Chapter III: Preface (3)

It is hard for children to resist the feeling that a summer
shower comes with a sort of personal benevolence to water the
dry flowers and grass. A little girl of four years illustrated
this feeling on a certain occasion. There was a thunder-shower
after a long dry spell. The rain was pattering on the sidewalk
outside the house. The child stretched forth her hands toward
the rain-drops and said: “Come, good rain, and water our
plants!” Flowers and trees have individuality for most children,
if not for all. Ruth’s mama found her sitting among the wild
geraniums, some distance from the house. “What are you doing,
Ruth?” “I’m sitting by the flowers. They are lonesome and like
to have me with them, don’t you know?” At another time she said:
“Mama, these daisies seem to look up at me and talk to me.
Perhaps they want us to kiss them.” On one occasion she said
to her brother, who was in the act of gathering some flowers
she claimed for herself, “I don’t think it nice to break off
those poor flowers. They like to live just as well as you do.”
The boy thus chided by his sister for gathering her flowers
was generally very fond of plants and trees, and felt a quite
human companionship in them. He could not bear to see flowering
plants hanging in a broken condition, or lying crusht upon
the sidewalk. Even at the age of ten years, he would still
work solicitously over flowers like the violets, bluets, and
crowfoots, with evident concern for their comfort.

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=Announcement, Apt=--See CHOIR, THE.

ANSWER, A SOFT

A drunken carter came into a Greenock (Scotland) train and sat
opposite a clergyman, who was reading his paper. Recognizing
the profession of his vis-a-vis, the carter leaned forward
and in a maudlin way remarked, “I don’t believe there’s any
heaven.” The clergyman paid no heed. “Do you hear me?” persisted
the carter. “I don’t believe there’s any heaven.” Still the
clergyman remained behind his newspaper. The carter, shouting
his confession loudly, said, “I tell ye to your face, and you’re
a minister, that I don’t believe there’s any heaven.” “Very
well,” said the clergyman; “if you do not believe there is any
heaven, go elsewhere, but please go quietly.” (Text.)--London
_Graphic_.

(103)

=Anthem, Extending a National=--See PRAISE, UNITED.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

Spiritual manhood has put away childish thinking. What, for
instance, does a child think about God? Professor Street
publishes some first-hand illustrations of childish conceptions
of God. He says that children “completely anthropomorphize God,
making Him subservient to time, space, and passions, just the
same as they themselves are.” I recall an example or two: When a
girl was told that the stars were God’s eyes, she at once asked
where His legs were. Another saw, for the first time, a cupola
on a barn. Gazing at it she asked, “Does God live in that little
house?” A boy asked some one if God made the river running back
of his house. On receiving an affirmative answer, he promptly
replied, “He must have had a big shovel.” When another boy
refused to say his prayers, he was asked for the reason. He
answered, “Why, they are old. God has heard them so many times
that they are old to Him, too. Why, He knows them as well as I
do myself.”--F. F. SHANNON.

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ANTICIPATING SUCCESS

One may so believe as already in a sense, to possess:

In a little parlor down-stairs of Mencci’s house in Staten
Island were three large altar-candles in the Italian colors of
red, white and green which, Mencci told us (says a correspondent
of the _Century_) he and Garibaldi had amused themselves
at making in a leisure hour “to illuminate the Campidoglio of
Rome when the Italian army should enter the Eternal City and
make it the capital of United Italy.” When Rome was recovered,
three other candles in the Italian colors were actually sent to
Garibaldi there. (Text.)

(105)

ANTICIPATION

It was Schelling who said that if he had truth in one hand and the search for truth in the other, he would let truth go in order that he might search for it. Something of this philosophy is in these verses:

For me the loitering of the road,
The hidden voice that sings;
For me the vernal mysteries,
Deep woods and silent springs.

I covet not the ended road,
The granary, the sheaf;
For me the sowing of the grain,
The promise of the leaf. (Text.)

--_Lippincott’s Magazine._

(106)

See NATURE’S ANTIDOTE.

ANTIPATHIES, INSTINCTIVE

It would be an excellent accomplishment if an abhorrence of moral evils could be bred in men similar to the instinctive antipathies described in this extract:

It seems absolutely incredible that Peter the Great, the father
of the Russian navy, should shudder at the sight of water,
whether running or still, yet so it was, especially when alone.
His palace gardens, beautiful as they were, he never entered,
because the river Mosera flowed through them. His coachman
had orders to avoid all roads which led past streams, and if
compelled to cross a brook or bridge, the great emperor would
sit with closed windows, in a cold perspiration. Another
monarch, James I, the English Solomon, as he liked to be called,
had many antipathies, chiefly tobacco, ling, and pork. He never
overcame his inability to look at a drawn sword, and it is said
that on one occasion when giving the accolade, the king turned
his face aside, nearly wounding the new-made knight. Henry III
of France had so great a dislike for cats that he fainted at
the sight of one. We suppose that in this case the cat had to
waive his proverbial prerogative, and could not look at a king.
This will seem as absurd, as extraordinary to lady lovers of
that much-petted animal, but what are we to say of the Countess
of Lamballe, of unhappy history, to whom a violet was a thing
of horror? Even this is not without its precedent, for it is on
record that Vincent, the painter, was seized with vertigo and
swooned at the smell of roses. Scaliger states that one of his
relations was made ill at the sight of a lily, and he himself
would turn pale at the sight of watercresses, and could never
drink milk. Charles Kingsley, naturalist as he was to the core,
had a great horror of spiders, and in “Glaucus,” after saying
that every one seems to have his antipathic animal, continues:
“I know one (himself), bred from his childhood to zoology by
land and sea, and bold in asserting and honest in feeling that
all, without exception, is beautiful, who yet can not after
handling and petting and examining all day long, every uncouth
and venomous beast, avoid a paroxysm of horror at the sight
of the common house-spider.” (Text.)--_Cassell’s Family
Magazine._

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* * * * *

A well-known officer of Her Majesty’s army, who has proved
his strength and courage in more than one campaign, turns
pale at the sight of a cat. On one occasion, when asked out
to dinner, his host, who was rather skeptical as to the
reality of this feeling, concealed a cat in an ottoman in the
dining-room. Dinner was announced and commenced, but his guest
was evidently ill at ease; and at length declared his inability
to go on eating, as he was sure there was a cat in the room.
An apparently thorough but unavailing search was made; but
his visitor was so completely upset that the host, with many
apologies for his experiment, “let the cat out of the bag,”
and out of the ottoman at the same time.--_Cassell’s Family
Magazine._

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=Antiques, Artificial=--See AGE.

