Do you ever sing in the shower? Come on now – admit it. Some of you belt out a tune between soaps and shampoo. You imagine you’re on the stage at Madison Square Gardens and you let it out. You figure why not – no one is listening except me. I am singing for an audience of one. 

I am sure most of you have heard the phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” But where did that axiom came from? The short history goes like this: a man named Daniel Defoe wrote a book called The History of the Devil. In this book Defoe tries to trace the thread of the Devil’s work in all of history. The book, though it had volumes of evil working, was bound in the most beautiful leather and paper that could be found. Though beautiful outwardly it held some of the ugliest and evil acts known to humankind. So, when George Elliott wrote The Mill on the Floss, one of the characters, Mr. Tulliver, talks about this book The History of the Devil and says, “Don’t judge the book by its cover.”