Chapter C: C. Abbot writes in the New York Sun (3)

=Much in Little=--See MINIATURE WORK; ECONOMY.

=Much in Little Space=--See USELESS LABOR.

=Multiformity of Life=--See INDIVIDUALITY.

MULTIPLE CONSCIOUSNESS

Newspaper readers have been furnished with the details of the
case of the Rev. Ansel Bourne, which may be briefly recalled.
Some years ago a stranger arrived in Norristown, Pa., rented a
store, stocked it, and began business in a quiet, business-like
way which attracted no attention and aroused no suspicion as
to any mental difficulty. Some two months later one of his
neighbors was startled by a call from the newcomer, who, in
a bewildered way, demanded to know where he was, and after a
time explained that he was a Rhode Island clergyman, could
not account for his presence in Norristown, knew nothing of
any of his actions while there, and could only recall that
he had drawn some money from a bank in his native place two
months before, after which his life was a blank. And yet,
during the entire period his actions had been apparently
rational, altho certainly in nowise suggestive of the clerical
profession--rather the reverse. For two months he had been the
sharp, shrewd business man during business hours, and a genial
and by no means straight-laced companion after his store was
closed. These instances of “multiplex personality” have been
recognized by alienists since the time of the historic cases
of Louis V and Felida X. In one state the patient is cheerful,
frank, generous; in another, morose, taciturn, miserly; now
belligerent and then the most peaceable of mortals; by turns
mendacious and truthful, the soul of honor, and the most
depraved of wretches, reveling in immorality, and leading the
life of an ascetic. That the different states are due to changes
in the psychical activity of different portions of the brain is
now the accepted theory, borne out by experiment. This activity
may be set up, modified, perverted, or totally arrested by
disease; but it may also be caused by the influence of one will
over another, as in the familiar illustrations of hypnotism.
A few years ago Dr. Hammond hypnotized a young man before the
New York Medico-Legal Society, causing him to commit imaginary
thefts, assaults, etc., and the phenomena are now the common
property of the medical lecture-room.--Chicago _News_.

(2121)

MUSIC

When Gainsborough was asked how he had obtained the marvelous
expression of inward peace on the face of the “Parish Clerk,”
he said he painted it in time and tune with the sweet singing
of a voice next door, the movements of the brush forming the
beautiful face, and that it was the music that looked out from
the eyes and smiled on the mouth.--“Stories of the English
Artists.”

(2122)

* * * * *

During the Civil War a Union regiment was camping in a Southern
town, and the people stubbornly refused to fraternize with the
men. Houses and shops were closed to them, and the citizens
kept inside. The commanding officer ordered his band to strike
up “Dixie.” Instantly, as if by magic, doors opened, shutters
came down, and soon the street was alive with men, women and
children--all merry and hospitable.

The music had unlocked their hearts.

(2123)

MUSIC AND CHILDREN

Music, especially singing, has a fascination and power over
children that is truly wonderful. It soothes and subdues their
passions and awakens every noble emotion. The school day is
always brighter and better if it is begun with a stirring
song. If the children are tired and nervous or ill-tempered, a
song will quiet them as oil upon a troubled sea. “Music,” says
Luther, “is the art of the prophets, the only art which can
calm the agitation of the soul.” Its moral and religious power
has long been recognized by the Church, but the school is just
beginning to realize its value.--JOHN W. CARR, “Journal
of the Religious Education Association,” 1903.

(2124)

=Music and History=--See HISTORY AND MUSIC CORRELATED.

MUSIC AND SPIDERS

While a gentleman was watching some spiders it occurred to him
to try what effect a tuning-fork would have on the insects. He
suspected that they would regard the sound just as they were
in the habit of regarding the sound made by a fly. And sure
enough they did. He selected a large, ugly spider that had
been feasting on flies for two months. The spider was at one
edge of its web. Sounding the fork, he touched a thread at the
other side of the web and watched the result. Mr. Spider had
the buzzing sound conveyed to him over his telephone wires,
but how was he to know on which particular wire the sound was
traveling? He ran to the center of the web very quickly, and
felt all around until he touched the thread against the other
end of which the fork was sounding; and taking another thread
along, just as a man would take an extra piece of rope, he ran
out to the fork and sprang upon it. Then he retreated a little
way and looked at the fork. He was puzzled. He had expected to
find a buzzing fly. He got on the fork again and danced with
delight. He had caught the sound of the fly and it was music to
him. It is said that spiders are so fond of music that they will
stop their spinning to listen, and a man once said that when
he retired to his room for quiet before dinner and played the
flute, large spiders would come onto the table and remain quite
still, “running away as fast as their legs could carry them”
directly he had finished--_Electrical Review._

(2125)

MUSIC AS A THERAPEUTIC

Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” says:

Besides the excellent power music hath to expel many other
diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against despair and
melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself. In proof
of the truth of the foregoing, many well-authenticated
instances may be cited. Among them may be mentioned the case
of King Philip of Spain, who, when suffering from hopeless
melancholia, was restored to health by the singing of Farinelli
in an adjoining chamber, after every other remedy had proved
futile.--Boston _Musical Herald_.

