is ours, to depreciate our own powers or faculties
because some one else's are more vigorous, to shrink from doing what
we can because we think we can do so little, is to hinder our own
development and the progress of the world. For it is only by exercise
that any faculty is strengthened, and only by each one putting his
shoulder to the wheel that the world moves and humanity advances.

There is nothing more insidious than the spirit of conformity, and
nothing more quickly paralyzes the best parts of a man. A gleam of
truth illuminates his mind, and forthwith he proceeds to compare it
with the prevailing tone of his community or his set. If it agree not
with that, he distrusts and perhaps disowns it; it is left to perish,
and he to that extent perishes with it. By and by, when some one more
independent, more truth-loving, more courageous than himself arises
to proclaim and urge the same thing that he was half ashamed to
acknowledge, he will regret his inglorious fear of being in the
minority. We are accustomed to think that greatness always denotes
exceptional powers, yet most of the world's great men have rather been
distinguished by an invincible determination to work out the best
that was within them. They have acted, spoken, or thought according to
their own natures and judgment, without any wavering hesitation as to
the probable verdict of the world. They were loyal to the truth that
was in them, and had faith in its ultimate triumph; they had a mission
to fulfill, and it did not occur to them to pause or to falter. How
many more great men should we have were this spirit universal, and how
much greater would each one of us be if, in a simple straightforward
manner, we frankly said and did the best that we knew, without fear or
favor? Soon would be found gifts that none had dreamed of, powers that
none had imagined, and heroism that was thought impossible. As Emerson
well says, "He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because
he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and so perceiving
throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights
himself, stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works
miracles, just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man
who stands on his head."--_Phil. Ledger._

* * * * *

A CIRCULAR BOWLING ALLEY.

The arcades under the elevated railroad which runs transversely
through Berlin are used as storehou