Thoughts of a Farmer, X. Comparisons: Misfits

Thoughts of a Farmer. BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER. X.— Comparisons— Misfits. Comparisons are often a pleasing medium through which to convey some striking idea. Comparisons, however, may be often very misleading, and it is sometimes difficult to detect the greatest fallacies when conveyed through contrast or comparison. Sometime ago I sat in a large educational assembly where 1 heard a multitude of school teachers applaud a lecturer, who in speaking of the weaknesses of child life declared, by way of comparison, that "a chain is no stronger than its weakest link." Doubtless many of those present thought the comparison, though time-honored, striking and illuminating. Many did not stop to think, perhaps, that a human life is really not a chain of links. The absence of the link principle in human attributes created a suspicion that the comparison might be wrong, because what at first thought might appear a similarity, after all contained no likeness whatever. Comparisons are so frequently used by people in conversation, and by lecturers, that it pays to scrutinize them before accepting them at full value. When one stops to think, it is quite clear that in human life one attribute or peculiarity may be strengthened or weakened by another. A man may be considered naturally dishonest, and be given to theft, did he not possess religious qualities that restrain him from misappropriating the property of others. The science of phrenology, whatever its accuracy may be, teaches that a strongly developed characteristic in one direction, may be helpful to other characteristics that are weak. We have a very com-

692 IMPROVEMENT ERA. mon example .of the idea here sought to be conveyed in the loss of one of the senses. When the sight is gone, the sense of touch answers its purposes to a wonderful extent. It is clear, then, that these human qualities are not related to one another as links are found in a chain. When a link breaks, it is thrown away and a new one put in its place, or it may be mended by the process of welding. If such were the conditions of the attributes of life, the process of mending human affairs would be quite impossible. Men would be robbed of that which comes through the power of faith or the exercise of repentance. It will be seen that such a comparison is very misleading, because of the great dissimilarity between the links of a chain and the links in a human being — because a human being has no links at all. What I have in mind is not so much the error contained in such a comparison, as the error that people often make in this world in determining just what a thing is. In the case above referred to, the lecturer, speaking of human weaknesses, looked upon them solely from the standpoint of strength. Now, the human system is a very complex affair, and it is quite possible that what we regard as a weakness is, after all, not a weakness, but a misfit. Sometime ago it was my duty as a farmer to run a binder in the harvest field for about thirty days. For a long time I was troubled by the elevator chain, which runs around the sprocket wheels at the rear of the machine. The links kept breaking. It is true, they were somewhat worn, and I therefore imagined that the links broke because they were too weak to do their work in elevating the grain. Frequently, however, the chain would fly off and scatter the links in aggravating confusion over the ground. That led me to believe that there was something the matter with the chain, besides the weakness of its links. I thereupon took a standard link and went over the entire chain, measuring every link by it. To my great surprise, I discovered a link that was larger than any of the rest. Although it was similar to other links in appearance, and not very greatly different in size, it was enough larger to cause the mischief. It was simply a misfit in the sprocket wheel. When I thought of the trouble it had made me for days past, I was very careful to keep

THOUGHTS OF A FARMER. 693 it out of the tool box, lest it should get into the chain again. Its weak links, that had been breaking for a number of days, had put upon them an extraordinary and unnecessary strain under which they broke. After that the weak links in the chain did their work well. The circumstance reminded me how often it happens in life that the thing we are after is not really the thing we need. All through life we are constantly patching up difficulties, and it not unfrequently happens that we put the patches in the wrong place. Sometimes a little bit of shifting, a change in environments, helpfulness by proper influences, mend the difficulties in child life very easily. What they needed was not strengthening at some point , but adjusting the daily habits of their life to the work they were capable of performing. You can't look into a human being as you look at a chain and mend it in the same way. If you do, the chances are you make a botch of him. How often it happens in the public life, in Church or State, that men find great difficulty in adjusting themselves to their surroundings. They are misfits, often too small to fit in the cogwheels of human endeavor. It does not follow that men are too small for the places they occupy. Sometimes they are men of superior abilities and attainments, but lack the power to adjust themselves to the services they are asked to perform. The genius to work harmoniously in the affairs of life is so important to the individual and to society, that its acquirement should be studied and if possible attained. Sometimes the cog-wheels themselves get out of line and need readjusting. That is the work of a master mechanic. It is the work of a genius with power to recognize— a genius that can take upon himself those divine attainments by which things are put in order and made to work in their divinely appointed spheres. Alhekta, Canada.