(2126)

* * * * *

Music has a vast future before it. We are only now beginning to
find out some of its uses. It has been the toy of the rich; it
has often been a source of mere degradation to both rich and
poor; it has been treated as mere jingle and noise--supplying
a rhythm for the dance, a kind of Terpsichorean tomtom--or
serving to start a Bacchanalian chorus, the chief feature of
which has certainly not been the music. And yet those who have
their eyes and ears open may read in these primitive uses,
while they run, the hints of music’s future destiny as a vast
civilizer, recreator, health-giver, work-inspirer, and purifier
of man’s life. The horse knows what he owes to his bells. The
factory girls have been instinctively forced into singing,
finding in it a solace and assistance in work. And for music,
the health-giver, what an untrodden field is there! Have we
never known an invalid to forget pain and weariness under the
stimulus of music? Have you never seen a pale cheek flush up, a
dull eye sparkle, an alertness and vigor take possession of the
whole frame, and animation succeed to apathy? What does all this
mean? It means a truth that we have not fully grasped, a truth
pregnant with vast results to body and mind. It means that music
attacks the nervous system directly, reaches and rouses where
physic and change of air can neither reach nor rouse.--H. R.
HAWEIS, “My Musical Memories.”

(2127)

MUSIC AS A TRANSFORMING POWER

No one denies the influence of music for good. A teacher told me
of a boy, an incorrigible little fellow, who was almost entirely
cured of his bad traits by a violet song.

Down in a green and mossy bed
A modest violet grew;
Its stalk was bent; it hung its head,
As if to hide from view.
And tho it was a lovely flower,
Its colors bright and fair,
It might have graced a rosy bower,
Instead of hiding there.

He sang the violet song at home, on the street, on the
playground, and in school. He loved and believed it; and
its tender thought had helped him to become a noble young
man.--ELIZABETH CASTERTON, “Journal of the National
Educational Association,” 1905.

(2128)

MUSIC AS AN ANESTHETIC

A physician of Geneva, in Switzerland, has successfully employed
music to soothe and tranquillize the dreams of persons who
have taken ether or chloroform in order to undergo surgical
operations.

The music is begun as soon as the anesthetic begins to take
effect, and is continued until the patient awakes. It is said
that not only does this treatment prevent the hysterical effects
sometimes witnessed, but that the patient, on recovering, feels
no nausea or illness.

Another physician uses blue light to produce anesthesia. The
light from a sixteen-candle-power electric lamp, furnished with
a blue bulb, is concentrated upon the patient’s eyes, but the
head and the lamp are enveloped in a blue veil, to shut out
extraneous light. Insensibility is produced in two or three
minutes.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2129)

MUSIC, CHARM OF

A bewitching way to win a mate is to charm her by music. This
is the fashion of our little house-wren, who arrives first
in the nesting region, selects a site for the home, and then
draws a mate out of the vast unknown by his charm of voice.
No one could do it better, for he is a delightful, tireless
singer.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(2130)

MUSIC ELEVATING

R. H. Haweis says:

I have known the oratorio of the Messiah draw the lowest
dregs of Whitechapel into a church to hear it, and during
the performance sobs have broken forth from the silent and
attentive throng. Will any one say that for these people
to have their feelings for once put through such a noble
and long-sustained exercise as that could be otherwise than
beneficial? If such performances of both sacred and secular
music were more frequent, we should have less drunkenness, less
wife-beating, less spending of summer gains, less pauperism in
the winter.

(2131)

=Music from Pain=--See SUFFERING TRANSFORMED.

MUSIC, GOD’S

Since ever the world was fashioned,
Water and air and sod,
A music of divers meanings,
Has flowed from the hand of God.
In valley and gorge and upland,
On stormy mountain height,
He makes him a harp of the forest,
He sweeps the chords with might.
He puts forth his hand to the ocean,
He speaks and the waters flow--
Now in a chorus of thunder,
Now in a cadence low.
He touches the waving flower-bells,
He plays on the woodland streams--
A tender song--like a mother
Sings to her child in dreams.
But the music divinest and dearest,
Since ever the world began,
Is the manifold passionate music
He draws from the heart of man.

--_Temple Bar._

(2132)

MUSIC, GOOD CHEER IN

It is related of James Nasmyth that the rhythmic sound of a
merry little steam-engine introduced into his machine-shop so
quickened the strokes of every hammer, chisel and file in his
workmen’s hands that it nearly doubled the output of work for
the same wages.

A master tailor employed a number of workmen, who, getting hold
of a slow, doleful but catchy air, hummed it to the movement of
their needles, much to the retarding of their work. Observing
the secret, he treated the men to lively airs, having a merry
swing and a rapid movement, and soon the deft and nimble fingers
reverted to their accustomed quickness.

There is science as well as philosophy in singing over our tasks.

(2133)

MUSIC IN THE SOUL

The orchestra does not make music; it is only an instrument for
conveying music from one spirit to other spirits. The orchestra
no more makes the music which it conveys than the telegraph wire
makes the message which it conveys. Music is not a volume of
sound; it is an experience which sound transmits from one soul
to another soul. The composer creates in himself the symphony.
He translates this creation into symbolic language upon a sheet
of paper. The orchestra translates this translation into chords.
These chords received through the ear awaken in the hearer an
experience similar to that which was in the soul of the original
composer.--LYMAN ABBOTT, _The Outlook_.

(2134)

See SOUL MUSIC.

MUSIC OF DESPAIR AND OF HOPE

On the occasion of the funeral service of King Edward VII, William Maxwell, in the _Record and Mail_, of Glasgow, writes as follows concerning the pipes and song:

No music can express the abandonment of grief like the pipes,
for none is so individual. Its notes are the tradition of
centuries of wild freedom, and are bound by no ordinary system.
No music is so personal, for the pipes are the retainers of the
clans.

They, too, wear the tartan, and voice the feelings of their
clan--its joy and grief, its triumph and despair; and none
is more national, for it embodies the soul of a people, its
strength and its passions.

