Norwich bulletin., 1910-03-19
THE MAN WHO TALKS

When I was a small boy with a loaf CTS inclination, mother used to say: | The devil finds some mischief still for idle hands to do." = didn't know. then that his satanic majesty did not have any time to fool with any one who was busy. I'm sorry to say that l regarded the quotation as a pious fiction for great many years Later on it came to look to me like living truth and then realized why a mother full of solicitude for her boy strcve to
 make 1t indelible. You'll see that if a man is busy in evil pursuits he doesn't need the devils attention, and if he is about his Masters business he has no use for him. It is the dawdlers he la'bors with and it is not surprising that he finds them to be easy prey. willing to lay considerable of a- wager upon the statement that man never clings more tenaci0usly to anything on earth than his good opinion of himself. woman's unshaken faith this is the point to look for it. He can change his opinion of his political party, his church or his government, of his neighbors, his home or his children, but when he comes to that it is all right This is how it came to be a proverb that to buy man at his real worth and to sell him at his own val
 
 ting rich. When we come to mans conceit this is it's center of gravity: It is not naughty, but it is generally an exaggeration and doesn't stand the test of time.
 Some people are mighty shy about telling their age. and while this is re- garded as a feminine fault many man Is caught declining to reveal his years. As rule there is harm done by this sort of secrecy, but the outward sign cannot be readily hid- We have a complimentary way of guessing ages ten or twenty years under appearances for the purposes of f1attery, and the chance to say complementary: T should never have dreamed iti'' when we knew better all the while. If we got on to ourselves some of us would realize that it is safer to tell ones true age than to have it honestly guessed at. We actually look older than we have any right to-we have worked too of our dissipations are cleaner cut than our years warrant.
 Somehow it seems to me to be bet | ter to be slow rather than nasty when | one makes a new acquaintanc6 in let ! ting him know that we hive opinions. It is better to let a stranger think that you nave opinions, and he is sure to think so, than to assure him at once | that you are opinionated, since his favor or his prejudices are easily ex- cited. Old Bombast never did have good repute and 1t does not pay one to reveal that he is of the same flesh and blood Opinions are mighty good things 1 to keep to One's self until they are | wanted, for they are seldom appreciat- | ed if they have not been asked for, and
 fense is excusable. Tossing out opin- | ions freely is too much of hot air l exercise to be commendable. | | men where there are enough to estab- | fish an average; but I have never yet seen two average men of equal capac- | ity. There are averages and averages | in this world. There is an average t wage and an average minister's salary, l and an average citizen and an aver | age price for everything except kisses so many of them go at sacrifice that | Averages always have been and all | ways will be more or less nislead- ! ing. There is an average beauty, but
 I confess that should not know that on sight. have been so thoroughly l taught beauty is that beauty does, I l do not consider myself competent along l that line.
 scripture better than they could ! live up to it. It seemed a joy to them ! to be able to surprise folks with the ! lore of long ago. They were so much I | that they always appeared like great 1 discrepancy. The difference between what they were and what they ought 1 to be was as striking as rouge on the 1 cheek of a brunette. It was a case of 1 seeming to want to be good and not l knowing how. Such people do not re- 1 alize that their words and their acts
 do not harmonize:. They think the l against themselves and have the pow
 CT for reform in their own hands.
 A great many folks do not know l what a vice is. This is the reason, | perhaps, that many religious people J have vices. while they declare that | they are saved from sin-cannot sin l which has always seemed to be to me | weakens the will and injures the health 1 is a vice. Excessive zeal even in the l pursuit of goodness has made nervous 1 wrec6s of some people. That is a | vice just as much as the excessive use | of stinulants. Excesses of any kind 1 are not virtues. The Saviour's calm
 ness, his perfect self-control, were
 among the strongest evidences of his
 divinity. Religion which lacks this. | lacks the diviner expression.
 was somewhat surprised the other day to read that the unicelluLar Ire marked the globe for ten million years l I wondered how the author became aware of that-how he knew exactly
 to a, year about it when he wasn't there and made no claim to personal ac- | quaintanceship with the one who boss ! ed, the job. If I may be left to judge 1 this was about 60,000,000 years before | the estabHslTnen ent of the garden of Eden. I do not know that there was ever any time prior to the garden of Eden, but on the basis of the first fact 1 and the evolVenent Of the metazoon whatever that may be, it seemed to be safe guessing. What facts we do see
 in 'books-what wild statements we ac- 1 cept to bolster up science. I guess I'm
 not so sure about most of it.
 If you wish to please a slandere1 just let him know that you arc mad ! about what he said about you. Those who like to irritate others find nc have them going. Old Epictitus