ANTIQUITY

Sven Hedin has furnished additional evidence of the Chinese
invention of paper. On his recent journeys he found Chinese
paper that dates back to the second half of the third century
after Christ. This lay buried in the sand of the Gobi desert,
near the former northern shore of the Lop Nor Sea, where, in the
ruins of a city and in the remnants of one of the oldest houses,
he discovered a goodly lot of manuscripts, many of paper,
covered with Chinese script, preserved for some 1,650 years. The
date is Dr. Himly’s conclusion. According to Chinese sources,
paper was manufactured as early as the second millennium before
the Christian era. The character of the Gobi desert find makes
it probable that the making of paper out of vegetable fibers
was already an old art in the third Christian century.--_The
Scientific American._

(109)

See PEDIGREE.

ANXIETY, COST OF

An English auctioneer tells the following story:

I had eight acres of land to sell, and there was one landowner
in the district, whom I will call Mr. Robinson, who was very
anxious to secure this particular piece of land because it
adjoined his own estate. He had already attempted to acquire it
by private arrangement, but the negotiations had fallen through.

Being engaged at the funeral of a relative on the day of the
sale, he left very definite instructions with his butler, who
had only entered his service a day or two before, to attend the
sale and buy the land at any price. The butler duly came to the
sale and took up his station in the old chimney-corner, out of
sight of every one excepting myself. It so happened, however,
that Mr. Robinson was back from the funeral earlier than he
expected, and, going to the sale and failing to observe his
butler, began the bidding with an offer of $2,500. Up and up
went the price, the landowner and the butler bidding against
one another like Trojans, until at last the field was knocked
down to the latter at $7,500. The feelings of Mr. Robinson and
the amusement of the company may be easily imagined when the
purchaser remarked in a quiet voice, “For Mr. Robinson. Here’s
his check for you to fill in for the deposit.”

Fortunately, Mr. Robinson was anything but a poor man, and
he had benefited to the tune of $200,000 in the loss of his
relative, so the few extra thousands he paid did not hurt him.

(110)

ANYHOW, THE LAND OF

Beyond the Isle of What’s-the-Use,
Where Slipshod Point is now,
There used to be, when I was young,
The Land of Anyhow.

Don’t Care was king of all this realm--
A cruel king was he!
For those who served him with good heart
He treated shamefully!

When boys and girls their tasks would slight
And cloud poor mother’s brow,
He’d say, “Don’t care! It’s good enough!
Just do it anyhow.”

But when in after life they longed
To make proud fortune bow,
He let them find that fate ne’er smiles
On work done anyhow.

For he who would the harvest reap
Must learn to use the plow,
And pitch his tent a long, long way
From the Land of Anyhow!

--_Canadian Presbyterian._

(111)

APOLOGY APPRECIATED

The Hon. W. P. Fessenden unintentionally made a remark against
Seward, which was considered to be highly insulting. When
Fessenden was informed of the construction placed upon it, he
went frankly to Seward, and said, “Mr. Seward, I have insulted
you, but I did not mean it.” Mr. Seward was so delighted with
the frank apology that he exclaimed, “God bless you, Fessenden!
I wish you would insult me again.”--JAMES T. WHITE,
“Character Lessons.”

(112)

APPAREL

The late Mark Twain, in _The North American Review_, gave a striking “Sartor Resartus” sketch of what might be the Czar’s morning meditations, from which we quote the following paragraph:

“After the Czar’s morning bath it is his habit to meditate
an hour before dressing himself.”--London _Times_
Correspondence.

(_Viewing himself in the pier-glass._) Naked, what am I? A
lank, skinny, spiderlegged libel on the image of God! Look at
the waxwork head--the face, with the expression of a melon--the
projecting ears--the knotted elbows--the dished breast--the
knife-edged shins--and then the feet, all beads and joints and
bonesprays, an imitation X-ray photograph! There is nothing
imperial about this, nothing imposing, impressive, nothing to
invoke awe and reverence. Is it this that a hundred and forty
million Russians kiss the dust before and worship? Manifestly
not! No one could worship this spectacle, which is Me. Then who
is it, what is it, that they worship? Privately, none knows
better than I: it is my clothes. Without my clothes I should
be as destitute of authority as any other naked person. Nobody
could tell me from a parson, a barber, a dude. Then who is the
real Emperor of Russia? My clothes. There is no other. (Text.)

(113)

See DRESS AFFECTING MOODS.

