Plutarch says that a traveler at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedæmonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but a goose can."
There are many who have abilities
to do greater things who are content
to boast of some accomplishment as
useless as standing on one leg.
(5)
Abnormality—See Deformity. ABSENT-MINDEDNESS A Canadian farmer, noted for his absent-mindedness, went to town one day and transacted his business with the utmost precision. He started on his way home, however, with the firm conviction that he had forgotten something, but what it was he could not recall. As he neared home, the conviction increased, and three times he stopt his horse and went carefully through his pocketbook in a vain endeavor to discover what he had forgotten. In due course he reached home and was met by his daughter, who looked at him in surprize and exclaimed, "Why, father, where have you left mother?"—Leslie's Weekly.
(6)
There are many firm believers in the theory that most people are crazy at times, and facts seem to support their belief. The following will possibly remind a number of our readers of some incident in their experience, which at the time of its occurrence seemed to them most unaccountable:
A wise man will step backward off a porch
or into a mud-puddle, a great philosopher
will hunt for the spectacles that are in his
hand or on his forehead, a hunter will sometimes
shoot himself or his dog. A working girl
had been feeding a great clothing knife for
ten years. One day she watched the knife
come down slowly upon her hand. Too late
she woke out of her stupor with one hand
gone. For a few seconds her mind had
failed, and she sat by her machine a temporary
lunatic and had watched the knife approach
her own hand. A distinguished professor
was teaching near a canal. Walking
along one evening in summer, he walked as
deliberately into the canal as he had been
walking along the path a second before. He
was brought to his senses by the water and
mud and the absurdity of the situation. He
had on a new suit of clothes and a new silk
hat, but, tho the damage was thus great, he
still laughs over the adventure. Our mail
collectors find in the iron boxes along the
streets all sorts of papers and articles which
have been put in by some hand from whose
motions the mind has become detached for
a second. A glove, a pair of spectacles, a
deed, a mortgage, a theater ticket, goes in,
and on goes the person, holding on to the
regular letter which should have been deposited.
This is called absent-mindedness,
but it is a brief lunacy.—Public Opinion.
(7)
Absentees—See Excuses.
Absolution—See Forgiveness, Conditions of.
ABSORPTION
The Italian mothers get for nurses the
most beautiful persons, because they believe
that by constantly looking into such faces
the infant will unconsciously take on some
of the beauty of the nurse.
This may be a fiction; but we do
know that where there is mutuality of
interest and deep affection, persons
thrown closely together, in the process
of the years, take on traits each of the
other.
(8)
See Beautiful Life, Secret of; Language,
Formation of.
Absorption in One's Art—See Thoroughness.
ABSORPTION, MENTAL
The anecdote is a familiar one in the
history of painting, of the artist employed
upon the frescoes of a dome, who stept back
to see from a better point of view the work
which he had done, and became so absorbed
in comparing the scenes which he had depicted
with the forming idea as it lay in his
mind, that still proceeding backward he had
reached the edge of the lofty scaffolding,
when a pupil, observing his instant peril, and
afraid even to shout to him, rushed forward
and marred the figures with his trowel, so
calling back and saving the master. The
mind, engrossed in its own operation, had
forgotten the body, and was treating it as
carelessly as the boy treats the chip which
he tosses on the wave.—Richard S. Storrs.
(9)
See Assimilation.
