We usually find what we search for. He who is looking for evil motives and deeds in his fellow men will be quite likely to find them. And some seem to make this their wretched specialty. They pride themselves on their insight into human nature, but for any good they do you will look in vain, they are detectives rather than physicians. There should be a care not to develop the eyes to see evil, since we inevitably become transformed into the likeness of that which we have as the object of our attention. A man's object in life will surely bend and mold him into conformity to itself. An old whaler said that he had for more than a score of years sailed the seas for the capture of sperm whales, and he supposed his heart would be found by a post mortem examination to be in the form of a whale.

While we should not be searching for sin, we should train our eyes to see danger signals, and make sure that we have not become morally color-blind. It seems strange that some persons should be unable to distinguish red from green. Dalton could see in the solar spectrum only two colors, blue and yellow, and having once dropped a piece of red sealingwax in the grass, he could not distinguish it by its color. Dr. Mitchell mentions a naval officer who chose a blue coat and red waistcoat, believing them to be of the same color. Color blindness is usually in relation to red, and yet red is the universal danger signal. Young people often say, "I can't see the harm of this or the wrong in that," and, refusing to take the word of others that the signal shows red and indicates danger, they rush on to ruin.

As color blindness is the occasion of many wrecks and ruins, so nearsightedness is the cause of many sad failures. The trained eye of the sailor will detect a sail out on the horizon, when a landsman would see but the meeting of sea and sky. The eye should be trained to long distance seeing, for often we must pass through defeat to victory. Temporary loss may be the gateway to permanent gain. In most enterprises there is at first a necessary sinking of some capital, but this becomes

the out-of-sight foundation upon which the superstructure may be solidly reared. The farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer, look ahead, often a long way ahead. They have eyes that see. The chess or checker player who sees but one move ahead will seldom win unless he plays with another who is equally stupid.

But finally in all our seeing and seeking let the object be a noble and worthy one. I have read of a man who found a valuable gold piece, and from that time forth he walked with eyes upon the ground searching for gold pieces. He would not lift his eyes, lest he should overlook some money lying in his path. In the course of his life he did find several pieces, but meanwhile his soul was becoming narrower and more sordid. He saw not the blue skies, the fleecy clouds, the rainbow arch, the stars brighter than gold, the crescent or full-orbed moon. He had eyes to see, but better far for his soul had he been blind. I read of the great leader and law-giver Moses, "He endured as seeing Him who is invisible." And more than we need the power to find gold dollars or eagles, or to see stars and moon and sun, do we need to have this promise as our possession: "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off."

The Value of an Idea.

T

WILLIAM C. KING, Springfield, Mass.

HE true value of an idea is beyond the power of computation. The world is not governed by gold, but by ideas. The man who works without ideas becomes a mere machine, stupid and void of either mental or physical growth. The man whose mind is kept in a condition of healthy activity, becomes an intellectual power. He is constantly evolving ideas which are of value to himself and the world.

Gutenberg was a young man whose mind was active. He was familiar with the laborious and difficult task of producing manuscript volumes. He conceived the idea of making movable type and thus of making books by printing instead of by the slow process of writing. As we look upon the vast product of the printing press, and consider the immeasurable influence it has exerted for four centuries, who can estimate the value of this one idea? If it had remained in the closet of darkness hidden from the world, the common people of the present generation would be but slightly, if any, emerged from the intellectual night which had hitherto enveloped them. Gutenberg was a thinking man. He communicated his ideas to his wife and received from her a smile of approval and encouragement. He at once began to put his idea into tangible form, and, as a result, we to-day have the art of printing with a wide diffusion of its products, and consequent intellectual stimulus and influence throughout the civilized world.

The idea of bridling the electric current and sending it across the continent and around the world at a speed of lightning, freighted with thought and intelligence, is beyond the power of human computation in point of value to the world.

To-day we sit in our office and audibly speak with persons a thousand miles distant, recognizing their voices as distinctly as though in the same room. If the idea of the electric current for conveying sound had never been put into practical use, what a loss the world would have sustained!

James Watt little realized the value of an idea as he was experimenting with his mother's teakettle. Had the power of steam never been developed, we should doubtless still be traveling by the old stage coach and on horseback. What a blessing has come to our homes, and to the world through the idea of the sewing machine, conceived by Elias Howe! Although he became almost swamped in the mire of difficulties and discouragements, he was possessed of a wonderful tenacity of purpose; every obstacle was trampled under the ponderous foot of determination, and the result is known to the civilized world.

The wonderful advances made in mechanical devices and in science are the result of ideas. Men have studied, wrought, and labored diligently to reduce these ideas to practical use. As a result we see on every hand the gigantic strides of improvement and progress. Nowhere on the face of the earth is there greater incentive for the development of ideas and their application to practical use than in our own country.

The opportunities for advancement and improvement are by no means exhausted. We have scarcely read through the primer of inventive genius. In every department of life's activities large rewards are offered for ideas.

What is your occupation or particular line of work? Is there not some part of your daily toil which could be simplified and its accomplishment facilitated by the introduction of an idea?

The worth of an idea should be apprehended by every young man and woman, as an appreciation of its value will exert a strongly beneficial influence upon the choice of occupation, companions, and books.

Seek to gain ideas from others and to develop them from your own resources. Their possession and use will make you wise to know and to do.

Put Your Ideas into Practice.

BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, PH.D., Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

HAT does, what knows, what is; three souls, one man," so the doctrine of John reads in the words of Browning. Doing, knowing, being; action, intelligence, character; these three are the trinity of life, and how can either be spared? The mere knowing of things does not make character, any more than the rules and canons of an art make skill. Acquaintance with the conventionalities of society does not make a gentleman. On the other hand, mere busyness is not being. Bare locomotion does not generate soul power. The restlessness of the house fly yields, we suspect, no fruit, either in knowledge or wisdom. Character is begotten of intelligent acts. It is the resultant of choices. What we are at any time is the product of all our deliberate acts. We are what we have done. Every single act of the will yields its insensible but none the less certain contribution to the sum of character. Elevation of moral character comes only through the furnace fires of moral testing and struggle. The half-reformed pickpocket, who, on seeing a handy purse in the outside pocket of his neighbor on a street car, prayed for strength, and changed his seat, made a gain of strength thereby. He could have made greater by sitting it out.

The supreme end of life is not found in knowing or in being. That were selfishness. The possession of character or knowledge is no end in itself. Character that does not act is dead. Action is its oxygen. The death is by asphyxiation. Knowledge that does not take shape in deeds, that does not apply itself to life, that does not take the life-form, is rubbish. Be