THE FORMATION OF SAND-DUNFS. 357 



disposition was most pliant, and they were continuous until the period 

 of adult life. There is no escape from the conclusion that nature 

 prevails enormously over nurture when 'the differences of nurture do 

 not exceed what is commonly to be found among persons of the same 

 rank of society and in the same country. My only fear is, that my 

 evidence seems to prove too much, and may be discredited on that 

 account, as it seems contrary to all experience that nurture should 

 go for so little. But experience is often fallacious in ascribing great 

 effects to trifling circumstances. Many a person has amused himself 

 with throwing bits of stick into a tiny brook and watching their 

 progress ; how they are arrested, first by one chance obstacle, then by 

 another ; and again, how their onward course is facilitated by a com- 

 bination of circumstances. He might ascribe much importance to 

 each of these events, and think how largely the destiny of the stick 

 had been governed by a series of trifling accidents. Nevertheless 

 all the sticks succeed in passing down the current, and they travel, 

 in the long-run, at nearly the same rate. So it is with life in respect 

 to the several accidents which seem to have had a great eflect upon 

 our careers. The one element, which varies in different individuals, 

 but is constant in each of them, is the natural tendency ; it corre^ 

 sponds to the current in the stream, and inevitably asserts itself. 

 More might be added on this matter, and much might be said in 

 qualification of the broad conclusions at which we have arrived, as 

 to the points in which education appears to create the most perma- 

 nent effect : how far by training the intellect, and how far by subject- 

 ing the boy to a higher or lower tone of public opinion ; but this is 

 foreign to my immediate object. The latter has been to show broad- 

 ly, and, I trust, convincingly, that statistical estimation of natural 

 gifts by a comparison of successes in life is not open to the objection 

 stated at the beginning of this memoir. We have only to take 

 reasonable care in selecting our statistics, and then we may safely 

 ignore the many small differences in nurture which are sure to have 

 characterized each individual case Frazer''& Magazine, 



-- 



THE FORMATION OF SAND-DUNES. 



By E. lewis, Jb. 



ON the south shore of Long Island there intervenes between the 

 uplands and the ocean a narrow beach on which the waves con- 

 tinually break. It is composed chiefly of clean, grayish-white, sili- 

 cious sand. Other matters present are mica, garnet, and magnetic- 

 iron sands, but, excepting a few localities, these are not in quantity 

 sufficient to alter the general character of the beach. The sand-grains 



