A Sinking Ship. But is this where it should stop? Or should we also extend the idea of the Sinking Ship to every aspect of life? Let us not forget that no ship can float when it is filled with stones, or more properly speaking, when its weight exceeds its volume. It is plain that if the people were to fill their bodies with stones, or if stones were to be inserted into their bodies, in order to save weight, the ship would break its moorings and sink. If some weight is to be saved, let us not lose our heads with our wreck and drown. Our body is like a Sinking Ship, which if it does not float naturally, must be supplied with some means for attaining buoyancy. For the body to float at all, it is necessary for it to have a certain volume. It is necessary for a ship to be hollow to float, for if it were solid it could not float. And as for the matter of its weight and volume, this is the same as our body and the capacity it has for being filled with the air we breathe. It is a wise man who knows his own weight and the amount of air he can inhale and exhale, and so maintains himself at a proper standard. On the other hand, it is a fool to put himself on a starvation diet or drink too many drugs in an endeavour to reduce the weight of his body. "In spite of what some people may say, you can weigh just as much with fear as with fearlessness," says a wise old man. "Yes, but that's only because you've lost too much weight," said another. "It may be because of that or not, but on the other hand there's one thing I can't see in all this talk, and that is--that people who are afraid to walk a bit of a long road or go in an omnibus, with a good horse under them, don't lose any more weight in the process than those who go boldly on." "That's the fact all right," was the answer. The result was that the second wise man went to an expensive tailor, who took his measure at a first visit and made him a new suit at second hand. He ordered his wife to go next morning to the house of an acquaintance and bring back a small tin kettle. She did so, and that very evening her husband had the pleasure of wearing this useful article for the first time in his life. "To have a well made suit made to order is better than a badly made suit made to order, but not a good suit made to order." "Of course if he can't afford it, he must wear rags," said one of the wise men. "Very well, let him wear them. He'll soon find out that you can't get along without a clean pair of breeches, that one can't exist without shoes," replied another. "What is it all about anyway?" asked the third wise man. "Have you any idea what is in this tin kettle? It is of no use to me or to any one in this land. Let us make it clear to ourselves that I'm not a tin kettle." The wise man who said, "Well, they can't put your size into a tin kettle, therefore you ought to have a suit made," is an excellent example of the stupidity of human nature. He had made the size of a tin kettle to be the size of a suit. "That's all right then," replied the other. "If you have a suit made, that suit will fit you just as a suit of clothes will fit a suit of clothes." "True, but that won't help the man with the tin kettle. It is no more real than the tin kettle." "We are very far from knowing what is true," replied the third wise man. "We need a whole bundle of kettles to get a suit of clothes; so what do you think we'd do if we wanted to know the truth about this kettle?" "We could not get the truth out of it," said the wise man. "Well, that is just it," said the other, "we can't see through tin kettles. Take a long stick and measure that coat of yours. It will make a tin kettle about twice as long as that stick is. The man with the tin kettle is a man that thinks nothing of a long stick, but a kettle is about all he can look through." "I'd like to know what is in this kettle now. This is the same as asking whether a man is not a man, because he makes himself ridiculous by wearing a tin kettle." "To be sure! If a man thinks a long stick is his real thing, we have no right to be surprised if he is seen wearing a tin kettle." "Well, then, what are you going to do? Are you going to sit down with your tin kettle on your back and make yourself comfortable, or are you going to take a stick and go out to see what is really a man?" "Yes, indeed, I'd love to see you walking down the road in your tin kettle, and showing the tailor how to make your coat, and how many yards the kettle must be. What's more, I'd like to see the tailor and the other men making fun of you!" "I'm going to have that kettle taken off my back and thrown into the street." "You are?" "Yes, indeed. The best way is to cut the kettle with a hatchet." "You can't do that, it's not worth a thing," said the third wise man. "Look here, what has this kettle to do with all this talk? Why, we don't know how to manage in this life until we come to know the truth about it all." "Look here! Let us see whether this kettle will make all this fuss about itself, if I were to smash it with a hatchet." "I guess it won't; it won't make any fuss at all," replied the other. "A tin kettle wouldn't talk much if you did, I reckon." And so the result of all this foolishness was that, as no one is going to do that, there is no chance for our wise men to find out anything by way of proof. A very wise woman said, "We must make the best of this world, and not waste time over what has happened. I have heard this story told over and over again." "That's what you think," replied the fourth wise man. "But what is it all about? Is it reasonable to believe that there is a God that made all this world?" "What else could have made it?" asked the wise woman. "That is a question I haven't solved yet," replied the wise man. "You will never solve it, for you don't know what is meant by making." "No, and for that reason I can't answer that question," said the wise man. "But, at any rate, the man that made that kettle made it to fit its place, did he not?" "What do you mean?" "He made it the right size, didn't he? We may not know much about that, but we can know about its being made to fit its place. If I took an axe and knocked that kettle to pieces it would be a great deal worse for me, I am afraid. And so it is with all of us here on this earth. We cannot understand how God has chosen this world out of all the worlds there are in the universe; but we do know that it is the right size, whether we understand anything more about it or not." "What do you mean by saying that, Miss?" "Oh, well, I guess that if a man were to take all the worlds there are and put them all together, they would not be big enough to hold our world. And you may be sure that if the world is the right size, if all the water were to be drained from it, the man would lose his weight. That is what I mean." "Well, that's sensible." "You see what a wise man you are," said the third wise man. "It is very easy for you to live, for you don't live in a kettle. You say that he has the kettle on his back, that he carries it on his back and walks about in it. I think he must be crazy." "Do you?" asked the wise woman. "And have you any particular reason for thinking so?" "No, not exactly. I can't think of any reason for it, unless he likes the way it looks." "It's very difficult to find out about that," said the wise man