They are famous ballads to which the music of sorrow has been
wedded. For there are two national ballads known as “The Flowers
of the Forest,” and both are written by women. The first version
was written by Jane Elliot, of Minto, and bewails at Flodden
Field--

I’ve heard the lilting at our ewe milking,
Lasses a-lilting before the dawn of day;
But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning,
The flowers of the forest are a’ wede away.

The second song was written on the same subject by Alicia
Rutherford, of Fernilie, afterward known as Mrs. Patrick
Cockburn, and is generally regarded as the more effective in
singing, if not in composition.

I’ve seen the forest, adorned the foremost,
With flowers of the fairest, most pleasant and gay;
Sae bonny was their blooming,
Their scents the air perfuming,
But now they are withered, and weeded away.

Oh, fickle fortune, why this cruel sporting?
Oh, why still perplex us, poor sons of a day?
Nae mair your smiles can cheer me,
Nae mair your frowns can fear me,
For the flowers of the forest are a’ wede away.

The words are beautiful, and instinct with sorrow when spoken
or sung. But it is the music of the pipes that gives them
supreme interpretation, and makes them the expression of grief
so profound that “The Flowers of the Forest” has become the
national dirge. Nor is sorrow their only note.

The pipes can sound--and have sounded on many a stricken field
and in many an hour of despair--the triumph of hope and of
victory over death. They have stirred the blood and cleared
the head, and given strength to the arm of many a soldier who
has never dreamed of the eagle plume blended with the heather
and never heard through the mists of memory the clash of the
broadsword on the targe--

I hear the pibroch sounding
Deep o’er the mountain glen,
While light springing footsteps are trampling the heath--
’Tis the march of the Cameron men.

(2135)

MUSIC OF NATURE

The Innuits, or Eskimos, of Smith Sound, Greenland, the most
northerly people in the world, believe that the aurora borealis
has a singing noise; and the inhabitants of the Orkneys, of
Finmarken, and those in the region of Hudson Bay believe,
with many competent observers, that a peculiar sound like the
rustling of silk always accompanies it. The Lapps liken this
sound to the cracking in the joints of moving reindeer. (Text.)

(2136)

MUSIC, POPULAR, VALUE OF

All history reveals the fact that music, wedded to stirring and
patriotic words, has in every age had a powerful influence on
the course of public events. Nor is this true alone of civilized
peoples. Among almost all savage races, the warriors excite
themselves to martial ardor by songs which thrill their souls.
The war-dances alike of our North American Indians, of the
African negroes, and of the semicivilized races which dwell in
Asia, are accompanied by songs which, tho wild and incoherent
to European ears, have an inspiring influence upon themselves.
Carlyle wisely said, “The meaning of song goes deep”; and a more
recent writer has declared that “it goes as deep as the heart of
man, the throbbings of which it controls more readily and widely
than do the speeches of statesmen, the sermons of preachers,
or the writings of journalists.” It was clearly because the
influence of legend and of patriotic appeal, joined with
familiar tunes so strongly roused the emotions of the people,
that the ancient bards of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales were
held in such high honor in the old royal courts and princely
castles of these lands, and were regarded with such veneration
by the people everywhere. About two centuries ago Lord Wharton
wrote a political ballad, which was set to music, the title of
which was “Lillibulero.” It was very poor poetry, but somehow
the rude verses struck a chord in the popular heart, and were
sung everywhere. It was written in opposition to King James the
Second; and so wide was its influence that Lord Wharton boasted,
it is said, that it “sang James II out of three kingdoms.”
The effect of the “Marseillaise” in arousing and exciting the
revolutionary spirit of France is one of the prominent facts
in the history of that country. To it, in no small degree, is
attributed the success of the French arms against the allies
who assailed the young republic. So potent, indeed, was the
“Marseillaise” felt to be in kindling political passion, that
both the Napoleons forbade it being sung or played in France
during their reigns.--_Youth’s Companion._

(2137)

MUSIC REFLECTS THE SOUL

Welsh, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish, and Armenian music
is apt to be pitched in plaintive, mournful, minor keys.
A Welsh preacher explained to an English congregation why
Welsh tunes were thus habitually pathetic. It is because for
centuries liberties were lost under Saxon domination. So, in
Russia, visitors were imprest by the tender and melancholy tho
beautiful strains of the national melodies. People when opprest
sing sadly; but liberty and joy emancipate even the music of a
nation. (Text.)

(2138)

MUTATION

One of the blest effects of the flight of time is that old animosities are forgotten and the nobler things of reconciliation and peace are seen. An instance of this lately occurred in the South:

A group of gentlemen, soldiers of the present and the past, were
gathered upon an historic Southern battle-field, Missionary
Ridge. They stopt to read the inscription upon a tablet, simple
and unpretentious, which marked the position of a Confederate
battery. This tablet bore the name of “Luke E. Wright, Second
Lieutenant.” Luke E. Wright, Secretary of War of the United
States of America, surrounded by his officers and friends,
paused a moment to read again this chapter from his youth.
A distinguished general of the regular army laid his hand
affectionately upon the shoulder of General Wright and remarked:
“General, how queerly things turn out! Who could have foreseen
that the boy in gray, who served his guns upon this spot, would
one day be my chief, at the head of the Army of the United
States?”

(2139)

* * * * *

The instability of all mundane things is suggested by the following account, which may also remind us of the utterance of Jesus: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.”

