives of southern Asia. From there they
have accompanied man in his wanderings to all parts of the
world, traveling, as he has traveled, in ox-teams and on the
backs of donkeys, by steamship and railway; taking up their
quarters wherever he does, first in log-cabins with thatched
roofs; and finally, in some instances, on the nineteenth floor
of a steel building where generation after generation may live
and die in turn without having so much as touched foot to the
earth.

Strangely enough, the race seems to be proof against the
changes wrought upon most animals by difference in environment.
Specimens from the opposite sides of the globe, or from
widely separated latitudes, are said to be practically
indistinguishable, as if at last the species had hit upon a
style of form and coloring perfectly suited to all conditions of
life.--WITMER STONE and WILLIAM EVERETT CRAM,
“American Animals.”

(925)

=Environment and Man=--See MEAN, THE GOLDEN.

=Environment Controlled=--See CONTROL OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

ENVIRONMENT, CREATING OUR OWN

Often the individual bemoans the depression of environment. A converse fact may be referred to, namely, that man produces his own environment. It is in his power largely to make his own world, by paying attention to the things of himself. An illustration of this is found by an English writer who insists that we can make our own climates, as he says:

Effective sanitary ventilation should supply gentle and
uniformly diffused currents of air of moderate and equal
temperature throughout the house. We talk a great deal about
the climate here and the climate there; and when we grow old,
and can afford it, we move to Bournemouth, Torquay, Menton,
Nice, Algiers, etc., for better climates, forgetting all the
while that the climate in which we practically live is not that
out-of-doors, but the indoor climate of our dwellings, the
which, in a properly constructed house, may be regulated to
correspond to that of any latitude we may choose.

(926)

ENVIRONMENT, DESTRUCTIVE

An English writer, with some novel ideas of how the smoke-laden atmosphere of London might be purified, writes:

At one time I thought of proposing the establishment of
horticultural home-missions for promoting the dissemination of
flowerpot shrubs in the metropolis, and of showing how much the
atmosphere of London would be improved if every London family
had one little sweetbrier-bush, a lavender-plant, or a hardy
heliotrope to each of its members; so that a couple of millions
of such ozone generators should breathe their sweetness into the
dank and dead atmosphere of the denser central regions of London.

A little practical experience of the difficulty of growing a
clean cabbage, or maintaining alive any sort of shrub in the
midst of our soot-drizzle, satisfied me that the mission would
fail, even tho the sweetbriers were given away by the district
visitors; for these simple hardy plants perish in a mid-London
atmosphere unless their leaves are periodically sponged and
syringed, to wash away the soot particles that otherwise close
their stomata and suffocate the plant.

The ingenious scheme would fail because the plants themselves would become foul and need to be cleansed. Failing this, they would die. So in life character is easily incrusted with the spirit of worldliness. (Text.)

(927)

ENVIRONMENT INADEQUATE

Shortly after Chief Justice Chase had gone for the first time
to Washington, he was returning to the West. The train stopt
at a little station in Virginia, and he was informed that it
was the birthplace of Patrick Henry. He immediately left the
car and stood upon the platform, admiring the magnificence of
the scenery that opens before the traveler. He said, “What an
atmosphere! What a view! What glorious mountains! No wonder that
Patrick Henry grew here.” One of the natives, who was standing
by his side, quietly replied, “Yes, sir; but as far as I have
heard, that landscape and those mountains have always been here;
but we haven’t seen any more Patrick Henrys.”

(928)

ENVIRONMENT, SPIRITUAL

A Dutch scientist has just completed five years’ study in
South America. He took some insects from Holland into the rich
tropic atmosphere, changed their environment, put them in a
friendly environment, and gave them the best food. He expected
to modify their coloring, having exchanged the damp, foggy
sky of Holland for the brilliant hues of the tropics. And lo!
these insects doubled their size; the dim subdued tints became
gay and brilliant. At last he discovered that insects that in
Holland crawled, in the South spread their wings to fly and
meet God’s sun. He began with potato-bugs in Holland; he ended
with brilliant creatures that lived on the nectar of flowers,
and only five summers and winters stood between the marvel. Oh,
marvelous transformation, through environment and food! More
marvelous still the way the soul can grow. Last year you lived
in the damp, foggy miasmatic levels of selfishness; sordidness,
like a cloud, wrapt you about. Suppose you take down your tent,
and move into the tropic realm of love and faith and hope. Open
the soul’s wings to the light, the sun and dew of God’s spirit.
Live in the atmosphere of purity and prayer. Expel hate and
fear, like poisonous winds. Imitate Christ’s life. Love the
master spirits. Read the great poets. Insist upon leisure to
grow ripe. Guard your hours of solitude; practice the presence
of God.--N. D. HILLIS.

