EDITORIAL. 



51 



indifference are more frequently than 

 not of the greatest value as a mental 

 stimulus or even as a physical recre- 

 ation. No amount of investigation can 



exhaust the simplest or least complicated 

 natural object. The more apparently 

 exhaustive the study, the more there re- 

 mains to be discovered. No human be- 

 ing ever will entirely understand any oh- 



O - - 



ject in nature. That remains with ( )m- 

 niscient Providence. All that feeble 

 man can do is to look for only infinites- 

 imal distance beneath the surface and 

 to pass by near the edges of things. 

 The well known are the most important, 

 but we are all so calloused to them that 

 we rarely see them, although they are 

 teeming with unknown facts and with 

 lessons whose importance cannot be 

 overestimated. Why do we not all live 

 in a state of ecstacy regarding the com- 

 mon objects about tts? Because, as I 

 suouose, it would take some mental ef- 

 fort, and that is what the ordinary per- 

 son tries to avoid. It is more pleasing, 

 it sets the circulation into greater activ- 

 ity to have a new thing brought sud- 

 denly to one's attention. 



"If a flower 



Were thrown you out of heaven at inter- 

 vals, 



You'd soon attain to a trick of looking 

 up," 



says Mrs. Browning. And that con- 

 tains the secret of much of our indif- 

 ference to the common things in nature. 

 An educated man is company to himself 

 because every wayside weed, every bit 

 of cloud, even r puff, of wind may set his 

 mind into a new channel and suggest 

 thoughts that may cheer his otherwise 

 lonely way. "To me my mind a king- 

 dom is." 



Recently a new light appeared in the 

 evening sky. It was probably a modified 

 aurora borealis, or other form of electri- 

 cal display, but being unusual, it at once 

 attracted attention. The sun is a daily 

 companion and we seldom think of him, 

 unless he is eclipsed, hut a new flashing 

 of electricity in the evening sky was fol- 

 lowed by telegrams, telephone messages, 

 letters, personal questions in the street. 

 What the light actually was no human 



really knows the cause of the aurora 

 borealis, although we talk of electrons, 

 orgon and other things of which we 

 arc crassly ignorant, hut to which we 

 have given names. That half circle of 

 light exhibition was wonderful and 

 beautiful, and being out of the ordinary 

 it attracted much attention. But doesn't 

 it remain strange that in a world so 

 crowded with wonder and allurement it 

 needs the unusual to wake tis to a real- 

 ization of even our own existence? If 

 that light had continued, it would soon 

 have ceased to attract even a passing 

 notice. But would it have become any 

 the less wonderful? Yes, it would, to 

 the ordinary mortal. Like the ordi- 

 nary moon and the commonplace stars, 

 it would soon cease to exist except for 

 the special few. What a pity it is that 

 we all become so hardened to the beauty 

 and the teaching of common thing's! 

 Can we not "call a halt," and "turn over 

 a new leaf?" It is possible to do both 

 at the same time. 



NOT 310 HE 3IATEKIAL lil'T MOKE 

 ASSIMILATING. 



When the naturalists' controversy be- 

 tween President Roosevelt and my fel- 

 low townsman, the Reverend William 

 J. Long, was at its height, a neighbor, 

 the principal of one of our graded 

 schools, met me one morning and in- 

 quired, "How many are there of you fel- 

 lows, any way?" 



"What 'fellows'?" 



"Naturalists." 



"Far fewer than there should be," I 

 replied. "A prominent naturalist has 

 said that the Almighty has about one to 

 appreciate His works to about ten thous- 

 and who do not." 



"Well," says my teacher friend, "I am 

 surprised to know that there are as many 

 as that. And," he continued, "in all 

 my reading I have known not more than 

 half a dozen prominent naturalists in the 

 whole country. And as half of those 

 (Roosevelt, Long, Burroughs) have been 

 fighting among themselves for a year or 

 two, I've come to the conclusion that 

 you fellows are a mighty quarrelsome lot, 

 and I guess I'll keep awav from all of 

 you." 



being knows or can know. No one Replying in the same jocose spirit, and 