“When, in 1890, Germany bartered away Zanzibar in exchange
for Heligoland, great was the rejoicing,” says _Shipping
Illustrated_ (New York). “Much concern is now being
manifested in Germany owing to the relentless attack of the sea,
which has already reduced the island’s area nearly twenty-five
per cent since it came under the German flag. At this rate
the little island will, in another half-century, have melted
entirely away. The North Sea has been from time immemorial
an avaricious land-grabber. The Dogger Bank once reared its
head above the surface, a fact proved by the bones of animals
occasionally brought up in the fishermen’s nets. The eastern
coast of England has suffered severely from its insatiable
appetite. Dunwick, an important seaport during the Middle Ages,
is now a part of the sea-bottom, and fishes and other marine
denizens occupy the one-time habitation of men. Visitors to
Felixstowe, once a Roman colony and now a modern seaside resort,
opposite Harwich, have pointed out to them a rock a mile out
to sea, on which the old church formerly stood. The Kaiser may
yet live to see his cherished possession torn from his grasp.”
(Text.)

(2140)

MUTUAL SUFFERING

There is no individual in society; it is one body corporate.
If one member sin all suffer with him. The fearful forms of
torture loom up yet out of the shadows, the paddle, the rack,
the chair, the cangue collar, the strangle-ring, the shin-rod,
and various forms of mutilation remind one of what we see in
the Tower of London. Truly, we are brethren in cruelty if we go
far enough into the dark past. But God, who is rich in mercy,
when He transforms an Oriental, seems first of all to take out
of his heart the poison of cruelty, and to leave the spirit of
self-sacrifice and tenderness instead.--JAMES S. GALE,
“Korea in Transition.”

(2141)

MUTUALISM

Did you enjoy your breakfast this morning? You were all alone,
and got it yourself, did you say? Did you make the Irish linen
in your napkin, or were your table furnishings the creations
of an idle hour? Did you raise your own coffee? Did the melon
grow in your garden, or was the beef fattened in your pasture?
The very ends of the earth contributed to your simple meal, and
for it you were dependent upon people you had never seen. Your
breakfast-table was really a clearing-house for the ends of the
earth, so that when you redecorate your dining-room, and are
placing upon the walls the familiar legends, “Let good digestion
wait on appetite,” and that famous quatrain of Robert Burns:

Some hae meat but can not eat,
And some would eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thank it,

you might most appropriately add to these that thrilling
confession of Paul’s, “I am debtor both to the Greeks and
to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.”
(Text.)--NEHEMIAH BOYNTON.

(2142)

As the astronomers tell us that it is probable that there are
in the universe innumerable solar systems besides ours, to each
of which myriads of utterly unknown and unseen stars belong,
so it is certain that every man, however obscure, however far
removed from the general recognition, is one of a group of men
impressible for good, and impressible for evil, and that it is
in the eternal nature of things that he can not really improve
himself without in some degree improving other men.--CHARLES
DICKENS.

(2143)

See BOY AND KING.

=Mutuality=--See SOCIAL INTERDEPENDENCE; SOCIAL STRENGTH.

=Mutuality, True=--See FAITHFULNESS.

MYSELF

What unto me is Nature after all?
I pass her by and softly go my way.
She is the remnant of my little day
Upon this beautiful revolving ball.

I am the real being. At my beck,
The seeming actual pays its vassalage;
I am the reader and the world the page;
I fling a halter round old matter’s neck.

Glad to be taught of things outside, yet I
Find me indifferent to their transient touch;
A life’s to-day is an eternity
Seems not to please my spirit overmuch.

I may not fathom now the end or what
The sweat and blood and tragedy may mean;
But I can fight the fight and falter not.
Above the clouds the hilltops are serene.

So if I stay here years or slip away
While yet the early dawn is dim and dark,
It matters not. I am that living spark
That ever glows ’tho planets have their day.(Text.)

(2144)

MYSTERY IN NATURE

What determines which queen shall leave the hive with the swarm?
What determines which five thousand out of fifteen thousand
worker bees, all apparently similarly stimulated and excited,
shall swarm out, and which ten thousand shall stay in? These
are questions too hard for us to answer. We may take refuge in
Maeterlinck’s poetical conception of the “spirit of the hive.”
Let us say that the “spirit of the hive” decides these things;
as well as what workers shall forage and what ones clean house;
what bees shall ventilate and what make wax and build comb.
Which is simply to say that we don’t know what decides all these
things. (Text.)--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

(2145)

MYSTERY IN RELIGION

Here are wood, brass, my hand--any material things. Here are
light, electricity, a magnet--things that we all have something
to do with. Now let us ask the scientific people to look at
them, weigh them, test them, analyze them, describe them--what
will they report? Well, part of their report will be this:
There is one thing without which all these other things are
impossible, without which there could be no wood, no metal, no
light, no electric current; and that thing is called ether.
This ether is like nothing you have at hand. It is not solid,
nor liquid, nor a gas. It does not weigh anything, nor does it
move. It is not alive, nor is it capable of division. Yet it
is everywhere. It is in the wood, in the brass, in the air. It
fills what we call empty space. It is the road by which light
travels. It is the medium of electricity. It is the home of
magnetism. Well, when the scientist tells us this we can but
gasp. It is nothing that we know, yet without it all we know
would break down. It can not be seen, nor handled, nor heard,
yet without it we could neither see, nor handle, nor hear. It is
utterly beyond belief, so strange a bunch of contradictories it
is; and yet if we assume it to be real, then and then only can
all the things of life which we do know be properly explained.

If in the natural world we follow out carefully all that
is before us, if we explore our narrow strip of experience
thoroughly, we come to a region getting more and more remote.
Send a traveler from Hampstead--he comes back to tell us of
India or the Arctic Ocean. Send a scientist out into this world
of matter and force, of wood and stone and electricity, and he
comes back to tell us of the incredible wonders of the unseen
world, of the fathomless mysteries of the ether.