(929)

ENVIRONMENT THAT TRANSFORMS

The Japanese have an ingenious way of changing the color and
appearance of birds and animals. For example, white sparrows
are produced by selecting a pair of grayish birds and keeping
them in a white cage, in a white room, where they are attended
by a person drest in white. The mental effect on a series of
generations of birds results in completely white birds. (Text.)

(930)

ENVY

The Duchess of Argyll is reported to have written to various
European monarchs asking them whom they envied. Among the
answers was one from the Czar of Russia, as follows: “I
sincerely envy every man who is not loaded down with the cares
of a great empire, and who has not to weep for the woes of a
people.”

Not infrequently the envied are the envying, because each one is apt to think his own lot the hardest.

(931)

* * * * *

Good men are often hated for their goodness by bad men, who can not endure the contrast with themselves. An unidentified writer points out this kind of envy in the following verse:

A glowworm sat in the grass;
As I passed through the wood I found it;
Bright as a diamond it shone,
With a halo of light around it.

A toad came up from the fen;
It was ugly in every feature;
Like a thief it crept to the worm,
And spat on the shining creature.

“What have I done,” said the worm,
“As I sat here in silence nightly?”
“Nothing,” replied the toad;
“But why did you shine so brightly?” (Text.)

(932)

ENVY GRATIFIED

Persons accustomed to gaze in awe upon suit-cases and
steamer-trunks covered with labels of every size and color,
thinking the while enviously of the fortunate owners of such
baggage, who have such an advantage over the poor stay-at-homes,
may perhaps be surprized to learn that there are shops where
such labels may be had.

It is quite feasible, therefore, for any one to have his case
or trunk covered with nicely worn labels, indicating that the
owner thereof has roamed from Sydney to San Francisco; from
Copenhagen to Colombo, to say nothing of all the capitals of
Europe and Asia, with divers famous water-places thrown in for
good measure.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(933)

=Ephemera=--See BREVITY OF LIFE; HAPPINESS A GOOD.

=Epidemic from Neglect=--See NEGLECT, CONSEQUENCES OF.

=Epitaph, Curious=--See MAN A TIMEKEEPER.

EPITAPHS

The following epitaphs, with the comment on them, are taken from the London _Daily News_:

There is an interesting epitaph on a gravestone in Poling
churchyard, Sussex. It runs:

Here
Lieth ye Body
of Alice, ye wife, of Bobt
Woolbridge, who Died
the 27th of May, 1740.
Aged 44 years.

The World is a round thing,
And full of crooked streets.
Death is a market place,
Where all men meets.
If Life was a thing
That money could buy,
The Rich would live,
And the poor would die.

Here is another:

Poor Martha Snell has gone away,
Her would if she could, but her couldn’t stay,
She had two sore legs and a badish cough,
But it were her legs as carried her off.

Less comic, but more witty, is the epitaph found at Kingsbridge,
S. Devon.

Here lieth the body of Robert (commonly called “Bone”) Phillips,
who died July 27th, 1793, aged 65 years, and at whose request
the following lines are here inscribed:

Here lie I at the Chancel door;
Here lie I because I am poor;
The further in the more you’ll pay,
Yet here lie I as warm as they.

Here is an epitaph on a last-maker, who is said to be buried at
Llanflantwythyl:

Stop, stranger, stop, and wipe a tear
For the _Last_ man at _last_ lies here,
Tho ever-_last_-ing he has been,
He has at _last_ passed life’s _last_ scene.
Famed for good works, much time he passed,
In doing good--He has done his _last_.

The following, more philosophic and general in its application,
is on an eighteenth-century tombstone in Saint Mary’s Parish
Churchyard, Mold, North Wales.

