The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-02 00:00:00

CURIOSITY.

TEERE are two distinct phases of curiosity
—the one legitimate, and the other
illegiti-
mate. An illegitimate child is called a
natural one, but in the case of curiosity only
the legitimate phase can claim to be recog-
nised as natural. It manifests itself early in
infancy, and this shows that it has an im-
portant part to play in the development of
knowledge, and the development of intelli-
gence. The curious child who intently
watches the rapid movements of a house-fly
on the window pane, or the up and down
flutterings of a butterfly in the g arden, or
the brisk hoppings of a perky sparrow from
crumb to crumb, is taking first ltgsons in
natural history, and wakening to a sense of
the wonders of creation. The impressions
made on the mind in the morning of life
owe their indelibility to the eagerness ex-
hibited in observing everything with enquir-
ing eyes. The simple curiosity in pursuit
of novelties that leads children to wander
away beyond their home fields and get lost
in the wood, is but the forerunner of the
feeling which, in after years, creates a
longing to travel abroad, and become ac-
quainted with the manners and customs of
foreign countries. Any boy who takes
watch to pieces, for the purpose of closely
inspecting its construction, is more likely
to become an expert in mechanical science
than boys whose curiosity is of the ordinary
type. Curiosity, in fact, has much to do
with :the experimenting that leads to im-
portant discoveries in science. It furnishes
a stimulus to persevering inquiry, and any
marked deficiency in it may be regarded as
a sure sign of intellectual dulness. There
are certain matters concerning which, it is
generally admitted, women display a keener
curiosity than men, and they are alleged to
exhibit a peculiar fondness for walking on
forbidden ground. It was curiosity, some
say, that induced Eve to become the first
offender in the garden of Eden, and if the
accusation were perfectly apmmit.o it would
make this failing ascribed to women to be
really older than original sin. In the Greek
mythological story of the marriage between
Epimetheus, brother of the sunfire stealer
Promethus, and Pandora, it was the bride-
groom who opened the box, bestowed as a
gift upon the bride by the gods, and thus
let loose upon the world all the ills ko which
hama,nitylis heir. In revard to giving way on
occasions to an excessof curiosity, which does
harm, and sometimes produces disastrous
resilts, men can hardly claim to be in a
position entitling them to cast all the blame
of such mishaps upon women. While fe-
minine curiosity, according to co,nmon
report, has an unfortunate and inveterate
tendency to travel beyond legitimate bounds
and pry into all sorts of secrets, it is largely
occupied innocently enough about affairs
which do not excite the same amount of
absorbing interest in the sterner sex, who
give diligence in business their first consider-
ation. It is easy to understand that the
daily existence of those members of farnilies
who have household duties ti. perform, an I
who stay pretty closely at horns, %von la be
exceedingly humdrum if they di I not la 1
piquant problems to solve in the filo, ives
and objects accountable for the ac joss of
their neighbours, or the inner al I oat .r
circles of their own friends. Why does Miss
Lydia Lovelace always go out at a regales
hour, and return atirregei far intervals of two,
four, or six hours ? Who is the elderly lady,'
in a barouche, that visits Mrs. Bracegirdle
every Saturday afternoon? How is it that
that Mr. Dickens and Mr. Pickwick, who
used to be on such friendly terms, pass each
other in the street quite coldly without the
slightest sign of recognition? Questions
like the above are put, not to the conscience,
but to the sense of curiosity, and answers to
them are awaited with an anxious impatience
which sometimes assumes the air of quiet
resignation. Instances occur not unfre-
pently of puns- women who are curious
about their matrimonial prospects paying
fees to fortune-tellers supposed to have skill
in palmistry. Although the foolish virgies
can hardly expect to hear anything but the
old. story about the fair ram and dark man,
who constantly reappear like the blonde and
brunette in American novels, it .SCCIUR im-
possible for them to put a check upon the
curiosity which seeks to pry into the future
of their lives. Even a high pitch of curiosity
might surely rest content with getting peeps
behind the scenes into the aff iirs of private
and public, social and domestic life, and stop
short of vainly attempting to discover what
is written in the sealed scroll of future fate.
Intrusive impertinence is an obnoxious form
of curiosity much too common in the world.
It finds illustration in an amusing and
familiar anec lote which also records the
manner in which i was promptly and effect-
ively rebuked. The story relates that a
gentleman, who was writing a letter in a
coffee-house, became aware that an Irishman
was stealthily looking over his shoulder and
he wound up with these cutting wrds :"I
but other things to tell you of, ut an in-
bred fellow is reading every word I write ;"
upon which Patrick Pry naively said : "By
my sowl, sorr, I haven't, read a word." It is
stated that a version of the same story,
though an Irishman doesnot figure in it, may
be found in the writings of the Persian poet,
Jami, who flourished in the fifteenth century
and this only proves that curiosity, when it
assumes the form of intrusive impertinence,
is not an offence of yesterday, or restricted
to any particular country. In eavesdrop-
ping it is the ear, and not the eye, that In-
comes the organ of excessive curiosity, and
lit is tile just reward of all such ii tenets tikat
they never heir good of theKoselves.