If this is so with material things, how much more is it likely
to be so with moral and spiritual things? If it be true of
earthly things, how much more of heavenly things? If the
findings of science are puzzling, contradictory, mysterious,
will the findings of theology--the science of God--be simple and
mere common sense? If when we have to do with wood and stones
we stand amazed before the doctrine of ether, is it surprizing
that when we have to do with Christ and His cross, God and
His redemption, we come also to the wonderful teaching, not
only of the divinity of Jesus, but of His preexistence from
eternity with God? So, then, because the doctrine is marvelous,
unheard of, difficult to grasp, do not, therefore, pass it by as
incredible.--NEWTON H. MARSHALL.

(2146)

MYSTERY NO BAR TO BELIEF

Toads are said to have been found in rocks. Such cases are rare,
but it would be as unreasonable to doubt them as to believe
in some of the miraculous explanations that have been made of
the matter. The phenomenon is marvelous, it is true, but it
is supported by evidence that we are not able to contest; and
skepticism, which is incompatible with science, will have to
disappear if rigorous observation shall confirm it. The toad
was observed, in one case, in the stone itself, and before
recovering from its long lethargy, it had not made any motion.
One of these toads was presented to an academy, with the stone
which had served it as a coffin or habitation, and it was
ascertained that the cavity seemed to correspond exactly with
the dimensions and form of the animal. It is remarkable that
these toad-stones are very hard and not at all porous, and
show no signs of fissure. The mind, completely baffled in the
presence of the fact, is equally embarrassed to explain how the
toad could live in its singular prison, and how it became shut
up there. M. Charles Richet had occasion to study this question
some months ago, and came to the conclusion that the fact
was real, observing that even if, in the actual condition of
science, certain phenomena were still inexplicable, we were not
warranted in denying their existence, for new discoveries might
at any time furnish an explanation of them. (Text.)--_Popular
Science Monthly._

(2147)

=Mystery of Regeneration=--See DISCERNMENT, LACK OF SPIRITUAL.

MYSTERY TO BE MADE CLEAR

Dr. Abbott tells how, after sailing on the muddy waters of Lake
Huron, he came on deck one morning, and, looking over the prow,
started back in instinctive terror, for, looking down into the
clear waters of Lake Superior, it seemed as if the keel were
just going to strike on the sharp pointed rocks below; but he
was looking through fifty or sixty feet of clear water at the
great rock-bed of the lake. Now we endeavor in vain to fathom
God’s judgments. As by a great deep they are hidden from us. But
by and by the sea will grow as clear as crystal, and through
the mystery we shall see and shall understand. We shall know
not only the life that was in the ocean, but shall trace the
footprints of Him that walked thereon.

(2148)

MYSTERY, VALUE OF

Recently a man called on Edwin Markham, author of “The Man
with the Hoe,” we are told by _Success_, and introduced
himself as the writer of a book on which, he said, he had spent
twenty-five years of study and research. Mr. Markham, who is
unusually kind in listening to and counseling with amateur
authors, immediately felt that one who has spent a quarter of
a century on his work is rare, and he invited him to his study
without delay.

“What is the nature of your work?” asked Mr. Markham.

“I have written the greatest book of the ages,” began the new
author; “I have solved the mystery of the world. I know all
about it. I am prepared to prove my statements. I know just why
the world was made, who really made it, and I have laid bare the
mysteries of creation. I--”

“My good man,” said Mr. Markham, interrupting him, “if you have
come to me for advice, let me tell you to take your manuscript
at once and burn it. If you have solved the mystery of this
world, you are its greatest enemy. Why,” continued the poet, “if
you have solved the mystery of the world you have robbed men
of their greatest joy. You have left us nothing to work for,
you have destroyed our ambition, you have reduced us to mere
animals. It is the mysteries of the world that have made it
great, and I, for one, don’t want to have them solved.”

Mr Markham’s visitor sat dumfounded for a moment. The vision of
his twenty-five years of labor flitted before him as he said:

“I guess you’re right--I guess you’re right.” (Text.)

(2149)

N

=Name, A Good=--See REPUTATION.

=Nameless Pioneers=--See UNKNOWN WORKERS.

NAMES

Many of the names we bear, as well as names of many of the
places we know and frequent, are derived from something done or
some particular thing connected with the place. For example,
there is a town about thirty-five miles from Paris by the name
of Fontainebleu. It is said that when this town was originally
founded, near the tenth century, that there was a beautiful
fountain there, and from this it took the name of Fontainebleu,
contracted from Fontaine Belle Eau (Fountain of beautiful water).

(2150)

NAMES, ENDURING

The Pharos of Alexandria was built by Sostratus, a Greek
architect, in the reign of Ptolmey Philadelphus. Ptolemy ordered
that a marble tablet be built into the wall with his name
conspicuously inscribed upon it as the builder of the famous
edifice. Instead, Sostratus cut in Greek characters his own name
deep upon the face of the tablet, then covered the whole with
an artificial composition, made of lime, to imitate the natural
surface of the stone, and cut a new inscription in which he
inserted the name of the king. In due time the lime moldered
away, name and all, leaving his own name to come out to view and
to remain as long as the lighthouse stood.

There are names that wear away, while others are made to endure. (Text.)

(2151)

=Names Handed Down=--See DYNASTIC NAMES.

=Nations, Destiny of=--See DESTINY OF NATIONS.

