Men are too apt to forget how much society is indebted to science for the innumerable benefits it has contributed from time immemorial to the little affairs of everyday life. Happenings which were once considered ominous are now accepted as natural. Developments once attributed to witches and resented to the point of death now awaken no concern or even wonder. Things once deemed hurtful as foods are now used with impunity and gladness, while other things once esteemed are now discarded. Medicine is not the uncertain science it once was. Experimentation upon human beings was once as common as biological speculation, but more scientific methods now bring more satisfactory results. It is true that medical theories diametrically opposed to each other are still in vogue, but it is also true that many which were once doubtful have now come to be established in popular favor, while some practices, like that of bleeding, have been almost wholly discarded and driven out. Just in proportion as common people take up scientific studies, finding recreation in demonstration and investigation, will the practical errors which have cursed mankind disappear, and safer and saner modes of life be adopted. As in the Church an educated laity compels pulpit efficiency, so in all other departments of thought and progress a wise people will drive the experts and specialists to more accurate conclusions. Happily, the people are studying, and will do so yet more in the future. Their reading circles will multiply and enlarge until they take in all sciences, all philosophies, and all departments of literature. What will be the status or popular thought in a hundred years from now? Would n't you like to live to see? Discoveries innumerable, marvelous, and fruitful will be made, and the boy at the plow will then know more of science than the old philosopher now. Peaceful people live in peace. It is the quarrelsome who quarrel. Quarrels are no proof of courage. The brave are peaceable as long as they can be. Peace is man's natural state. War is an after intrusion, and a blot on manhood. Peace usually reigns where reason rules. Men get insanely mad and then fight. . Blessed is the man who does not fight! Not because he has no fight in him, but because he will not let it out. Nothing is much easier than to provoke unto wrath, and nothing more difficult than to appease wrath once provoked. A serious offense once, given is hard to take back, and once taken, is hard to overcome. An enemy once made is not easily transformed into a friend. Man has a memory. After offending any one, you may explain and apologize, defend your attitude, and even prove that you were right; but that offense will rankle, and the trace of it may never be eradicated. A mental hurt is very much like a physical malady, it gets into the blood and fiber, and may crop out any time. Better not to offend anybody, least of all the peaceably inclined. Better to eradicate from your own constitution the stuff that gives offense, such as envy, avarice, pride, and anger. Quit your meanness. Conquer the propensity for conquest, and suffer wrong rather than do wrong. Don't be ruled by that absurdity, "I will not let anybody run over me!" If you don't run over yourself, no one else is likely to try it. DIFFIDENCE Diffidence is not counted a virtue; sometimes it is a serious drawback, and always an embarrassment. George Washington was a diffident man. He was brave-he could face an enemy; but when required to speak in public, or even before a few friends, he trembled like a leaf. Once he was thanked in glowing terms for the distinguished military service he had rendered his country, but on rising to acknowledge the tribute, he was so disconcerted as to be unable to articulate a word distinctly. The gentleman presiding relieved him of his embarrassment by saying: "Sit down, Mr. Washington; your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess." When John Adams hinted that Washington should be promoted to be a general, and began to recite his praises, Washington showed his diffidence by darting into another room. When inaugurated as President of the United States he was, according to Macaulay, "agitated and embarrassed more than ever he had been by the leveled cannon or pointed musket. He |