Life’s like an Inn where Travelers stay.
Some only Breakfast, and away.
Others to dinner stay, and are well fed.
The oldest only sup and go to Bed.
Long is the Bill who lingers out the day.
He that goes the soonest Has the Least to Pay.

The correspondent also sends us an epitaph which has pithiness
and force. It runs:

Here lies W. W.
Who will nevermore trouble you.

It was an epitaph which called forth the following topical
epigram from Dr. Samuel Clarke, who had just seen the
inscription, “Domus Ultima,” on the vault belonging to the Dukes
of Richmond in the Cathedral of Chichester. In a mood of satire
he wrote:

Did he who thus inscribed the wall
Not read, or not believe, St. Paul,
Who says there is, where’er it stands,
Another house, not made with hands.
Or may we gather from these words
That house is not a House of Lords.

(934)

=Equality, The Spirit of=--See RESPECT, NO, OF PERSONS.

EQUALIZATION

The practise of some physicians is practically the philosophy of Christian socialism: “From every man according to his ability, to every man according to his need.”

“A Philadelphia judge,” says _American Medicine_, “has given
expression to the opinion that ‘the life of a rich man is worth
more than the life of a poor man, and the physician has a right
to charge the millionaire more for his services than he does
the laborer.’ He went on further to say that ‘the physician is
unlike the merchant, who has goods of different quality to sell
at various prices. He must give his best service in every case.
Human life has a pecuniary value of variable quality, greater in
the millionaire than in the laborer. Thus, the practitioner of
common sense has a maximum and a minimum charge, and makes out
his bills to suit the pecuniary circumstances of his patients.’”
The writer thinks that “there will be no dissent on the part of
right-thinking people” from this view. Carried to its logical
conclusion, it would appear to justify a sliding-scale of
prices for all the necessities of life, carefully adjusted to
the varying incomes of the users. (Text.)

(935)

* * * * *

The conclusion reached in this extract leaves out of account the presence in the cosmos of a living God:

The quantity of energy existing in the universe remains
constant, but transforms itself little by little into heat
uniformly distributed at a temperature everywhere identical. In
the end, therefore, there will be neither chemical phenomena nor
manifestation of life; the world will still exist, but without
motion; and, so to speak, dead.--LUCIEN POINCARÉ, “The New
Physics and its Evolution.”

(936)

=Equilibrium in Nature=--See COMPLEXITY IN ORGANS.

=Equipment and Results=--See MEDICAL MISSIONS.

=Error as a Benefactor=--See DISCOVERY, ACCIDENTAL.

ERROR CORRECTED

Human nature must be perfected by long processes of improvement analogous to that employed in getting a perfect chronometer.

From the practical point of view, chronometry has made in
these last few years very sensible progress. The errors
in the movements of chronometers are corrected in a much
more systematic way than formerly, and certain inventions
have enabled important improvements to be effected in the
construction of these instruments. Thus, the curious properties
which steel combined with nickel--so admirably studied by
M. Guillaume--exhibits in the matter of dilatation are now
utilized so as to almost completely annihilate the influence of
variations of temperature.--LUCIEN POINCARÉ, “The New
Physics and its Evolution.”

(937)

=Error Exposed=--See DOGMATISM, MISTAKEN.

ERROR IN REASONING

It frequently happens that men are perfectly correct in their premises and in observing the facts, while their conclusions may be wholly wrong.

Ptolemy clearly saw that, if the alternation from day to night
is caused by a rotation of the earth, then points on the equator
must move with a speed of nearly one thousand miles an hour, a
velocity exceeding more than tenfold that of the wind in the
severest storm. A terrible gale would thus always blow from the
east; birds in flight and objects thrown into the air would be
left behind and carried with frightful rapidity toward the west.
As these things do not happen, the earth, Ptolemy concludes,
must be at rest.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The Solar System.”

(938)

=Error Leading to Success=--See EXPERIMENT.

=Eruption of Evil=--See EVIL ERUPTIVE.

=Escape=--See INGENUITY; RESCUE.