NATIVE CONVERTS

Bishop Taylor, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, used to tell
the story of a wealthy Parsee in India whom he had persuaded to
read the New Testament. Deeply imprest, the man declared that
if he could find Christians who matched that Book he would join
them. He sought among the white people for the life of the Book,
but reported to Bishop Taylor that he had failed to find it to
his satisfaction. The latter then sent him among the native
converts, receiving his pledge that he would make as diligent
search there as he had made among the Europeans. In a short time
he returned with enthusiasm, to say that he had discovered men
and women whose lives corresponded with the Book. He himself
became a Christian and suffered the loss of wealth and friends
for the sake of the Name, and when he died of violence in
Bombay his last words were, “It is sweet to die for Jesus.”
The story points to the tremendous truth that it is not in our
conventialized Christendom that the New Testament experiences
are being reproduced most closely, but in the communities of
disciples who are freshly out of raw heathendom.--WILLIAM T.
ELLIS, “Men and Missions.”

(2152)

NATURALIZATION

Citizenship in heaven is not nearly so difficult as that of getting out naturalization papers in America.

The National Liberal Immigration League has petitioned the
Department of Commerce and Labor to establish a calendar in
the naturalization bureaus, so that applicants for second,
or final, papers may be notified and attended to in regular
order, instead of by the present first-come-first-served method
with its resultant confusion and delays. Such a calendar would
simplify matters wonderfully for the coming citizen. A man
getting his final papers is obliged to bring with him two
citizens as witnesses, who will swear that they have known him
to be a resident of the United States for at least five years,
the last year a resident of the State in which he receives his
papers, and that he is a person of good moral character, and
qualified in every way to become a citizen. Imagine the degree
of good-nature essential in the instances of these witnesses,
who must get up long before daylight, night after night, to
accompany the potential citizen and see him turned back over
and over again. Indeed, more than good-nature is involved, for
the witnesses are in most cases working men, who are making
an actual sacrifice, in that they are losing the time that
is money to them, and the sleep that is essential to their
welfare.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2153)

=Nature=--See HANDIWORK OF NATURE.

NATURE AIDING SCIENCE

The cultivation of certain species of spiders solely for the
fine threads which they weave has an important bearing upon the
work of the astronomer.

No substitute for the spider’s thread has yet been found for
bisecting the screw of the micrometer used for determining the
positions and motions of the stars; not only because of the
remarkable fineness of the threads, but because of their durable
qualities.

The threads of certain spiders raised for astronomical purposes
withstand changes in temperature, so that often in measuring
sunspots they are uninjured when the heat is so great that the
lenses of the micrometer eye-pieces are cracked. These spider
lines are only one-fifth to one-seventh of a thousandth of
an inch in diameter, compared with which the threads of the
silk-worm are large and clumsy.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2154)

=Nature Altruistic=--See ALTRUISM IN NATURE.

=Nature and Man=--See STRUGGLE.

=Nature and Prayer=--See PRAYER AND THE BODY; PRAYER ANSWERED.

NATURE AS A CLUE TO SCIENCE

Man prides himself on his powers and attainments. Has he ever made a rose or produced a mechanism like the hand, or done a thousand things that Nature knows?

As an illustration of Nature’s superiority, the electric ray is cited.

The electric ray, or torpedo, has been provided with a battery
which, while it closely resembles, yet in the beauty and
compactness of its structure it greatly exceeds the batteries
by which man has now learned to make the laws of electricity
subservient to his will. In this battery there are no less than
940 hexagonal columns, like those of a bees’ comb, and each of
these is subdivided by a series of horizontal plates, which
appear to be analogous to the plates of the voltaic pile. The
whole is supplied with an enormous amount of nervous matter,
four great branches of which are as large as the animal’s
spinal cord, and these spread out in a multitude of thread-like
filaments round the prismatic columns, and finally pass into all
the cells. A complete knowledge of all the mysteries which have
been gradually unfolded from the days of Galvani to those of
Faraday, and of many others which are still inscrutable to us,
is exhibited in this structure.

(2155)

NATURE AS A MODEL

The voice of the singer travels forward more abundantly than
backward, because he uses the roof, and, to some extent, the
walls and floor of his mouth, as a sound reflector. The roof
of his mouth being made of concave plates of bone with a thin
velarium of integument stretched tightly over them, supplies
a model sound-reflector. Every architect who has to build a
concert- or lecture-room, or theater, should study the roof of
his own mouth, and imitate it as nearly as he can in the roof of
his building.

(2156)

* * * * *

The analogies which furnish means of expression to the art of
building find their models in nature. That which we feel at the
sight of an edifice, the artist has felt a hundred times in
contemplating the shifting curves of a hill, the bold edge of a
haughty peak, the immensity of an even plain, a ground hollow,
or gently undulating sheet of water which loses itself in the
mists of the horizon. All the effects produced by architecture
are only an interpretation of natural ones. What is a pyramid?
A hollow cavern in a mountain. What is a Greek temple with its
porticoes and columns? A memory of the sacred woods where were
drest the first altars. What do we feel in entering a Gothic
cathedral? The shudder felt at the divine awfulness of the
forests. And it is also from the natural world that architecture
has taken its decorations. Columns and capitals, rosettes,
flowers intertwinings, ovals, foliage medallions, all remind
us of something seen in the fields and in the woods, in plants
and animals.--VICTOR CHERBULIEZ, _Revue des deux Mondes_.

(2157)

See INSECT A MODEL.

NATURE DUAL IN MAN

Plato, in his “Phædrus,” pictures the two natures in man under
the analogy of two horses, one black and raging, pulling him
down; the other white and noble, with an upward look, and
drawing him to pure and self-denying actions; both steeds
harnessed to the same chariot while the man sits in the chariot
driving. (Text.)

