by practicing to speak with pebbles in his mouth; and he strengthened his voice by running or walking uphill, and pronouncing some passage in an oration or a poem, during the difficulty of breath which that caused.” The usual version of this is that Demosthenes overcame his impediment of speech by standing on the shore with pebbles in his mouth and declaimed in competition with the roaring of the sea. “You hhave stones in your mouth,” is said of a person who stutters or speaks indistinctly. In’ Hudibras (1663) Samuel Butler wrote: ‘The orator who once Did fll his mouth with pebble stones ‘When he harangued. ‘Who was the Laughing Philosopher? Democritus (4607-362? 8.c.), a Greek thinker in the time of Socrates, was known as the “Laughing Philosopher.” Just why he was so called is not known fot certain. His moral philosophy was very stern and taught the absolute subjection of all passions. According to a legend, probably unfounded, Democritus put out his own eyes so that he might think more clearly and not be diverted in his meditations. Some ancient ‘writers say that he became so perfect in his teachings that he went about continually smiling, from which circumstance he became known as the Laughing Philosopher; but others say that the inhabitants of Abdera, the colony in Thrace where Democritus was born, were notorious for their stupidity, and that he was called the “laughing” Philosopher be- cause of the scom and ridicule that he heaped upon his townsmen for their ignorance. It appears that Democritus should rather be called the “Deriding Philosopher,” since he derided and laughed scornfully at the follies and vanities ‘of mankind. Robert Burton (1577-1640), author of The Anatomy of Melancholy, is sometimes referred to as “Democritus Junior.” ‘What is a berserker rage? In Norse mythology Berserk was the nickname of the grandson of the cighthanded Starkadder. He always went into battle without armor and was famed for the reckless fury with which he fought. Berserk in old Scandinavian probably meant “bare-shirt,” that is, one clothed only in his shirt and not protected by armor or heavier clothing. To be berserk was equivalent to “in one's shirt sleeves.” Among those slain by Berserk was King Swafurlam, by whose daughter he had twelve sons equal to himself in bravery. These sons of Berserk were called “ber- setkers,” a term that thus became synonymous with “fury” and “reckless [s1a]