APPAREL IN FORMER TIMES

When Governor Bowdoin, a tall, dignified man, reviewed the
troops assembled at Cambridge, in 1785, he was drest in a gray
wig, cocked hat, a white broadcloth coat and waistcoat, red
small-clothes, and black silk stockings. John Hancock, thin in
person, six feet in stature, was very fond of ornamental dress.
He wore a wig when abroad, and a cap when at home. A gentleman
who visited Hancock one day at noon, in June, 1782, describes
him as drest in a red velvet cap lined with fine white linen,
which was turned up two or three inches over the lower edge of
the velvet. He also wore a blue damask gown lined with silk; a
white stock, a white satin embroidered waistcoat, black satin
small-clothes, white silk stockings, and red morocco slippers.
Washington, at his receptions in Philadelphia, was drest in
black velvet; his hair was powdered and gathered behind in a
large silk bag. His hands were encased in yellow gloves; he
held a cocked hat with a cockade on it, and its edges adorned
with a black feather. He wore knee and shoe buckles, and at
his left hip appeared a long sword in a polished white leather
scabbard, with a polished steel hilt. Chief-Justice Dana, of
Massachusetts, used to wear in winter a white corduroy surtout,
lined with fur, and held his hands in a large muff. The judges
of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts wore, till 1793, robes
of scarlet, faced with black velvet, in winter, and black silk
gowns in summer. At the beginning of this century powder for
the hair became unfashionable, tying up the hair was abandoned,
colored garments went out of use, buckles disappeared, and
knee-breeches gave place to trousers.--_Youth’s Companion._

(114)

See JUDGING FROM FACTS.

APPEAL, A LIVING

Dr. Bernardo, of London, the great philanthropist, was standing
at his front door one bitter day, when a ragged urchin came up
to him and asked to be admitted to the Orphans’ Home. “How do
I know what you tell me is true? Have you any friends to speak
for you?” asked Dr. Bernardo, assuming a tone of severity.
“Friends!” echoed the little fellow--“friends! No, I ain’t got
no friends. But if these ere rags,” holding up his tattered
garments, “if these ere rags won’t speak for me, nothing else
will.” (Text.)

(115)

=Appeal Wasted=--See OMNISCIENCE.

APPEARANCE

The Late Charles P. Thompson, of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, at one time in his practise had a client named Michael Dougherty, who had been arrested for the illegal sale of liquor, but the police had no evidence except one pint of whisky, which they found in his alleged kitchen barroom. The Boston _Herald_, in relating this story, says:

In the superior court this evidence was produced and a somewhat
vivid claim made of _prima facie_ evidence of guilt by the
prosecuting attorney. During all this time Mr. Thompson was
silent. When his turn came for the defense he arose and said:

“Michael Dougherty, take the stand.”

And Mike, with big red nose, unshaven face, bleared eyes, and a
general appearance of dilapidation and dejection, took the stand.

“Michael Dougherty, look upon the jury. Gentlemen of the jury,
look on Michael Dougherty,” said Mr. Thompson. All complied.
Mr. Thompson himself silently and steadily gazing at Mike for a
moment, slowly and with solemnity turned to the jury and said:
“Gentlemen of the jury, do you mean to say to this court and to
me that you honestly and truly believe that Michael Dougherty,
if he had a pint of whisky, would sell it?”

It is needless to say Mike was acquitted. (Text.)

(116)

APPEARANCES

An officer of a Cunard steamer remarked that there is “a vast
difference between the appearance of steerage passengers
returning to Europe and those coming to America. On the western
voyage the faces of the immigrants are bright with expectancy.
You can see that they have been inspired by the roseate visions
painted for them by their friends who have succeeded on this
side of the water. Those who go back are not many. You can pick
them out by their dejected looks. They have not succeeded. They
have found that hard work is just as necessary to get along in
the States as in Europe.”

The sad faces of those who go back because they failed is an illustration of the gloomy hearts that are carried by those who have turned away from their Christian profession and gone back to their sins.

(117)

See PROFESSION VERSUS CHARACTER; SPIRITUAL DECLENSION.

=Appearances, Judging by=--See JUDGMENTS, INDISCRIMINATE.

APPEARANCES MISLEADING

It is the custom in European, if not in all American, prisons to
shave the head and face of criminals in order to have the full
force of the moral expression furnished by the contour of one
and the outlines of the other. A profusion of hair may disguise
the head whose shape often reveals a degree of turpitude. A
luxuriant mustache may hide a mouth about which lurks the
evidence of the basest instincts. (Text.)--San Francisco
_Chronicle_.

(118)

APPETITE

To be slain by appetite is a common fate with men, as it was with this serpent:

A boa-constrictor woke up hungry from a three months’ nap and
caught a rabbit, which he bolted whole in the usual way. This
did not satisfy the cravings of his capacious stomach, and so
he went a-field in search of further victuals, and presently
came to a rail fence, which he essayed to get through. But the
lump caused by the defunct tho undigested bunny stopt him, like
a knot in a rope, when his head and a few feet only of his body
had passed between the rails. Lying in this attitude, he caught
and swallowed another rabbit which had incautiously ventured
within his narrow sphere of action. Now, what was the state of
affairs? He could neither go ahead nor astern through the fence,
being jammed by his fore-and-aft inside passengers, and in this
embarrassing position he was slain with ease.

(119)

APPOINTMENT, GOD’S

Take each disappointment
As thy Lord’s appointment
Sent in love divine;
Check all faithless fretting
God is not forgetting
Any need of thine.

=Appraising the Christian Religion=--See CHRISTIAN HONESTY.

=Appreciating Patience=--See GOOD, SEEING THE.

APPRECIATION

When Sir Godfrey Kneller had painted for Alexander Pope the statues of Apollo, Venus, and Hercules, the poet paid the painter with these lines:

What god, what genius did the pencil move,
When Kneller painted these!
’Twas friendship, warm as Phœbus, kind as love,
And strong as Hercules.

(120)

* * * * *

The reckless extravagance that has brought Princess Louise,
of Belgium, into such trouble with her royal relations is far
from being due entirely to selfishness, and Brussels now is
discussing, half in admiration, half in despair, the latest
story showing the utter inability of the princess to realize the
value of money or the things it buys. When in Paris, a few weeks
ago, she happened to be in her room in her hotel when a little
work-girl from one of the shops in the Rue de la Paix called
to deliver a gown. Princess Louise was struck with the girl’s
charm of face and manner, and, keeping her for a few minutes in
conversation, chanced to admire a small silver medal she was
wearing around her neck.

“It is a medal of the virgin of Prague,” said the girl. “Perhaps
your Highness will accept it.”

