The catbird has the courage of his convictions, and one of these convictions is that he has the right to the satisfaction of an ungovernable and enormous curiosity. Bait your bird-trap in the woods with something which strikes a bird as a curiosity that courts immediate investigation and you will catch a catbird. Other birds might start for it, but the catbird would distance them.—Winthrop Packard, "Wild Pastures."
(646)
Curiosity in a Boy—See Conscience a Monitor.
CURIOSITY, RATIONALE OF
When the child learns that he can appeal
to others to eke out his store of experiences,
so that, if objects fail to respond interestingly
to his experiments, he may call upon persons
to provide interesting material, a new
epoch sets in. "What is that?" "Why?"
become the unfailing signs of a child's presence.
At first this questioning is hardly
more than a projection into social relations
of the physical overflow which earlier kept
the child pushing and pulling, opening and
shutting. He asks in succession what holds
up the house, what holds up the soil that
holds the house, what holds up the earth
that holds the soil; but his questions are not
evidence of any genuine consciousness of
rational connections. His why is not a demand
for scientific explanation; the motive
behind it is simply eagerness for a larger
acquaintance with the mysterious world in
which he is placed. The search is not for a
law or principle, but only for a bigger fact.
Yet there is more than a desire to accumulate
just information or heap up disconnected
items, altho sometimes the interrogating habit
threatens to degenerate into a mere disease
of language. In the feeling, however dim,
that the facts which directly meet the senses
are not the whole story, that there is more
behind them and more to come from them,
lies the germ of intellectual curiosity.—John
Dewey, "How We Think."
(647)
Current, Double—See Joy and Sorrow.
CURRENTS OF LIFE
The waters of the Pacific are tempered for
a certain width with a warm current flowing
north from the tropics. The temperature of
Alaska is affected by it, and the result of its
genial influence is increased vegetation and
civilization. But for this life-giving stream
Alaska would be as destitute and uninhabitable
as Labrador.
But for the enriching stream of
Christian life the whole world would
now be a moral Labrador. (Text.)
(648)
CURRENTS, UTILIZING
Sir Wyville Thompson and, later, Sir John
Murray, unraveled some of the mysteries of
the hidden depths of the sea, such as the
Gulf stream and the waters that wash the
Cape of Good Hope. They have found that
there are currents flowing over one another
in different directions, as in the case of air-currents
above us. The aim is to be able to
utilize these cross-currents, both of air and
water, for the benefit of man.
Still more were it wise to use the
many and even the contrary currents of
life so as to make all serve man's best
interests.
(649)
Curse of Drink—See Drink and Native Races.
CURSING FORBIDDEN
Bishop Benzler used to be a great favorite
of the German Emperor, but recently the
bishop fell into one of those quarrels about
burial-grounds that in Germany, as well as
in England and Wales, seem to have a great
power of making people forget Christian
charity. The bishop, because a Protestant
had been buried in this ground, went to the
extreme step of declaring that the ground
had been desecrated, and decided to curse it.
The Emperor was furious when he heard of this, and when the bishop was imprudent enough to demand an audience, he let loose upon the head of the unfortunate ecclesiastic a flood of eloquent wrath which submerged him. Here is the principal passage:
"Your Reverence," said the Emperor, "has asked for an audience, and I have granted it because I, also, have a few words to say to you. Before leaving Alsace-Lorraine I must tell your Reverence that your attitude has greatly displeased me. You were represented to me as a mild and peaceable man; your actions prove the contrary. You have done worse things than the worst fanatic. You have curst a cemetery situated on German soil, the German soil over which I rule. Do not forget, your Reverence, that I, as German Emperor, will never tolerate that even one inch of German soil should be
