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approaching the colonel, asked if he was the commanding officer.

"Ugh!" snorted "Old Gabe," as he was affectionately called, "what do you want?"

"I am a humble servant of the Lord endeavoring to save the souls of the unfortunate. I have just left the camp of the —th Massachusetts, where I was instrumental in leading eight men into paths of righteousness."

"Adjutant," thundered Colonel Bouck, after a moment's pause, "detail ten men for baptism. No Massachusetts regiment shall beat mine for piety." (Text.)

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Formation Versus Reformation—See. Former Days—See. FORMER LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS OF  Our brains are inherited from our ancestors. Why, then, may it not be that the human brain is a palimpsest, containing more or less faded, yet recoverable records, not only of our entire past life, but of the lives of our ancestors to the remotest periods? Pythagoras profest a distinct recollection of his former lives; the writer of this knows two educated men who have lived before in the persons of rather more famous individuals than their present representatives; Lumen, in Flammarion's "Stories," finds that his soul had passed through many previous conditions. Indeed, the idea of transmigration, which is a poetic forecast of the more scientific doctrine here enunciated, is a very familiar one. Coleridge, in his boyhood one day was proceeding through the Strand, stretching out his arms as if swimming, when a passer-by, feeling a hand at his coat-tail, turned rudely round and seized him as a pickpocket. Coleridge denied the charge, and confest that he had forgotten his whereabouts in the impression that he was Leander swimming across the Hellespont—a wretched street-*lamp being transformed by his imagination into the signal-light of the beautiful priestess of Sestos.—American Notes and Queries.

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Forms—See.

Forms, Value of—See.

Fortitude—See.

FORWARD

At dawn it called, "Go forward without fear! All paths are open; choose ye, glad and free." Through morning's toilsome climb it urged the plea, "Nay, halt not, tho the path ye chose grow dear." At noon it spake aloud, "Make smooth the way For other feet. Bend to thy task, tho weight Of sorrow press thee. Others dower, tho fate Deny thy secret wish." Through later day It warns, "Climb on! Heights woo! The waning light Bids haste! Yet scorn not those who lag behind, Confused by lengthening rays that clear thy sight, These, too, have striv'n all day their way to find." At eve, when flaming sunset fades, O hear Dawn's echoing call, "Go forward without fear."

—

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Forward Look, A—See.

FORWARD, PRESSING

In a poem, "The Second Mile," by Dr. Oakley E. Van Slyke, occurs the following verse:

Be mine, dear Lord, to think not what I must, But of the power bequeathed to me in trust. Be mine, I pray, to go the second mile, Do better than I need to all the while.

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FOUNDATIONS

All northern Italy from Genoa to Venice was shaken not long ago by a great earth-*quake shock. The seismic disturbances continued at intervals during several days. The people were terror-stricken, fearing the worst. It was significant that while the shock was severely felt on both sides of the Adriatic, it was scarcely perceptible in Venice, due probably to the fact that much care, forethought and skill had been exercised in laying the city's foundations. Every building of importance is supported by piles driven from sixty to one hundred feet into the mud of the lagoons.

In character building our only safety lies in sure foundation. (Text.)

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