Princess Louise thanked her warmly; but, insisting on giving the
girl something to replace the trinket, handed her a rope of
pearls. The girl supposed they were only imitations, but the
whole story came out in a few days when, on taking them to a
jeweler to have the clasp tightened, she was cross-questioned as
to how the pearls had come into her possession. They proved to
be worth more than $11,000.--New York _Press_.

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See COMPLIMENT; ENDEAVOR; HEROISM RECOGNIZED; KINSHIP.

=Appreciation, Belated=--See IRRETRIEVABLE, THE.

APPRECIATION, DELAYED

Mrs. Marion M. Hutson points out the necessity of appreciating the help of others before it is too late.

Somewhere in the future--God knows when--
These tired hands will lie at rest--and then
The friends and loved ones will recall with tears
Some kindly deed they wrought in bygone years.
Will ponder o’er those little acts again,
And register them all on heart and brain.
My precious ones, why wait? Tell me to-day
If ever hands of mine have soothed your way.

(122)

APPRECIATION, LACK OF

The owner of a small country estate decided to sell his
property, and consulted an estate agent in the nearest town
about the matter. After visiting the place, the agent wrote a
description of it, and submitted it to his client for approval.

“Read that again,” said the owner, closing his eyes and leaning
back in his chair contentedly.

After the second reading he was silent a few moments, and then
said thoughtfully: “I don’t think I’ll sell. I’ve been looking
for that kind of a place all my life, but until you read that
description I didn’t know I had it! No; I won’t sell now.”

If we could see our own blessings as others see them, would it not add to our contentment with our lot?

(123)

APPRECIATION OF CHARACTER

A shipping merchant said to a boy applying for work, “What can
you do?” “I can do my best to do what you are kind enough to let
me try,” replied the boy. “What have you done?” “I have sawed
and split my mother’s wood for nearly two years.” “What have you
_not_ done?” “Well, sir,” the boy replied after a moment’s
reflection, “I have not whispered in school for over a year.”
“That is enough,” said the merchant. “I will take you aboard
my vessel, and I hope some day to see you her captain. A boy
who can master a wood-pile and bridle his tongue must have good
stuff in him.”--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(124)

=Appreciation of Poetry=--See POET APPRECIATED.

=Appreciation of the Gospel Story=--See FATHER, OUR.

APPRECIATION, SPIRITUAL

An infinite joy is lost to the world by the want of culture
of the spiritual endowment. Suppose that I were to visit a
cottage and to see its walls lined with the choicest pictures of
Raffael, and every spare nook filled with statues of the most
exquisite workmanship, and that I were to learn that neither
man, woman, nor child ever cast an eye at these miracles of
art, how should 1 feel their privation; how should I want to
open their eyes, and to help them to comprehend and feel the
loveliness and grandeur which in vain courted their notice!
But every husbandman is living in sight of the works of a
diviner Artist; and how much would his existence be elevated
could he see the glory which shines forth in their forms,
hues, proportions, and moral expression!--WILLIAM ELLERY
CHANNING.

(125)

APPREHENSION, LINCOLN’S

In Carl Schurtz’ war reminiscences, we find the following, showing the apprehension felt by Lincoln at the outbreak of the war:

One afternoon, after he [President Lincoln] had issued his call
for troops, he sat alone in his room, and a feeling came over
him as if he were utterly deserted and helpless. He thought
any moderately strong body of Secessionist troops, if there
were any in the neighborhood, might come over the “long bridge”
across the Potomac, and just take him and the members of the
Cabinet--the whole lot of them. Then he suddenly heard a sound
like the boom of a cannon. “There they are!” he said to himself.
He expected every moment that somebody would rush in with the
report of an attack. But the White House attendants, whom he
interrogated, had heard nothing. Nobody came, and all remained
still. Then he thought he would look after the thing himself.
So he walked out, and walked and walked until he got to the
arsenal. There he found the doors all open, and not a soul to
guard them. Anybody might have gone in and helped himself to the
arms. There was perfect solitude and stillness all around. Then
he walked back to the White House without noticing the slightest
sign of disturbance. He met a few persons on the way, some of
whom he asked whether they had not heard something like the boom
of a cannon. Nobody had heard anything, and so he supposed it
must have been a freak of his imagination. It is probable that
at least a guard was sent to the arsenal that evening. (Text.)

(126)

=Aptitude=--See CAPACITY, ORIGINAL.

=Arch, The=--See ANCIENT ART.

=Architecture Imitating Nature=--See NATURE A MODEL.

ARGUING FOR TRUTH

To illustrate the extraordinary argumentativeness of the Scots
there is a story of a Scotchman who lay dying in a London
hospital. A woman visitor wanted to sing to him some hymns, but
he told her that he had all his life fought against using hymn
tunes in the service of God, but he was willing to argue the
question with her as long as his senses remained. I say that
when a man in the face of death is willing to stand for the
truth as it has been taught to him, it is out of such stuff that
heroes are made. (Text.)--JOHN WATSON.

(127)

=Argument, Ineffectual=--See DOCILITY, SPIRITUAL.