ESSENTIALS

Immediately after one of the fiercest battles of the Civil War a
chaplain of one of the Federal regiments passed over the field
of conflict in the performance of his duty. He noticed among
the prostrate bodies one which moved, and quickly was at the
side of a dying soldier. Recognizing that the man had not long
to live, he at once proceeded to administer, but in rather a
formal manner, the consolations of religion. Kneeling at the
man’s side, he asked him to what church he belonged, and the
surprizing answer came, “The Church which God hath purchased
with His own blood.” “Oh, but that is not what I mean,” said the
minister, “what is your belief?” The mortally wounded disciple
replied, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He
is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against
that day.” “Oh,” said the chaplain, “but you do not understand
me--what is your persuasion?” The answer came from lips which
were quivering in the agonies of death, “I am persuaded that
neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and with these
words the soldier passed into the presence of Him who is the
Savior of all them that believe in Him.

(939)

=Estimating One’s Self=--See SELF-DEPRECIATION.

ETERNAL LIFE, MAKING ROOM FOR

Have you ever noticed what happens when from one cause or
another the water-mains in any street have become choked or
polluted by the intrusion of some foreign body? You will see
some one come along with an iron instrument and turn on the
stopcock at some point in the roadway. Immediately there comes
an up-rush, a mighty volume of water--swirling, heaving,
rolling, hurtling out of the pipes beneath. And you will
observe, too, that for a time it seems to be charged with
filth; whatever it is that has been blocking the flow of the
life-giving element is being stirred up and flung out with
immense force. But after a time the jet clears, the evil is
gone, the water becomes sweet and pure, and the flow full and
steady. Then the covering is replaced; the cleansing process
is at an end. And so it is with you and me. God has to get rid
of our selfishness somehow that the life eternal may possess
us through and through. The cleansing may seem to be a stern
matter, but it is best to let Him have his way to the uttermost.
We must be crucified with Christ in order to live with Him, but
no man would ever repine at what it costs if he could foresee
what is to be gained.--R. J. CAMPBELL, _The Christian
Commonwealth_.

(940)

ETERNAL, THE, AT HAND

A lady recently related in one of the journals how she went
through a veritable blizzard to view a flower-show. With one
step she passed out of the wild night, the deep snow, the bitter
wind, into a brilliant hall filled with hyacinths, tulips,
jonquils, cyclamens, azaleas, roses and orchids.

It is the privilege of godly men, at any time, to pass at a step from the savage conflicts of life right into the sweet fellowship of God, finding grace to help in the time of need.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(941)

ETERNITY

Walter Samuel Swisher is the author of these lines:

Unquiet sea, that endlessly doth stretch
Beyond the straining, finite sight of man:
Why dost thou toss in infinite unrest,
Oh, why no far, faint shore-line can we scan?
Full many a bark thy serried billows crossed,
Full many a sail hath spread before the wind,
But none hath e’er returned; the tempest-tost
And anxious mariner doth haven find
In fairer clime, in sunny land afar,
Where no storms rudely break or winds contend.
There nothing enters in their joy to mar,
Who have the peace of God, which knows no end.
Oh, may we, too, that stand with straining eye--
Looking far out, where wind and wave contend--
Set sail with hope to those fair lands that lie
Beneath the peace of God, that knows no end.

(942)

ETERNITY AS A SPUR

Once, when tempted to linger in a lovely landscape, Wesley
cried, “I believe there is an eternity; I must arise and go
hence”; and those words express the temper of his life. He lived
in the spirit of Andrew Marvel’s strong lines:

Ever at my back I hear
Time’s winged chariots hurrying near.

“And this,” Johnson complained, “is very disagreeable to a
man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I
do.”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(943)

=Ether, Doctrine of=--See MYSTERY IN RELIGION.

=Ethical Judgments=--See JUDGING FROM FACTS.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLE

Horace Bushnell, the great preacher, when he was a young man,
was troubled with religious doubts. He was an instructor in Yale
College when a gracious revival prevailed in that institution.
Fearing lest he should stand in the way of younger men who might
follow his example, he became troubled in mind exceedingly. He
walked the floor of his room in deep study. At last he reached
this conclusion: “There is one thing of which I have no doubt:
there is a difference between right and wrong. Am I willing
to throw myself on the side of right as far as I can see the
right?” That ethical principle dissolved his doubts. (Text.)

(944)

=Etiquette=--See ABSURD NOTIONS.

