EDITORIAL 



The Bigness of Little Things, 

 hi the Welcome Reception Room 1 

 recently entertained a company of 

 guests, and tried to point out the wide 

 held rilled by biology, preaching a lit- 

 tle sermon from nature with the motto 

 of The Agassiz Association, "Per na- 

 turam ad Deum," as my text- There 

 seems to be no better form of nature 

 than such tiny specimens as present 

 aspects of great biological importance 

 and also show a design in their struc- 

 ture that is not only beautiful but won- 

 derful. Yet there was one person pre- 

 sent who overlooked the tremendous 

 importance of these little objects. She 

 considered them as playthings, and me 

 as a man whose time should be devoted 

 to the big things of life, to the things 

 of importance! She perceived not the 

 bigness of the biological import but 

 only the smallness of the small objects. 

 On her face was a look of pity for the 

 grown person that could fritter away 

 his time upon such microscopic mat- 

 ters. 



"Please tell me, do you find these lit- 

 tle things very entertaining?" The in- 

 quiry was eminently proper. With 

 that I am in accord, but there are some 

 things so absolutely proper, so trite, 

 so bland, so ignorantly innocent, that 

 they are capable of causing nervous 

 prostration. After devoting a third of 

 a century to the diligent study of mi- 

 croscopical matters, after erecting here 

 at ArcAdiA an equipment costing 

 many hundreds of dollars, after por- 

 traying the wonders of the microscopi- 

 cal world, especially in their relation 

 to the biggest affairs of human welfare 

 and destiny, after having time and 

 again reveled in this magical micro- 

 scopical world, that bland and innocent 

 tone came like a blow in the face, 

 "Please tell me, do you find these little 

 things very entertaining?" It affected 

 my nerves, and perhaps in combina- 

 tion with something I had eaten it 

 troubled my sleep. That night I was 



restless and my mind rambled in 

 strange dreams. I dreamt that I at- 

 tended a piano recital by a wonderful 

 player — Paderewski perhaps. I joined 

 with the audience in appreciative ap- 

 plause, and at the close of the perfor- 

 mance I went forward with others to 

 thank the player- I picked up a sheet 

 of music that lay on the piano and 

 pointing to a long run of sixteenth 

 notes inquired, "Please tell me, do you 

 find these little things very entertain- 

 ing?" Now it was only a dream but 

 there was a trapdoor on the stage. Mr. 

 Paderewski fairly had a fit and the last 

 I saw of him he was falling, falling, 

 down, down far beyond that trapdoor 

 in the hazy darkness of the depths. He 

 never struck but I rolled over in bed 

 and started in again. 



In my dream I was young again, and 

 was one of a throng attending a wed- 

 ding. We saw the bride, beautiful and 

 blushing, and the procession of brides- 

 maids and flower girls. The groom en- 

 tered, and I heard the words, "Do you 

 take this man for better for worse," 

 and the trembling, loving response. I 

 knew it as it can be known only by one 

 who has known the birth and death of 

 children, who has known the tremen- 

 dous seriousness and joy of marriage, 

 but in my dream I said, as I took the 

 bride by the hand and gazed intently 

 at the tiny band of gold, "Please tell 

 me, do you find these little things very 

 entertaining?" The groom, thinking 

 me lacking in appreciation, grasped me 

 at various parts of my clothing: and 

 threw me out of the window. When I 

 landed on the ground I said as I awak- 

 ened, "It seems as if I will not get any 

 sleep to-night " 



1 readjusted my pillows, tried to get 

 a cool and comfortable position for my 

 arms and was in my dream once more- 

 I saw a funeral procession. It wound 

 around the corner of the road to the 

 cemetery and climbed the hill. I can 

 see the very post where our horse was 