(2158)

NATURE, ENJOYMENT OF

One of the most interesting passages in modern literary history
is that in which Audubon, the naturalist, met the sudden
destruction, by the voracity of rats, of the treasures he had
accumulated in fifteen years of incessant exploration. At the
shock of what seemed the irremediable disaster, he was thrown
into a fever, which had well-nigh proved fatal. “A burning
heat,” as he described it, “rushed through my brain; and my
days were oblivion.” But as consciousness returned, and the
rally of nature fought back the sudden incursion of disease,
there sang again through his wakening thoughts the wild notes
he had heard in the bayous of Louisiana, the everglades of
Florida, the savannahs of the Carolinas, and the forests that
fringe the sides of the Alleghanies. He saw again the Washington
eagle, as it soared and screamed from its far rocky eery. He
startled again, from her perch on the firs, the brown warbler of
Labrador. He traced in thought the magic hues on crest and wing
that so often had shone before the dip of his rifle. And the
passion for new expeditions and discoveries, arising afresh, was
more to him than medicine. In three years more, passed far from
home, he had filled once more the despoiled portfolios; and at
every step, as he told his biographer, “it was not the desire
of fame that prompted him; it was his exceeding enjoyment of
nature!”--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(2159)

=Nature Malleable=--See CONQUEST BY MAN.

=Nature Merciless=--See GOD, NOT NATURE.

NATURE’S AGGRESSIVENESS

Winthrop Packard, in “Wild Pastures,” describes the way in which nature’s wild growths obliterate the marks of human labor:

Let but vigilance relax for a year, a spring month even, and
bramble and bayberry, sweet-fern and wild-rose, daring scouts
that they are, will have a foothold that they will yield only
with death. Close upon these will follow the birches, the light
infantry which rushes to the advance line as soon as the scouts
have found the foothold. These entrench and hold the field
desperately until pine and hickory, maple and oak, sturdy men
of the main line of battle, arrive, and almost before you know
it the farm is reclaimed. The wilderness has regained its lost
ground, and the cosmos of the wild has wiped out that curious
chaos which we call civilization.

(2160)

NATURE’S ANTIDOTES

An army surgeon, discussing the nature of cholera and the sort of precautions to take against the plague, says:

Our greatest defense against this disease is, as usual, provided
by Nature herself. These organisms can not live in an acid
medium; they soon perish in the stomach, when exposed to the
action of the gastric juice, because of its acidity.

Thus is nature kindly. Thus is the kindness to man of nature’s God.

(2161)

NATURE’S CUNNING WORKS

Excellent natural pottery is manufactured by nature in the case
of a certain cactus. Woodpeckers are apt to excavate nests in
the trunk and branches, and, in order that it may protect itself
against these incursions, the plant exudes a sticky juice, which
hardens, forming a woody lining to the hole made by the birds.
Eventually the cactus dies and withers away, but the wooden bowl
remains.

As a weaver, nature is an exceedingly neat worker. Certain
tree-barks and leaves furnish excellent cloth, such as, for
instance, the famous tapa cloth used in the South Sea islands.

Nature is also a glass-maker. By discharging lightning into beds
of quartz sand she forms exquisite little pipes of glass.

Nature does a bit in the rope-making line, too. These products
of her handicraft may be seen in the shape of various tropical
vines and creepers; and her skill as a lace-maker may be seen
in the case of the lace-tree of the West Indies.--_Harper’s
Weekly._

(2162)

=Nature’s Forgiveness=--See RESTORATION IN NATURE.

NATURE’S PROTECTION

Fish are, we are told, very light sleepers, and frequently
assume singular positions; but the most remarkable fact
concerning them is the change of color many of them undergo
while asleep.

Usually their spots and stripes become darker and more
distinct when they fall asleep. Occasionally the pattern of
their coloration is entirely changed. The ordinary porgy, for
instance, presents in the daytime beautiful iridescent hues
playing over its silvery sides, but at night, on falling asleep,
it takes on a dull bronze tint, and six conspicuous black bands
make their appearance on its sides. If it is suddenly awakened
by the turning up of lights in the aquarium it immediately
resumes the silvery color that it shows by daylight. These
changes have been ascribed to the principle of “protective
coloration,” and it has been pointed out that the appearance
of black bands and the deepening of the spots serve to conceal
the fish from their enemies when lying amid eel-grass and
seaweeds.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2163)

NATURE’S RECUPERATIVE POWERS

A unique opportunity to study Nature’s processes in restoring
the vegetation of a land swept clean by a great disaster was
afforded after the eruption of a volcano on the little island
of Krakatoa in 1883. All living organisms were destroyed. In
1886 a number of plants had already established themselves
on the devastated island, those in the interior being
remarkably different from those on the coast, ferns especially
preponderating. In 1897 further progress had been made, and in
1906 the forest trees had advanced so far as to make it evident
that within a short time the island will again be densely
forested. It is believed that the first plants to establish
themselves on the blasted soil--such as ferns, algae, mosses,
compositæ, and grasses--were borne thither by the winds, and
that ocean currents were probably agents in the importation of
seeds and fruit.--San Francisco _Bulletin_.

(2164)

=Nature’s Renewing Qualities=--See CONVERSION.

=Nature-teaching to Children=--See RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

=Nature Witnessing to God=--See GOD REVEALED IN NATURE.