ARISTOCRACY, ABSURDITIES OF

It is common to find in American novels such expressions as
“great families,” “best society,” “long descended,” and we
also hear of the “exclusiveness” of the “fastidious” American
aristocracy, who think as much of their positions as the
haughtiest _vieille noblesse_ in Europe. “A patrician
crush” is, according to one writer, the synonym of what
another calls “a tony gathering.” These crushes and gatherings
have, however, little of the aristocratic element in their
composition. They are, for the most part, but fashionable
circles in which prevails “the milliner’s estimate of life.” It
is into this society that the young lady makes her “dew-bew,”
as _debut_ is startlingly pronounced in America. In no
other English-speaking community do the plebeians stickle
so for the titles of “gentleman” and “lady.” I was told by
an Irish-American laundress that “the lady what did the
clear-starching got twelve dollars a week.” And I have heard
of a cabman who asked, “Are you the man as wants a gentleman
to drive him to the depot?” During an investigation concerning
the Cambridge, Mass., workhouse, one of the witnesses spoke
of the “ladies’ cell.” And a newspaper reporter writing of a
funeral had occasion to say how “the corpse of the dead lady”
looked. The plebeian who, by dint of hard work, has accumulated
wealth, often aspires to patrician distinction. Tiffany, of
New York, is said to have a pattern-book of crests, from
which the embryo nobleman may choose an escutcheon emblematic
either of his business or of some less worthy characteristic.
A shirt-maker of Connecticut, having made a fortune by an
improved cutting-machine, announced his intention of getting
a coat of arms. An unappreciative commoner asked him if the
design would be a shirt rampant. “No,” he gravely replied, “it
will be a shirt pendant and washerwoman rampant.”--HAROLD
BRYDGES, _Cosmopolitan_.

(128)

ARISTOCRACY, INGRAINED

Tolstoy says:

Speaking of my past I condemn myself unreservedly, for all my
faults and errors were the natural result of my aristocratic
birth and training, which is the worst thing that can befall a
man, as it stifles every human instinct. Turgenef wrote to me:
“You have tried for many years to become a peasant in conduct as
well as in ideas, but you nevertheless are the same aristocrat.
You are good-hearted and have a charming personality, but I have
observed that in all your practical dealings with the peasants
you remain the patronizing master who likes to be esteemed for
his benefactions and to be considered the bounteous patriarch,”
in which he was very right.

(129)

=Ark, Noah’s Seaworthy=--See BIBLE RE-ENFORCED.

=Armament, Costly=--See WAR, AFTER EFFECTS OF.

ARMIES OF THE WORLD

The comparative exemption of the United States from great
military burdens may be inferred from the chart below. The cost
proportionately of maintaining the army in this country is
far greater than in Europe. The table below shows the cost of
maintaining the armies of some of the principal countries.

British Army (1908–09) $138,800,000
United States Army 103,000,000
German Army 206,000,000
French Army (1907–08) 189,000,000

(130)

See MILITARISM.

Russia Germany Austria Italy France Japan Great U. S.
-Hungary Britain

COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE ARMIES OF THE WORLD]

ARMOR

The king-crab, found in the Indian and American seas, is armed
with a sword-like weapon at his tail and his head is protected
by a sword-shaped helmet, so he is well armed for the battle of
life. Since he and his ancestry have assisted in purifying the
sea, we can see the wisdom which preserved them from age to age.

In the age-long battle against spiritual enemies, Paul urges the
Ephesian Christians to “take unto them the whole armor of God”;
“and having done all to stand.” (Text.)

(131)

See RESISTANCE.

ARMOR-PROOF

Paul writes of the “whole armor of God,” proof against “the fiery darts of the wicked.”

Mr. W. T. Stead thinks that armor is certainly about to be
revived in the military forces of Europe. A bullet-proof
substance has been discovered; and if it be used as a
breast-plate like a steel cuirass, it will put a different face
on modern warfare. The French Government has tested the new
armor, and reports that it has four or five times the resistance
of chilled steel, and is invulnerable to rifle bullets. The
equipment is not heavier than a cuirass and costs half as much.
Of his own observation in this matter, Mr. Stead writes as
follows in the London _Daily Chronicle_:

“I have myself witnessed experiments which go to prove that the
soldier provided with this new armor can expose himself to the
fire of modern rifles, at a distance of one hundred yards, and
suffer as little from their fire as if he were being assailed by
pea-shooters. The regiment arrayed in this armor of proof, and
marching up to within one hundred yards of the enemy, suffers no
more damage from a mitraille of steel bullets than if it were
marching through an ordinary hailstorm.”

(132)

=Army, Tribute to=--See ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

AROUSAL

Sensationalism in the sense of stirring men to greater interest in verities, seems wholly praiseworthy:

Old Peter Cartwright was a famous preacher and circuit-rider
many years ago.

The exhorter was holding a camp-meeting in Ohio. There was a
great number of campers on the field, and the eccentric speaker
addrest vast concourses at every service, but he thought too
few were being converted. He felt that something should be
done to stir the sinners to repentance, so he prepared a strong
sermon on the second coming of Christ. He told how the world
would go on in its sin and wickedness, and at last Gabriel would
sound his trumpet and time would come to an end. He described
the horrors of the lost and the joys of those who were saved.
The sermon grew in intensity, and he brought his people up to
a grand climax, when suddenly the sound of a trumpet smote the
ears of the anxious throng.

There was a great sensation, and many fell upon their knees in
terror and began to repent and pray. Women screamed and strong
men groaned. Pandemonium was let loose for a few minutes. After
the terror had somewhat ceased the preacher called to a man up
a tree, and he descended with a long tin horn in his hand. The
speaker then turned in fierce wrath and upbraided the people.
He cried out in stentorian tones that, if a man with a tin horn
up a tree could frighten them so, how would it be in the last
great end when Gabriel’s trumpet sounded the knell of the world!
The sermon had a great effect upon the vast audience, and many
hundreds flocked to the front and were converted.

(133)

AROUSEMENT BY A THOUGHT

It is not infrequent to find a really great mind sunk in
apathy for want of a compelling thought, a dominant idea, a
commensurate ambition. Then something rouses such a mind, and
at the touch of a magic wand its slumber is broken. Some hint
drops like a seed into its prepared soil, and the mind becomes
so renewed and vitalized that henceforth it scarcely seems the
same. This was precisely the history of Gibbon’s intellect.
The moment when his imaginative sympathy was touched with the
thought of the past glory and present degradation of Rome, was
the moment that freed all the latent powers of his genius, as
ice is thawed by the sudden burst of summer warmth. And in
that moment, also, his years of wide and irregular study bore
fruit.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Prose.”

(134)

=Arousing an Undutiful Son=--See WORSHIPER, A MOTHER.

=Arrested Development=--See RETARDATION.

=Arriving=--See AMBITION.

=Art=--See HOME VALUES; PICTURE, RECORD PRICE FOR; REALISM.

=Art, Age in=--See ENDURING ART.

=Art as a Transformer=--See BEAUTIFUL, INFLUENCE OF THE.

ART, DECLINE OF

As long as a family thought itself comfortably furnished with a
chest or two, a wardrobe, a box-bedstead, a dozen earthenware
pots of different sizes, and three or four vessels of pewter
or copper, each one of these objects of utility might become a
vehicle for a good deal of artistic thought. The piece would
be handed down from mother to daughter, from father to son. At
all events, it would be made with that possibility in mind.
It was made to last, and in an artistic community it would be
the object of a good deal of careful consideration as to its
form and as to the little adornments that might be added to
it. Now, however, when the poorest family requires two hundred
utensils of one and another kind, and finds, moreover, that
these utensils are furnished at an incredibly low price by great
companies which make them by the thousand and force them upon
the customer with favorable opportunities for immediate delivery
and gradual payment, the possibility of having the common
objects of life beautiful has gone.--RUSSELL STURGIS,
“Lubke’s History of Art.”

(135)

ART, DEVOTION TO

The secret of success in any calling is an enthusiasm for our work like that of this artist:

The steamer was anchored in Glacier Bay, and he [R. Swain
Gifford] was alone on the beach near Muir inlet, sketching. He
was making a sketch of the Muir glacier, which was 250 feet
above water and two miles wide. Suddenly he noticed an enormous
mass of ice breaking away from the glacier. It was several
hundred yards long, and Gifford quickly realized that he was
witnessing something few men had seen. He saw his danger if
he stayed on the beach, but he wanted a picture of that huge
detached mass of ice. He had his camera with him; he quickly
adjusted it and took a snap-shot. He didn’t lose a minute then
in collecting his tools and running as fast as he could to the
high ground.

He escaped none too soon. The great mass of ice dropt into the
water, and then came a return wave that would have swallowed the
artist if he hadn’t been on high ground. (Text.)

(136)

=Art Highly Valued=--See PICTURE, RECORD PRICE FOR.

=Art in Weather Changes=--See ICE BEAUTY.

ART UNAPPRECIATED

The enterprising manager of a Paris theater once called upon
Meissonier and asked him to paint a drop-scene for a certain
theater and name his own terms. “You have seen my pictures,
then?” asked Meissonier. “Oh, yes,” exclaimed the manager; “but
it is your name--your name I want; it will draw crowds to my
theater.” “And how large is it you wish this curtain to be?”
inquired the artist. “Ah, well, we will say fifteen meters by
eighteen.” Meissonier took up a pencil and proceeded to make a
calculation. At last he looked up and said with imperturbable
gravity, “I have calculated and find that my pictures are valued
at 80,000 francs per meter. Your curtain, therefore, will cost
you just 21,600,000 francs. But that is not all. It takes me
twelve months to paint twenty centimeters of canvas. It will,
therefore, take me just one hundred and ninety years to finish
your curtain. You should have come to me earlier, monsieur;
I am too old for the undertaking now. Good-morning.”--_Art
Amateur._

(137)

See AGE.

ARTICULATION

“Clear articulation, not loudness in speech, is what the deaf
desire. Remember this, and not only will the deaf hear, but they
will be spared the physical pains and embarrassing discomfort
occasioned by shouting,” advised Dr. C. J. Blake in a lecture at
the Harvard medical school during which he discust hearing and
speech.

“People thoughtlessly shout at those who are afflicted with
deafness, little realizing the real pain they are causing,” said
Dr. Blake. “If you would be thoughtful and considerate of these
unfortunates, put emphasis on the articulation. Again and again
have deaf persons said to me, ‘How I wish people would not shout
at me so,’ and there is a pathetic note in the voice which long
suffering creates.”

It was brought out that the so-called drumhead is tough enough
to sustain a column of mercury twelve inches high and of its own
diameter; but is, nevertheless, delicate enough to record sound
waves vibrating 50,000 times a second.

The ordinary human voice, he explained, is vibrating about 152
times, and should be perfectly understood by an ordinary healthy
individual. Consonant sounds, he said, are the retarding factor
in speech, hence it is the duty of every person to cultivate the
habit of clear articulation.

(138)

ARTIFICE

I once discovered a mother cuckoo in charge of an infant,
evidently on his first outing. Drawn by his insistent demand for
food, I came unexpectedly upon the pair in a retired spot in the
woods. At sight of me the mother instantly left her clamorous
offspring and flew to the lowest limb of a tree near by, where
she treated me to a series of theatrical postures, bows,
feathered displays, and acrobatic performances wonderful to
see, keeping up at the same time a low cry which had instantly
silenced the baby cries I had heard. Never for an instant taking
her eyes off me, nor interrupting her remarkable demonstrations,
the anxious mother very gradually, almost imperceptibly, moved
away, a twig at a time, while I followed, fascinated and far
more interested in her dramatic efforts than in finding her
youngling. When she had thus drawn me several feet away from
the dangerous spot, presto! she took to her wings and was
gone.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(139)

* * * * *

There is a pleasant story of a lawyer, who, being refused
entrance into heaven by St. Peter, contrived to throw his hat
inside the door; and then, being permitted by the kind saint to
go in and fetch it, took advantage of his being fixt to his post
as doorkeeper to refuse to come back again. (Text.)--CROAKE
JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(140)

* * * * *

A congregation in Connecticut had lost their pastor, and were
desirous of filling his place. But their last minister had
been self-taught, and the aristocracy--to wit, the deacons,
etc.--stipulated that the new minister should have a classical
education. In order to be sure of their man, the deacons agreed
to let applicants preach a sermon on trial. At last a Welshman
heard of the vacancy, but he was less learned than the one who
had left; still, he determined to try. The day was arranged,
the appointed minute arrived, and the candidate mounted into
the pulpit. He got well on in his sermon, when he suddenly
recollected that he was expected to show his learning.

