Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/672



done with a movable one. As many as 1,400 eyes, or inlets of light, have been counted in the head of a drone bee. The spider has eight eyes, mounted on different parts of the head; two in front, two in the top of the head, and two on each side.

One mark of the well-balanced man is the ability to see in all directions.

(2850)

SEEING, THE ART OF

I once spent a summer day at the mountain home of a well-known literary woman and editor. She lamented the absence of birds about her house. I named a half-dozen or more I had heard in her trees within an hour—the indigo-bird, the purple finch, the yellow-bird, the veery thrush, the red-eyed vireo, the song sparrow.

"Do you mean to say you have seen or heard all these birds while sitting here on my porch?" she inquired.

"I really have," I said.

"I do not see them or hear them," she said, "and yet I want to very much."

"No," said I; "you only want to want to see and hear them."

You must have the bird in your heart before you can find it in the bush. (Text.)—, "Leaf and Tendril."

(2851)

SEEKING AND FINDING

Tho the inventors have busied their brains for almost a century in an effort to find a substitute for wood pulp in the production of paper, their efforts hitherto met with failure. Recently an industrial concern has issued its prospectus, printed upon paper manufactured from cornstalks in its experimental plant. The paper is of good quality and proves the availability of cornstalks for this purpose.

An earnest search for that which will benefit humanity will sooner or later be rewarded with success. (Text.)

(2852)

SEEKING SERVICE

I have a wealthy friend in Paris who is spending his money not very wisely, but not very wickedly. Some of his acquaintances suggested to him that it would help him socially and give him more prestige, if he could go to America and induce President Roosevelt to appoint him as a member of our American embassy in Paris. So he came to Washington and went to see the President, who very kindly granted him an audience. He spoke the little speech that he had prepared to give, beginning by saying, "I think that I could serve my country, perhaps, if I should have this appointment in Paris." President Roosevelt spoke right up, as he is apt to do and said: "My young friend, a man desiring to serve his country does not begin by saying where he is going to serve."—, "Student Volunteer Movement," 1906.

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SELECTION

The world is much what we make it.

The "man with the muckrake" hated his work, and with good reason. "How sweet is the smell of those pine boards!" said a lady to her friend as they were walking near the river in Chicago. "Pine boards," he exclaimed; "just smell that foul river!" "No, thank you," she answered, "I prefer to smell pine boards."—, "Sermons in Illustration."

(2854)

SELECTION BY PURPOSE

Some years ago a cotton-planter in Georgia observed that the leaves on one of his plants was unlike the usual leaf; it was divided as if into fingers. So far nature had gone. The planter added his intelligence. He concluded that such a divided leaf would let in more sunshine on the cotton; also such a leaf would not be comfortable for caterpillars. So he searched out one or two of these peculiar plants, transplanted them to a field by themselves. As they propagated, he plucked up those with the old leaf, cultivated those with the new, and now these new cotton plants, finer than the old, free from caterpillars, are spread through many regions. That is human selection, based on natural selection, securing the fruits of evolution. It is just as applicable to man as to vegetation. A better man may be bred as well as a better kind of cotton.—, The Monist.

(2855)

Selection Justified—See.

Self-abnegation—See.

SELF-BLAME

A story of Henry Ward Beecher is told in Christian Work.

Mr. Beecher had been addressing an association of Congregational ministers somewhere in New York State, and when he had finished his address he said he would be