=Etiquette, Breaches of=--See MISSIONARIES’ MISTAKES.

=Etiquette in the East=--See CALLS AND CONVEYANCES IN THE EAST;
PROPRIETY.

=Etiquette Superseded=--See COURAGE VERSUS ETIQUETTE.

EVANESCENT LITERATURE

We may be sure that any piece of literature which attracts
only by some trick of style, however it may blaze up for a
day and startle the world with its flash, lacks the element
of endurance. We do not need much experience to tell us the
difference between a lamp and a Roman candle. Even in our day
we have seen many reputations flare up, illuminate the sky, and
then go out in utter darkness. When we take a proper historical
perspective, we see that it is the universal, the simple, that
lasts.--CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, _Atlantic Monthly_.

(945)

EVANGELISM, APOSTOLIC

As the fairy god Ceres in the old Greek mythologies went forth
from Mount Olympus moving over the desert land, touching the
miry bog and widening it into a river; touching the thorn-tree
and causing it to be laden with olives, and the brier and it
bears its luscious figs; touching the desert plain and it
becomes a garden, so these disciples, filled with the light
and love of Jesus Christ, go forth into the mortal darkness
and spiritual destitution of the heathen world until under
their influence pagan Rome casts all her idol gods into the sea
and crowns Jesus King of kings and Lord of lords.--J. H.
JOWETT.

(946)

EVANGELISM, UNHERALDED

In my mail the other evening I received this unsigned letter:

“I won’t let this incident pass without writing to you of it.
My little daughter is a member of your Sunday-school. I do not
have any religious faith. All my life I have been an unbeliever.
The children of our neighborhood went to Sunday-school, and my
little girl wanted to go with them. I consented. She came home
one Sunday with certain verses to commit to memory, and said
that when she learned them perfectly and recited them to her
teacher, she would get a Bible as a reward. Last Sunday she did
not return at the usual time. I waited for her for a while, and
then went to the Sunday-school to see if she was there. I went
into a room, and at once saw my little one standing and reciting
the verses which she had studied. The young lady who was hearing
her had her arm around her. Oh, sir! I can not describe the
feeling that went through my whole being. I thought, If some one
had done that to me when I was a child, what a different life
I might have had! As I stood looking upon the scene, I made up
my mind that I would start next Sunday and go to church, and
try and get into touch with the spirit which the Sunday-school
teacher showed.”--J. F. CARSON, _Sunday-school
Times_.

(947)

EVANGELISM, UNUSUAL

Rev. W. E. Bentley, who is rector of an Episcopal Church in
Brooklyn, has induced nearly twenty young actors to quit the
stage and become Episcopal ministers. He maintains what is
almost a theological seminary.

(948)

EVANGELIZATION

In regard to the divine method for the evangelization of the world, the following bit of imagery is not without its deeper meaning. Mr. S. D. Gordon imagines that after Jesus went back to heaven, He and Gabriel had a conversation something like this:

Gabriel is saying: “Master, you died for the whole world down
there, did you not?” “Yes.” “You must have suffered much.”
“Yes.” “And do they all know about it?” “Oh, no; only a few in
Palestine know about it so far.” “Well, Master, what have you
done about telling the world that you have died for them? What
is your plan?”

“Well,” the Master is supposed to answer, “I asked Peter and
James and John and Andrew, and some more of them down there,
just to make it the business of their lives to tell others, and
others, and yet others, and still others, until the last man in
the farthest circle has heard the story.”

And Gabriel is supposed to answer: “Yes--but--suppose Peter
fails. Suppose after a while John simply does not tell others.
Suppose their descendants, their successors away off in the
first edge of the twentieth century, get so busy that they do
not tell others, what then?”

And back comes the voice of Jesus, “Gabriel, I haven’t made any
other plans--I’m counting on them.” (Text.)

(949)

EVAPORATION

Said Moody: “We are leaky vessels and need constant
replenishing. If we cut a leafy branch from a growing plant and
put it in a warm oven, the leaves and stem will soon become
smaller and lighter and more brittle, because the water in
the branch has been evaporated by the heat. Often more than
four-fifths of the weight of a growing plant is water. Hay is
dried grass. The farmer cuts his grass and lets it lie exposed
to the heat of the sun until most of the water it contained has
evaporated.” (Text.)

