FATIGUE
Dr. Luther H. Gulick describes some effects of fatigue:
Fatigue promptly attacks and destroys our
sense of proportion. I know no better illustration
of this than the way we will leave our
professional work. When I am really fatigued
it is very difficult for me to go home
when the time comes. It is, of course, true
that there are always little things remaining
to be done; but when I am especially tired
I can not distinguish between those which
are important enough to keep me and those
which are not. I only see how many things
are still undone; and I tend to go on and on.
If a see a scrap of paper on the floor, I can not help going out of my chair and taking time to pick up that wretched thing and put it in my waste-basket. It assumes, somehow, the same importance in my mind with that of thinking out my to-morrow's schedule. I will stay and putter about little things that do not need attention. My sense of balance, of proportion, and perspective is gone. I've lost my eye for the cash value of things.—"Mind and Work."
(1076)
Faults Blotted Out—See Effacement of Sins.
Faults, How to See—See Looking Down.
FAULTS OF THE GREAT
When the great Duke of Marlborough
died and one began to speak of his avarice,
"He was so great a man," said Bolingbroke,
"I had forgotten that he had that fault."
(1077)
Faults, Unconscious—See Self-estimates.
FAVORITISM
The advantage of position is well illustrated in the following incident:
When Louis XIV was at play with some
courtiers, a dispute arose in regard to one
of the turns of the game. The king was
eager, and his opponent seemed resolute to
resist; and the rest of the court stood round
maintaining a dignified neutrality, and none
venturing a remark. At that moment Count
de Grammont was seen entering the apartment,
whereon the king called out, "Come
hither, Grammont, and decide this dispute
between us." "Your majesty is in the
wrong," said the count, the moment he approached.
"How can you say I am in the
wrong!" cried the king, "when you have not
heard what is the point in dispute?" "Why,
sire," said Grammont, "if the point had been
doubtful, all these gentlemen who are standing
round silent would have decided in your
favor long ago."—Croake James, "Curiosities
of Law and Lawyers."
(1078)
FEAR
Several thousand mine workers of the
anthracite region, chiefly foreigners, refused
to enter the mines to-day because they had
a superstitious fear that the earth would
be destroyed when enveloped in the tail of
Halley's comet to-night, May 18, 1910.
Efforts of the English-speaking miners, [at Wilkesbarre, Penn.] to get them to go to work were futile, and they said that if the world came to an end they wanted to be on the surface where they could see, instead of in the depths of the mines. A number of them spent most of the day in prayer, and many of them were in a condition of great fear and nervousness. A number of collieries were so short handed that they had to shut down for the day.
(1079)
FEAR AS A MOTIVE
The late George T. Angell, in "Our Dumb Animals," gives this incident, showing that fear of unseen authority, is a forcible motive, even with would-be transgressors:
The incident occurred on the rise of land
near Park Street Church (Boston). A
horse, evidently laboring under the impression
that he was overloaded, stopt and refused
to go any farther, and a crowd gathered.
Just then one voice called out from
the crowd:
"Why don't you whip him?"
"Whip him," said the driver—"whip him! How do I know that there ain't an agent of that darned old Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals standin' right here in this crowd?"
We have never considered it good policy to send out any of our agents in uniform, and so any respectable citizen who seems to be interested in the protection of horses is liable to be suspected of being one of our agents. (Text.)
(1080)
FEAR OF GOD
Of all the memorials found in Westminster
Abbey, there is not one that gives a nobler
thought than the life lesson from the monument
to Lord Lawrence. Simply his name
