There is a bit of proverbial philosophy afloat to the effect
that “a watched kettle never boils.” False philosophy this,
whether taken literally or figuratively. In the one case it
is an idiotic superstition; in the other, a stupid mistake;
in either, a humbug and a cheat. Cease to watch your business
kettle, and what comes of leaving it to take care of itself?
It either becomes stone-cold or blows up. You don’t want your
enterprise over-done, and you don’t want it under-done. Your
object is to strike the golden mean between lukewarmness and
the explosive point, represented, we will say, by 212 of
Fahrenheit. How are you to stimulate the contents of your kettle
up to the right mark--to make them ebullient without turning
them into a dangerous element--unless you regulate the upward
tendency judiciously? It is only the neglected business kettle
that never boils to a good purpose. Suppose Lord Worcester,
Marquis of Somerset, had not watched his kettle, and so had
not observed the phenomenon of the flapping lid, forced into
motion by the pressure of the escaping steam? If the marquis
had not received that hint from his watched kettle as to the
latent force of steam, who can tell what deprivation of motive
power mankind would have undergone? Your moral kettle must be
looked after, too, or it is more likely to freeze than boil.
Morality without the warmth of feeling necessary to make it
active, is not of much use. In fact, all the figurative kettles,
individual and social, included within the range of human
hopes and duties, require to be closely watched. The world is
paved, as one may say, with the wrecks of kettles which would
have been of incalculable utility if they had been properly
managed--reformatory kettles, for example, which only require
the fire of zeal to keep them going, and the guardianship of
practical common sense to regulate them, in order to become
valuable utensils in the kitchen of progress. To watch your
kettle till it boils, and all the time that it is boiling,
is the only sure way to provide against accidents.--New York
_Ledger_.
(3445)
=Water and Natives=--See MIRACLES, EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF.