graceful sweetness. Black Agnes was again a heroine of the virago type, and Queen Philippa, Queen Margaret, and others of the same kind honored their adopted nationality by their courage and devotion. Meaner women were as brave. In a skirmish at Naworth (1570) Leonard Dacres had in his army "many desperate women, who there gave the adventure of their lives and fought right stoutly."—The Fortnightly Review.
(3488)
WOMEN'S FRIVOLITY
What most women want to-day is a donkey-*load
of Paris dresses for their bodies, an
automobile to pull them around, an army
of servants to hook them up and then to
unhook them. The mammonism of men to-day
is the outer and physical embodiment of
the inner and essential vulgarity of the
whole pleasure-loving mob of women on the
avenues, with their sipping of cocktails at
the beginning of the meal in great restaurants,
their flashing of jewels, their parade
of gowns, their killing of time through
bridge and games of chance. Killing time!
When these golden hours are more precious
than the purple drops of paradise itself. Oh,
these superficial, frivolous, vapid women, who
have turned their beautiful bodies into something
scarcely better than the wire stands
that exhibit gowns in merchants' windows.
And they use their very beauty as exemption
from duty!—N. D. Hillis.
(3489)
Wonders of Nature—See Insects of Remote Times. WONDERS UNSEEN BY MAN The insect must see a whole world of wonders of which we know little or nothing. True, we have microscopes, with which we can see one thing at a time if carefully laid upon the stage; but what is the finest instrument that can be produced compared to that with twenty-five thousand object-glasses, all of them probably achromatic, and each one a living instrument, with its own nerve-branch supplying a separate sensation. To creatures thus endowed with microscopic vision, a cloud of sandy dust must appear like an avalanche of massive rock fragments, and everything else proportionally monstrous.—W. Mattieu Williams, "Science in Short Chapters."
(3490)
Word, Effect of a Tender—See Heart-hunger, Satisfying. WORD IN SEASON Buckingham, the war governor of Connecticut, one day met a young man named Simmons as both were walking along the street, and putting both hands on the young man's shoulders, the governor said solemnly: "Simmons, we are none of us living as well as we ought to," and passed on. Simmons, as an old man, declared that that act had a most powerful and permanent influence on his life. (Text.)
(3491)
WORD JUGGLING There are three hundred and sixty-five prohibitions in the law, said the Rabbins, just as many as there are days in the year, and two hundred and forty-eight positive commands, corresponding to the number of members of the body, according to their anatomy; the whole number making six hundred and thirteen precepts. "There can be no more precepts or any less," reasoned the wise Pharisees, "because there are just six hundred and thirteen letters in the decalog." Or if one had not liked this interpretation, they would have given him another equally satisfactory reason why there should be just six hundred and thirteen precepts. In Numbers 15:38, the Jews are commanded to wear fringes, called in the Hebrew tsitsith, upon the border of their garments. Now, as there are eight threads and five knots in each fringe, making the number thirteen, and as the letters of the word tsitsith stand in Hebrew for the number six hundred, therefore, as was proved before, there must be just six hundred and thirteen precepts in the Mosaic law. To such silly word jugglery had the Pharisees recourse in placing upon men's shoulders burdens too grievous to be borne.—The Golden Rule.
(3492)
WORD OF GOD FREED
When Elizabeth of England succeeded to
the throne she was petitioned to release, according
to custom, four or five principal
prisoners. "Who shall they be?" she asked.
The reply was: "The four evangelists and
the apostle Paul." (Text.)
(3493)
WORD OF GOD UNIVERSAL
The following is by Frank Dempster Sherman:
Not only in the Book
Is found God's word,
But in the song of every brook
And every bird.