NATURE, WONDERS OF

The oak-galls are formed only where a gall-insect has pricked
a live leaf or stem or twig with her sharp, sting-like little
egg-layer, and has left an egg in the plant tissue. Nor does
the gall begin to form even yet. It begins only after the young
gall-insect is hatched from the egg, or at least begins to
develop inside the egg. Then the gall grows rapidly. The tree
sends an extra supply of sap to this spot, and the plant-cells
multiply, and the house begins to form around the little white
grub. Now this house or gall not only encloses and protects the
insect, but it provides it with food in the form of plant-sap
and a special mass or layer of soft, nutritious plant-tissue
lying right around the grub. So the gall-insect not only lives
in the house, but eats it!--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect
Stories.”

(2165)

See REMAINS.

NATURE WORSHIP

Father Brebeuf, writing about the Hurons in 1636, tells of a
certain rock which they passed on their way to Quebec, and to
which they always offered tobacco, placing it in the cleft of
the rock and addressing the demon who lived there with prayer
for protection and success. When the Indian in crossing a lake
finds himself in serious danger, he prays to the spirit of the
lake, throwing an offering, perhaps a dog, into the water. When
the sound of the thundering frightens him, he prays to the
thunder-being for protection. When he needs rain, he directs his
rites to the god of rain and thunder. Air and earth and water
are alive with spirits, any one of which may be prayed to; but,
as a matter of fact, certain ones are singled out for worship.
Add to these the many animal deities which are invoked even more
frequently than those of the elements in the sacred formulas of
the Cherokees.

(2166)

See PLANT WORSHIP.

NAVAL POWERS AND ARMAMENTS

The following table shows the naval strength of the leading
nations of the world:

==============+==========+=========+===========
| All war- | Battle- | Personnel
POWERS | vessels | ships | Officers
| | | and Men
--------------+----------+---------+-----------
Great Britain | 572 | 55 | 99,679
United States | 199 | 25 | 47,750
Germany | 228 | 24 | 33,500
Japan | 224 | 14 | 36,480
France | 537 | 25 | 25,500
Italy | 198 | 9 | 27,789
Russia | 212 | 11 | 60,000
--------------+----------+---------+-----------

(2167)

NAVIES OF THE WORLD

The naval strength of the principal countries of the world is
shown in the chart and table here given. The total number of
ships credited to Russia includes a disproportionate number of
small and obsolete vessels. The chart gives a forecast of naval
strength reckoned from the known naval progress of the powers. A
comparison of the naval strength of the United States with Japan
in this forecast shows how baseless are the notes of alarm of a
“yellow peril.”

(2168)

=Nearness and Distance=--See RETROSPECT.

NEARNESS DISTRACTING

A visitor to Amsterdam, wishing to hear the wonderful music
of the chimes of St. Nicholas, went up into the tower of the
church to hear it. There he found a man with wooden gloves on
his hands, pounding on a keyboard. All he could hear was the
clanging of the keys when struck by the wooden gloves, and the
harsh, deafening noise of the bells close over his head. He
wondered why the people talked of the marvelous chimes of St.
Nicholas. To his ear there was no music in them, nothing but
terrible clatter and clanging. Yet all the while there floated
out over and beyond the city the most entrancing music. Men
in the fields paused in their work to listen, and were made
glad. People in their homes and travelers on the highways were
thrilled by the marvelous bell tones which fell from the tower.

There are many lives, which to those who dwell close beside them, seem to make no music; they pour out their strength in hard toil; they are shut up in narrow spheres; they dwell amid the noise and clatter of common task work; they think themselves that they are not of any use, that no blessing goes out from their life; they never dream that sweet music is made anywhere in the world by their noisy hammering. But out over the world, where the influence goes from their work and character, human lives are blest, and weary ones hear, with gladness, sweet, comforting music.

(2169)

NECESSITY AND PROGRESS

When God told Moses to speak to the children of Israel and bid
them go forward there was another urgency to reenforce this
injunction. The chariots of Egypt were behind them; they must go
forward or die.

Has not the greater part of human progress been due to necessities urging from behind and below--hunger, necessity for shelter, climates, hardships, trials. By all these God has ever been driving men up out of their Egypt of sloth and slavery toward a higher destiny.

(2170)

=Need of the World=--See LOVE, THE WORLD’S NEED.

NEED, REFUSED IN THE HOUR OF

One of the most pathetic things in life is seen sometimes
in country towns in the mountain regions of these United
States--may be in some farming regions, too.

The scene is laid in a country store of a Saturday night. The
busy salesmen were waiting on many customers--customers who buy
vast quantities of calico and chewing-tobacco and Scotch snuff
and plowgear, and always on credit.

Pretty much everybody from all about is in town. The elders have
brought the youngsters, and these sturdy infants stare with wide
eyes at everything.

But in this busy gathering, far back in the corner, a man from
the country is talking earnestly to one of the partners. The
partner wears a heavy gold chain across his vest, and is in his
shirt sleeves. He shakes his head, whittling, meanwhile, a bit
of box.

This man’s credit has run out. He is trying to persuade the
merchant to carry him a little longer--just a little longer, but
the merchant doesn’t see it that way. He wants money.

He goes to his book and calls the man from the country and shows
him the things written there. Then he leans back and lights a
fat cigar triumphantly.

The would-be customer makes one more effort and turns sadly
away. He takes two children with him, one by each hand, and
slowly goes out.

“Ain’t we goin’ to buy nothin’?” asks one of them. A spasm of
pain shoots across the father’s face.

“Not jest now, boy,” he says; “after a bit--just you wait.
There’ll be lots of boots’ boy size left--lots of ’em.”--Dallas
_News_.

(2171)

=Need, The World’s=--See MANLINESS.

NEEDS, MEETING CHILDREN’S