Imperfections in Character—See Diverse Influences.
Imperviousness—See Evil, Repellence
of.
Impoliteness—See Politeness.
Importance, not Size—See Work Despised.
IMPOSSIBLE, ACHIEVING WHAT SEEMED
Hon. Richmond P. Hobson gives his impressions of army achievements as he recalls his prison experiences in a Spanish fortress, and has this to say:
From my prison window in Santiago,
which was but little in the rear of the
Spanish line of entrenchments, I saw the
Spaniards fortifying the city for twenty
days. I watched them with critical interest.
I saw them bring up guns from the ships
and place them. Then I saw our men come
up and drive the Spaniards into those entrenchments,
and when they had driven them
into the entrenchments I saw them go on
and try to take the entrenchments themselves.
It looked to be an impossible thing,
but as yet the artillery was silent. The men
came on up the hill and the artillery opened,
and my heart sank when I saw that it was
flanking artillery. For a moment the American
fire ceased as tho the enemy's guns
had been a signal. "Now, then," said I
to myself, "this is the place where the individuality
of the soldier will appear, for
each man there knows that he is just as
likely as any other man to be struck with
that shrapnel." None of them had ever
been under fire before; they could not be
put to a harder test; but how did they respond
to it? Instantly after the lull a more
rapid fire set in, and a more rapid rush of
men up to the trenches. In spite of flanking
artillery we had taken those fortified
trenches with unsupported infantry—a thing
that army experts the world over said could
not be done.
(1552)
IMPOSSIBLE, NOTHING
At the dedication of the Bunker Hill
monument, when it appeared that an accident
was imminent by the surging of the
crowds against the speakers' platform, Webster
requested the people to kindly move
back. A man in the crowd answered back:
"It is impossible!" Thereupon the great
Massachusetts statesman cried out: "Impossible!
Impossible! Nothing is impossible
on Bunker Hill!"—Charles E. Locke.
(1553)
IMPRECATION IN PSALMS
Said one Unitarian minister to another,
about the time when the breaking out of our
Civil War exposed the wickedness of its
instigators: "I never before felt so much
like swearing." "Well," was the reply, "I
felt as you do; but I turned to the Old
Testament, and picked out one of good old
David's imprecatory Psalms. I read it twice
aloud, and since then I have felt much
better."
(1554)
IMPRESS
I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day,
And as my fingers prest it still,
It moved and yielded to my will.
I came again when days were past;
The bit of clay was hard at last,
The form I gave it still it bore,
But I could change that form no more.
I took a piece of living clay,
And gently formed it day by day,
And molded it with power and art—
A young child's soft and yielding heart.
I came again when years were gone;
He was a man I looked upon;
He still that early impress wore.
And I could change him never more.
(Text)
(1555)
IMPRESSION BY PRACTISE
A native Korean, who was told to memorize
the entire Sermon on the Mount, did so with
remarkable exactness. When asked how he
accomplished it, he said: "My teacher told
me to learn it with my heart as well as with
my memory, so I hit on this plan. I would
try to memorize a verse, and then find a
heathen neighbor of mine and practise it
on him. I found the verse would stick
after I had done that, and I couldn't forget
a word of it."
(1556)
IMPRESSIONS
On almost any sea beach you may see
lying together smooth white pebbles, and
ragged sponges, both drying in the sun and
