LAMPWICKS—AN OBJECT LESSON CONCERNING GLUTTONY

[Let the lamp that is used be one with a clear glass bowl, through which both oil and wick can be seen. For burning the oil, put a little in a saucer.]

I want you to see what is in this lamp. Here is a bowl, full of clear oil. In it is a wick, and the wick sucks up the oil. Up the oil goes, through the neck of the lamp, into the burner, and is ready to make a clear light. I will strike a match, and show you. The oil has crept up, you see, very slowly, and just enough of it, so that the light is kept right, not flaring, and not smoldering.

What would happen if the wick were not there, to feed in the oil in just the right way and in just the right amounts? I will show you. Here is some oil all by itself, without a wick, and I will light it. You see how it acts,—a big light for a minute, and that is the end of it.

Now I want to tell you how these two things I have shown you remind me of two boys. One is Gilbert Glutton, and the other is Tommy Temperate. Can you guess which is which? Tommy Temperate is like the lamp. He eats and he drinks just what he can use, just what he can turn into a manly, bright boy. He doesn’t eat so little that he grows puny, or so much that he grows lazy and sleepy and sick. It is just as if he had a wick to feed him. When he gets enough, he stops. And the result is that he is as bright as this lamp, and brighter.

But Gilbert Glutton is like the oil that burned in this saucer. He eats without any restraint; and he drinks, when he gets anything he likes to drink, until he makes himself sick. And so he is dull to look at, and almost as wretched as this blackened saucer. Instead of eating and drinking pure and healthful things, that he could build up into a strong and manly boy, his drink is chiefly coffee and tea and soda water, and his food is candy and cake and pie. Now which would you rather be like, Gilbert Glutton or Tommy Temperate?