(950)

=Ever-living, The=--See FUTURE REUNION.

=Evidence=--See PROOF.

EVIDENCE, CHRISTIAN

Mr. A. J. Cassatt, the late president of the Pennsylvania
Railway, was once making a quiet tour over one of the branches
of the system, and wandered into an out-of-the-way switch-yard,
where something one of the yardmen was doing did not meet with
his approbation. He made some suggestion to the man, who asked:
“Who are you that’s trying to teach me my business.” “I am an
officer of the road,” replied Mr. Cassatt. “Let’s see your
switch-key, then,” said the man suspiciously. Mr. Cassatt pulled
from his hip pocket his key-ring, to which was attached the
switch-key, which no railroad man in service is ever without. It
was sufficient proof for the switchman, who then did as he was
told.

If we are going to have any real leadership in dealing with the souls of men they must see in our conversation, in the tone of our character, in the spirit of our life, that we possess the “switch-key,” the evident presence of Christ. (Text.)

(951)

=Evidence, Conclusive=--See TESTIMONY, A SHEEP’S.

EVIDENCE, LIVING

The advocates of moderate drinking of intoxicants are among the most persistent and audacious of advisers of their own various deleterious decoctions, but they constantly supply, involuntarily enough, the most appalling contradiction of their own commendations.

A gentleman riding on a car noticed on the advertising spaces,
placarded in immense type, the words: “Pure Rye Whisky--Tones
up the Body, Brightens the Intellect, Invigorates the Soul.”
This kind of “puffing” advertisement is common enough and the
gentleman might have paid very little attention to it but his
eyes happened to drop to a seat underneath the advertisement
on which was lounging a drunken man. The eyes of this wretched
being were bleared, his face bloated, with the lines of
dissipation deeply engraven in it, and his body slouched
down in the collapsing style characteristic of the habitual
inebriate. That drunken man was a lurid illustration of the
absolute falsehood of the advertisement. He as a ruined victim
constituted the true advertisement of the effects of alcoholic
indulgence.

(952)

EVIDENCE, PROVIDENTIAL

In the year 1799, Lieutenant Michael Fitton, of H. M. S.
_Ferret_, was cruising off Port Royal, when his crew caught
a big shark. Inside it was found a bundle of ship’s papers
belonging to an American brig, the _Nancy_. On his return to
Port Royal, Lieutenant Fitton found that the _Nancy_ had been
brought in for carrying contraband of war. Her skipper produced
other papers to the authorities, which apparently cleared the
ship--false papers which had been prepared in the event of the
vessel being stopt. Her true papers, which proved that the
_Nancy_ was deeply implicated in the contraband traffic, had
been thrown overboard just before she was overhauled, and the
shark had swallowed them. The case was tried in the court-house
at Kingston, where, at the critical moment, Lieutenant
Fitton appeared on the scene and produced his find, to the
consternation of the other side. The _Nancy_ was forthwith
condemned as a lawful prize, and her skipper was fined and sent
to jail.

The head of the shark is in London, at the United Service
Institution. It was for some time set up on show at Port Royal,
Jamaica, with this label attached: “Lieutenant Fitton recommends
these jaws for a collar for neutrals to swear through.”

(953)

EVIL, BEGINNINGS OF

A while ago the omnibus on its way from Gray’s Inn Road to
Islington (England) had to traverse a narrow and dangerous piece
of roadway--a sharp, slippery declivity called “The Devil’s
Slide.” How terrible, indeed, is the devil’s slide! How tempting
it is!--a short cut, a very short cut, to fame, wealth, power,
pleasure. How graduated and smooth it is! What a specious name
it often has! Strangely enough, that declivity in London was
called “Mount Pleasant”; and the downward roads of life often
are known by charming names. But enter on that slide, and you
soon attain a startling velocity; sooner or later you arrive
at an ignominious doom. Let no man think himself safe. The
circles of crime dipping to very murky depths of hell are not
far from any one of us. (Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The
Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(954)

EVIL BY DEGREES

Many a man grows so accustomed to his evil environment that he fails to realize how he is being spiritually ruined.

