404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



does not seem as if any education could add to the mind's own origi- 

 nal repugnance to incur them; and, on the other hand, when some- 

 thins: in the nature of reward is held forth to encourage certain kinds 

 of conduct, we do not need special instruction to prompt us to secure 

 it. There is, indeed, one obvious weakness that often nullifies the 

 operation of these motives, namely, the giving way to some present 

 and pressing solicitation, a weakness that education might do some- 

 thing foi", but rarely does. The instructor that could reform a victim 

 to this frailty would effect something much wider than moral im- 

 provement properly includes. 



Going in search of some distinct lines of emotional association that 

 enhance the original impulses coincident with moral duty, I think I 

 may cite the growth of an immediate, independent, and disinterested 

 repugnance to what is uniformly denounced and punished as being 

 Avrong. This is a state or disposition of mind forming part of a well- 

 developed conscience ; it may grow up spontaneously under the ex- 

 perience of social authority, and it may be aided by inculcation ; it 

 may, however, also fail to show itself. This is the parallel of the 

 much-quoted love of money for itself; but is not so facile in its 

 growth. For one thing, the mind must not treat authority as an 

 enemy to be counted with, and to be obeyed only when we can't do 

 better. There must be a cordial acquiescence in the social system as 

 working by penalties ; and this needs the concurrence of good im- 

 pulses together with reflection on the evils that mankind are saved 

 from. It is by being favorably situated in the world, as well as by 

 being sympathetically disposed, that we contract this repugnance to 

 immoral acts in themselves, and without reference to the penalties 

 that are behind; and thus perform our duties when out of sight, and 

 not in the narrowness of the letter, but in the fullness of the spirit. It 

 would take a good deal of consideration to show how the schoolmaster 

 might cooperate in furthering this special growth. 



-- 



THE NORWEGIAN LEMMING AND ITS MIGRATIONS. 



By W. DUPPA CEOTCII, M. A., F. L. S. 



AMONG the many marvelous stories w^hich are told of the Nor- 

 wegian lemming (3Iyodes lemmus, Linn.), there is one which 

 seems so directly to point to a lost page in the history of the world, 

 that it is worth a consideration which it appears hitherto to have es- 

 caped. I allude to the remarkable fact that every member of the vast 

 swarms which periodically almost devastate Norway perishes volun- 

 tarily, or at least instinctively, in the ocean. But as among my 

 readers some may not be familiar with the lemming, a brief descrip- 