“My friends” he said, “I will now quote you a passage in Greek.”

With a solemn look he repeated a verse in his native tongue. The
effect was marvelous; approving nods and smiles were exchanged
among the deacons. Thus encouraged, he followed up his advantage
by saying:

“Perhaps you would also like to hear it in Latin?”

He then repeated another passage in Welsh; this was even more
successful than before. The preacher cast his eye over his
flock, and saw that he was regarded with looks of increasing
respect. Unfortunately, there was also a Welshman in the
congregation; he was sitting at the back, almost choked in his
efforts to stifle his laughter. The minister’s eye fell on him,
and took in the whole situation at a glance. Preserving his
countenance, he continued:

“I will also repeat it in Hebrew.”

He then sang out in his broadest Welsh: “My dear fellow, stop
laughing, or they will find it out.”

The other understood, stifled his laughter, and afterward dined
with his successful countryman.--_Tit-Bits._

(141)

See FOOLISHNESS SOMETIMES IS WISDOM; PREFERRED CREDITOR.

=Artifice in Insects=--See SIMULATION.

=Ascent of Man=--See BLESSING THE ROPES.

ASCETICISM

The black shadow of asceticism spread over the sky of the
Puritan Fathers. Given two coats, they chose the ugliest one.
Given two colors for the woman’s garb, they chose the saddest
and somberest. Given two roads, they chose the one that held
the most thorns and cutting rocks. Given two forms of fear and
self-denial, they took both. The favorite text of asceticism
is “deny yourself.” The favorite color of asceticism is black;
its favorite music, a dirge; its favorite hour is midnight;
its favorite theme is a tombstone. The mistake of asceticism
is in thinking that pain by itself considered has a moral
value.--N. D. HILLIS.

(142)

Macaulay said that “the Puritans hated bear-baiting, not because
it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the
spectators.” I once knew a man of this type who rooted up his
wife’s flower-bed on the ground that attention to flowers was a
wicked waste of time that ought to be given to the study of the
Bible.--W. C. S.

(143)

ASKING AMISS

We ask for so many foolish things. If we should get them we would not know what to do with the answers. “Sophie,” the scrub-woman, of Brooklyn, in her quaint, half-broken English, once said this:

“I heard about a countryman who was in the city for the first
time. He went into a restaurant and made up his mind to have
something fine, whatever the cost. He saw a man at the next
table put a little mustard on his plate, and he said ‘that must
be fine and expensive, he has so little, but no matter what it
costs, I will haf some.’ So he told the waiter to bring him a
dollar’s worth of that stuff. A plate was brought. He took a big
spoonful: it bit him; he spit it out and did not want any more.
So, we ask for things that if our Father should give them to us
we would only be bitten by them and be glad to get rid of them.”
(Text.)

(144)

=Asking and Receiving=--See FAITH AND PRAYER.

ASKING, BOLDNESS IN

The story is told in the Springfield _Republican_ that
Andrew Carnegie asked a young man who was about to become
a student at Jena to get for him an autograph of Professor
Haeckel. When it arrived it read thus: “Ernst Haeckel
gratefully acknowledges the receipt from Andrew Carnegie of
a Zumpt microscope for the biological laboratory of the Jena
University.” Mr. Carnegie made good, admiring the scientist more
than ever. (Text.)

(145)

ASLEEP

Tsavo is 133 miles from Mombasa, and during the construction
of the line no less than twenty-nine Indians were eaten there
by lions. The work was threatened, and a party of three young
men--Hubner, Parenti and Ryal--took a car and lay in wait at
night for a bold man-eater, who had stalked up and picked up a
man on an open railway truck as the train slowed down into the
station. Parenti lay on the floor, Hubner was in an upper berth,
and Ryal was on the seat of the carriage, with his rifle. Ryal
was on guard, but unfortunately he fell asleep. At 2 o’clock
in the morning the man-eater they were hunting entered the
carriage, picked up Ryal, jumped through the window, and fled
to the forest, where the unfortunate man’s whitened bones were
long afterward found.--PETER MACQUEEN, _Leslie’s
Weekly_.

(146)

ASPIRATION

Does not every man at times feel the aspiration to realize the man he “might have been”:

Across the fields of long ago
He sometimes comes to me,
A little lad with face aglow--
The lad I used to be.

And yet he smiles so wistfully,
Once he has crept within--
I think that he still hopes to see
The man I might have been!

(147)

* * * * *

Climb on! Climb ever! Ne’er despond,
Tho from each summit gained
There stretch forth ever heights beyond--
Ideals to be attained!
Life’s rescript simply is to climb,
Unheeding toil and tire;
Failure hath no attaint of crime,
If we but still aspire.

--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(148)

* * * * *

The spirit of man is not intended to grovel on low levels or to gravitate downward under carnal influences. Man is the only creature on earth so constructed physically as to be able to gaze upward.

“He died climbing” is the simple inscription on a monument to
an Alpine guide, who perished when attempting the ascent of a
peak. That record is a noble tribute to a hero. His attitude
should be ours--looking upward and pressing forward. He was
pressing on in the pathway of duty. Many a splendid career,
intercepted at the critical juncture, might be described by
the same sententious record. “He died climbing” may be said of
many a young and ardent enthusiast--of Mackay, soon cut off in
Uganda; of Bishop Hannington, reaching the border of the same
land and martyred there; of Patteson, soon slain in Melanesia
by islanders who mistook him for a slave-catching captain; of
Henry Martyn, who did not live to see any of the results of his
mission; of Wyclif, who sent forth the Bible in English but was
not permitted to see the beginning of the Reformation. All these
“died climbing.” (Text.)

