Curiosity /N die Spur to Interest H ( > 



rrienccs which he hat had and the way he ap- 

 plies those experiences, or he begins to grow nar- 

 and to sett I m a rut, because his curios- 



s not excited and his interest is not maintained. 

 1 1 vou look around among the people you know, 

 you will realize that there is a sharper division 

 among men of middle life than there is among 

 igcr men. The bai 1 of experience and 



habit of development which they have accumu- 

 lated by the time they are forty, with the knowl- 

 edge they possess, permit a more definite ripen- 

 ing of judgment, concentration of skill, and con- 

 servative development of influence. If the experi- 

 ence has been gained without enlarging the 

 intellect or developing the habit of thought, it 

 tends to satisfy the curiosity, to limit the interest, 

 and to narrow the circle of observation. 



Maintaining Curiosity. Not long ago, next to 

 me on a street car sat a little boy with his father 

 u ho appeared to be a business man of good posi- 

 and reasonable intelligence. It had been rain- 

 ing, and the contact between the trolley pole and 

 the wire was not very good, so we were treated to 

 flashes of electricity every few minutes. The little 

 boy became interested and curious, and he said to 

 his father, "Why docs the trolley pole flash like 

 that?" 



I waited with interest for the father's reply, 

 because I wondered whether his own curiosity had 

 If d him to find out the reason. He answered % 

 easily in this w.i always doet when the wire 



