"The maxim 'know thyself' does not suffice: Know others! Know them well-that's my advice." There are words which have facility in being set in proverbs and illustrations of a proverbial nature. Thus Candle is found of rare convenience. "It is a poor sport that is not worth the candle." Scarcely fit to hold a candle." "Thy modesty is a candle to thy merit." 44 How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” The idea of holding a candle to the sun has been much used by way of absurd contrast. Thus Burton,-"To enlarge or illustrate this power and effects of love is to set a candle in the sun." And Young: "How commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the sun.” Romeo turned from the sport saying: "For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase: The use of proverbs should be with caution, else we may be betrayed. "Don't cross the bridge till you come to it, Very true; but one must be prepared to cross when he comes to it and ready to pay his toll. What I have had in mind is to mark this form of reason, and how skilfully reason adapts itself to our needs. The thoughtful man will not be satisfied to repeat an adage. He will think if it be true and how it has come to be true and to be known. By this means he can use it discreetly and perhaps make proverbs for himself; that is, set his experience in compact shape for transportation. Reason in proverbs makes them flexible, and only by this can they be adjusted to conduct. We must avoid misfits. It was a shrewd saying, that "A pedant insists on applying a stiff theory to fluid fact." Therein is the difference between a mechanic and a genius; between clumsy skill and talent, ingenuity, wisdom. Even our law courts have a department of equity, where laws are judiciously and judicially applied to the particular instance. Indeed, much of the time of our courts is spent in determining what words mean and are meant to mean. The Teacher did not give set rules, formal and rigid, but principles to be thought upon and worked out. He liked to speak in parables rather than in statutes. His two Commandments must be heard and obeyed in the light and confidence of reason. This is liberty in duty, this is reason. Solomon prayed for "an understanding heart." St. Paul taught concerning the new covenant that "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Words are insufficient and need reason to employ them and to interpret them. We get beyond formulas when life is earnest and pleasant. "Rules and regulations" are for the Factory. In the Home, love rules in reason and reasonable love obeys; and reason is satisfied. Goldsmith's commendation of the Dean of Derry is graceful: "Who mixed reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth." Enough has been said. Let Reason have her own place. Let her have all her allies and our allegiance. It is a great thing to be reasonable. Here at the end I set these rational words: "Prove all things: hold fast that which is good.” "Let each man be fully assured in his own mind." "I beseech you, think it possible you may be mistaken." "The day shall declare it." T IV IMAGINATION HE Imagination has been described as 66 the power of mental vision: a power which creates what it beholds." It is distinguished from fancy by its adherence to the natural and real. What it beholds has been, or may be. Fancy goes beyond this and deals with the unreal and even the impossible; it calls up gnomes and fairies, and builds castles in the air. Imagination is an architect and works with the instruments and by the rules of the profession. Fancy lays aside the formulas and rubs its lamp. Fancy amuses and refreshes. Imagination does a more substantial work and renders permanent service. It is the ally of the reason in its reflecting and planning. Without it life would be mechanical, and its course monotonous and wearisome. The imagination reproduces what has been seen. It brings up the past, and the way is retraced and its incidents repeated. "I seem to see it now," we say. "It seems as if it were but yesterday. I can hear his voice at this moment." It also presents that which we have never seen. We attend the traveller in his wandering, while sitting in our room. When we hear of Egypt we think of a stretch of sand, with a palm-tree and a camel, and the pyramids in the distance. The picture of these things stands for the land. The imagination gives form to the invisible, shaping and fashioning the unseen. We think of angels as light bodies with wings, though we do not know that angels have wings. The presentment seems in keeping with the celestial persons. If the Imagination is to be useful and trustworthy, its processes must be rational. If Fancy walks at one side, Experience and Sagacity must be upon the other side. The captain of a Cunard steamer told me that he was called one night to see a stupendous iceberg which the officer of the deck had discovered. They gazed at it, and thought of the disaster if a ship had struck upon it in the dark. The steamer moved on, the angle was changed, and the iceberg was seen to be a mass of cloud whitened by the moonshine. After that every iceberg was subjected to close scrutiny, to find whether it was ice or mist. The imagination presents truths and beliefs in a compact form. A simple act may be eloquent, if one has the wit to interpret it. When Warren was giving his oration in the Old South Church on the eve of the Revolution, a British |