(149)

* * * * *

Theodosia Garrison points out in these verses that aspiration, even when it fails of realization, is good for the soul:

Let me remember that I failed,
So I may not forget
How dear that goal the distance veiled
Toward which my feet were set.

Let me forget, if so Thy will,
How fair the joy desired,
Dear God, so I remember still
That one day I aspired. (Text.)

--_Ainslee’s Magazine._

(150)

* * * * *

W. H. T. Squires expresses the normal law of the soul--that its desires are to rise and climb--in these verses:

Up from the mists of marsh and fen,
Up from the gloom of the glen,
The mountains rise to kiss the skies,
They spurn the plain that lowly lies--
Up from the forest’s fitful shade,
Up to the heights that God hath made.

Up from the stains of sordid strife,
Up to a loftier life
My spirit cries, “Aspire! aspire!”
Climb we the heights from high to higher
Up, lest the fleeting daylight fade,
“Up!” is the law God hath laid.

(151)

See DISCONTENT, DIVINE; FOCUSING THE EYE.

ASSIMILATION

The alfalfa plant is a rank species of grass that grows in the
western sections of our country. It is valuable for horses and
also for enriching waste land. It thrives in a soil where other
plants would fail because of its power to find water. Roots in
search of moisture have been found that were eighteen inches in
length. The stalk makes heavy drafts on the surrounding air for
nitrogen. Its powers of assimilation are remarkable. Its rapid
and sturdy growth is a result of its habit of drawing upon all
the surrounding air and the soil to build itself up.

If we wish to grow we must avail ourselves of every possible means. Soul culture depends not only upon hearing the truth, but upon assimilating the truth. (Text.)

(152)

* * * * *

Are there not moral and religious “bolters and chewers.” Some men try to get their religious pabulum by “bolting” all their experience in a revival; others, with a more quiet deliberation, are intent upon growing in grace through the years.

In an address at the Royal Dental Hospital, London, Dr. Osler,
as reported in _The Hospital_ (London), asserted that the
public may be divided into two great groups, the bolters and
chewers. Says this paper: “He maintains that it is the business
of dental students to endeavor to convert the overwhelming
percentage of bolters into a select group of chewers. This is
their mission of utility; but Professor Osler also affirms that
they have a mission to beautify the race. He holds that if there
is one thing more beautiful than another under heaven it is a
beautiful set of teeth. To promote these missions he would have
attached to every elementary school a dental surgeon to inspect
the mouths of the children; and total abstainers will learn with
a shock, that he considers the question of teeth more a national
problem than that of alcohol. If people generally had good teeth
instead of bad, the chewers would be many and the bolters few,
and a potent cause of human suffering and physical deterioration
would be arrested.”

(153)

=Assistance=--See HELPFULNESS.

ASSOCIATION

There are localities in Switzerland where the canary is caged
with a nightingale so that it may catch the sweetness and
breathe into its notes that harmonious melody that delights
all tourists in Europe. It is a demonstration of the power of
association. This canary-bird had been trained by a nightingale.

So men may make their lives strong, pure, sweet and holy in thought, word and deed by unbroken association with those who live on a higher plane. (Text.)

(154)

=Association, Christian=--See WARMTH, LOST.

ASSOCIATION, LAW OF

My father remembered the last clergyman in New England who still
continued to wear the wig. At first it became a singularity and
at last a monstrosity, and the good doctor concluded to leave
it off. But there was one poor woman among his parishioners who
lamented this sadly; and waylaying the clergyman as he came out
of church, she said, “Oh, dear doctor, I have always listened
to your sermon with the greatest edification and comfort, but
now that the wig is gone all is gone.”--JAMES RUSSELL
LOWELL.

(155)

ASSOCIATION, LEARNING BY

A gentleman had in his bird-room a deformed blue jay, who was
reared from the nest and never associated with his kind. In the
room was also a cardinal grosbeak, one of the finest singers of
his family. The young blue jay learned the song of the cardinal
so perfectly that the gentleman could not tell it from the
cardinal’s own. “Even when hearing the two performers almost
together, I could distinguish only a slight difference, which
was not in the cardinal’s favor.”--OLIVE THORNE MILLER,
“The Bird Our Brother.”

(156)

ASSOCIATIONS MOLD MEN

Among the doctrines of Belial is the theory that we must familiarize ourselves with evil if we would have power to resist it.

Jean François Millet in the middle of the last century was
engaged on his early pictures. As they appeared one after
another they astonished and delighted all lovers of art
throughout the world. What were the subjects of these wonderful
paintings? They were all deeply religious--the “Angelus,” the
“Sower,” the “Man with the Hoe,” the “Winnower,” the “Gleaners.”
These masterpieces were not only spiritual, but were replete
with beauty, pathos, power, and with all the works of the
highest genius. Now, the theory had been popular that an artist
must revel in fleshly and voluptuous presentations of life. But
Millet hated the salaciousness of Greece, and Rome was abhorrent
to him. He was a lifelong lover of his Bible, and his life was
one of devotion and purity. (Text.)

(157)

ASSURANCE

Among the Hebrews is preserved a legend of two sisters, who on the night of the Exodus, when the destroying angel passed through the land of Egypt, remained indoors with the family.

One was ready for the departure, and filled with assurance and
peace, so partaking of the paschal lamb. The other was restless
and fearful lest the death angel would not pass them by. “Is
the blood sprinkled?” she kept asking anxiously, reproaching
her confident sister for being so unconcerned. “Oh, is it
sprinkled?” “Why, yes,” said the sister, “the blood has been
sprinkled, and we have God’s word that when He sees the blood He
will pass over.”

(158)

=Assurance from Doing God’s Will=--See TEMPERATURE.

=Astrology=--See BIRTH CEREMONIES.

ASYMMETRY

Men are one-sided in their views and opinions as truly as in the use of their hands. There was never but one character that was perfectly symmetrical: