Connecticut western news., 1873-08-01
Simple Acts of Life.

We have but to observe human action as it meets us at every turn to see that the average intelligence, incapable of guiding conduct even ill simple matters where but very moderate reach of req son would suffice, must fail in appre- hending with due clearness the na- tural sanction of ethical principles. The unthinkidg inaptitude with which even the routine of life is carried on by the mass of men shows clearly that they have nothing like the insight required for self-guidance in the absence of an authoritative code of con- duct. Take days experience and ob- serve the lack of thought indicated from hour to hour.
 You rise in the morning, and, while dressing, take aphial containing tonic, of which little has been prescribed for you; but after the first few drops have been counted succeeding dropsrun down the side of the phial-all because the lip is shaped without regard to the re- quirement. Yet millions of such pqials are annually made by glass, makers and sent out by thousands of druggists |; so small being the amount of sense brought to bear on business. Now, turning to the looking glass, you find that, if not of the best make. 1t fails to preserve the attitude in which you pat it or, if what is called "box" looking glass, you see that the maintenance of it's po- sition IS insured by an expensive appli- ance that would have been superfuous had little reason been used. Were the adjustment such that the centre of gravity of the glass came in the line joining the points to support (which would be quite as easy an adjustment), the glass would remain steady in what ever attitude you gave it. Yet year after year tens of thousands of looking glasses are made without regard to so simple need. Presently you go down to breakfast, and taking some Harvey or other sauce with your fish find the bottle has defect like that which you found in the phial-it is sticky from the drops which trickle down, and occasion ally stain the table-cloth. Here are other groups of traders similarly so economical of thought that they do no- thing to rectify this inconvenience.
 Having breakfasted, you take up the paper, and, before sitting down, wish to put some coal on the fire. But the lump you seize with the tongs slips out of them, and if large, you make several attempts before you succeed in lifting tall because the ends of the tongs are smooth. Makers and vendors of fire-irons go on, generation after gene ration, without meeting this evil by the simple remedy of giving to these smooth ends some projecting points, or even roughening them by few burrs with a chisel. Having at length grasp ed the lump and put it on the fire, you begin to read i; but before you have got through the first column, you are re- minded by the changes ot position which your sensations prompt that men still fail to make easy chairs. And yet the guiding principle is simple enough Just that advantage, secured by using g soft seat in place of a hard one: the advantage, namely, of spreading over a large area the pressure oi the weight to be borne, and so mak ing the pressure less intense at any one point-is an advantage to be sought in the form of the chair. Ease is to be gained by making the shapes and rela tive inclination of seat and back such as will evenly distribute the weight of the trunk and limbs over the widest possi ble supporting surface, and with the least straining of the parts out of thei1 natural attitudes. And yet only now after these thousands of years of civili zation, are there being reached (ant that not rationally but empirically) ap proximations to the structure required -Herbert Spencer io The Populol Science Monthly.