In a certain laboratory experiment a live frog was placed in
water heated at the rate of .0036 of a degree Fahrenheit per
second. The frog never moved or showed any sign of distress, but
was found at the end of two hours and a half to be dead. The
explanation was that at any point of time the temperature of the
water showed such little contrast with that of a moment before
that the attention of the frog was never attracted by it. It was
boiled to death without noticing it.

(955)

EVIL DEFLECTED

Surmounting the tower of the City Hall, Philadelphia, is
a colossal statue of William Penn. During a thunder-storm
sometimes the lightning plays about its surface of bronze,
like oil on water. Electricians say that it can not be damaged
because a two-inch copper cable runs down into a well beneath
the foundation-walls, conducting the dangerous current
harmlessly away.

Still more immune from evil is the man whom God protects. (Text.)

(956)

EVIL DEVELOPMENT RAPID

Evil grows of itself, grows vigorously. With infinite care we
rear the rare roses, but how spontaneously and luxuriantly
spring the weeds! By costly culture we ripen the golden sheaf,
but how the noxious poppies bloom! Very tenderly must we
nourish things of beauty, but how the vermin breed and swarm!
And so, while the germs of good in our heart come to fruition
only after long years of vigilance and devotion, the tares
are ever springing up in a night, dashing the beauty with
their blackness, and bearing the hundredfold of bitterness
and blasting.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured
Sackcloth.”

(957)

EVIL, DISGUISED

If destructive moral evils were shown in their real hideousness, no one would be drawn toward them! Vernon L. Kellogg describes the disguise of a certain insect:

The whole front of his [a water insect’s] face was smooth and
covered over by a sort of mask, so that his terrible jaws and
catching nippers were invisible. However, we soon understood
this. The mask was the folded-up “catcher,” so disposed that it
served, when not in use, actually to hide its own iniquity as
well as that of the yawning mouth behind. Only when some small
insect, all unsuspecting this smooth masked face, comes close,
do the long tongs unfold, shoot out, and reveal the waiting jaws
and thirsty throat. A veritable dragon, indeed; sly and cruel
and ever hungry for living prey. (Text.)--“Insect Stories.”

(958)

EVIL, ERUPTIVE

Solfatara, a semi-extinct volcano near Pozzuoli, has opened a
new crater two hundred and fifty feet from the ancient one. It
is emitting a voluminous column of sulfurous gases. The activity
of Solfatara always is supposed to coincide with the inactivity
of Vesuvius.

To stop one bad habit is not to transform the nature. The wicked
are like a troubled sea that can not rest. If there are evil
fires in the heart when you choke off one evil course the evil
breaks out in some other way.

(959)

EVIL, ESCAPE FROM

The saying which Rev. W. H. Fitchett attributes to John Wesley’s sister reminds one of Christ’s petition, “I pray not that thou wouldst take them out of the world, but that thou wouldst keep them from its evil.”

Patty Wesley kept her intellect bright, wore a serene face amid
all troubles, and by the sheer charm of her mental qualities
became one of Dr. Johnson’s most intimate and valued companions.
“Evil,” she once said, “was not kept from me, but evil has been
kept from harming me.”--“Wesley and His Century.”

(960)

EVIL GERMINAL

One evil contains within itself the possibilities of all
evil. Medical writers have now much to tell touching the
convertibility of disease. They have come to the conclusion
that the constitutional defect appearing in a family in one
generation is not necessarily transmitted in that exact form to
succeeding generations. What appears at one time as insanity
will reveal itself at another as epilepsy or paralysis;
convulsions will reassert themselves as hysteria or insanity;
insanity is converted into a tendency to suicide; the suicidal
tendency will become a mania for drinking; what is neuralgia
in the father may be melancholia in the son; what is deformity
in one generation may be apoplexy in the next. In an afflicted
family the constitutional defect has curious ramifications, and
undergoes strange metamorphoses.

It is much the same with evil. Men will indulge in one vice, while they express the utmost abhorrence of other vices of which they could never think themselves susceptible. But this is a mistake. All evils are one in root and essence; and surrendering ourselves to one form of iniquity, we surrender ourselves to all; changing circumstances and temptations will involve the lawbreaker in other sins, and in aggravated guilt.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(961)

* * * * *