Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/379



weather is variable. If the insect elongates its thread it is a sign of fine calm weather, the duration of which may be judged of by the length to which the threads are let out. If the spider remains inactive it is a sign of rain; but if, on the contrary, it keeps at work during the rain the latter will not last long, and will be followed by fine weather. Other observations have taught that the spider makes changes in its web every twenty-four hours, and that if such changes are made in the evening, just before sunset, the night will be clear and beautiful.—La Nature.

(1580)

Indifference—See.

Indifference to Strangers—See.

INDIFFERENCE TO THE GOOD

Zion's Herald prints this significant poem:

People tell the story yet, With the pathos of regret, How along the streets one day, Unawares from far away, Angels passed with gifts for need, And no mortal gave them heed. They had cheer for those who weep, They had light for shadows deep, Balm for broken hearts they bore, Rest, deep rest, a boundless store; But the people, so they say, Went the old blind human way,— Fed the quack and hailed the clown When the angels came to town.

It has been and will be so: Angels come and angels go, Opportunity and Light, 'Twixt the morning and the night, With their messages divine To your little world and mine. And we wonder why we heard Not a whisper of their word, Caught no glimpse of finer grace In the passing form and face; That our ears were dull as stones To the thrill of spirit tones, And we looked not up, but down, When the angels came to town.

(1581)

INDIFFERENTISM

A German professor of theology is reported to have said in lecturing to his students on the existence of God, that while the doctrine, no doubt, was an important one, it was so difficult and perplexed that it was not advisable to take too certain a position upon it, as many were disposed to do. There were those, he remarked, who were wont in the most unqualified way to affirm that there was a God. There were others who, with equal immoderation, committed themselves to the opposite proposition—that there was no God. The philosophical mind, he added, will look for the truth somewhere between these extremes.—

(1582)

INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE

I met, the other day, a learned judge who told me that for more than twenty years he had met every winter, in his own library, once a week, a club of his neighbors, men and women, who came, and came gladly, that he might guide them in the study of history. "And all those people," said he, laughing—there are three or four hundred of them now, scattered over the world—"they all know what to read, and how to read it." You see that village is another place because that one man lived there.—

(1583)

Individual Initiative—See.

Individual, Seeking the—See.

Individual Value—See.

INDIVIDUAL, VALUE OF THE

This fine verse is from Canon Farrar:

"I am only one,   But I am one. I can not do everything,    But I can do something,    What I can do    I ought to do And what I ought to do By the grace of God I will do." (Text.)

(1584)

Individualism—See.

INDIVIDUALISM, EXCESSIVE

Haydon, the painter, was an ill-used man; but it was purely his own fault. He would paint high art when people did not want it—would paint acres of hooked-nosed Romans, and bore the public with Dentatus, Scipio and Co., when they wanted something else. He was like a man taking beautiful pebbles to market when people wanted eggs, and telling that they ought not to want eggs, because they led to carnality and had