EDITOR'S TABLE. 



123 



the direct and inevitable result of cer- 

 tain interactions of force. 



The man who talks of luck, mean- 

 ing anything by it, simply throws dust 

 in his own eyes, and blinds himself to 

 the natural and ascertainable causes on 

 which many results of more or less 

 importance to himself depend. He 

 blames his luck, when he should blame 

 some specific short-coming in his own 

 conduct. He attributes another man's 

 success to luck when he should attrib- 

 ute it to prudence, ability, or charac- 

 ter. There is a vast amount of "luck " 

 in being always ready to take advan- 

 tage of opportunities. It is a happy 

 thing to have one's lamp trimmed and 

 burning ; and a most unhappy thing to 

 have to go off in quest of oil when the 

 hour of the festivity arrives. Some 

 would call the first a case of good luck, 

 and the latter a case of bad luck ; but 

 we fail to see why such outlandish 

 terms should be applied to prepared- 

 ness on the one hand and unprepared- 

 ness on the other. As we have already 

 said, we must make allowance in life 

 for the unforeseen and uncontrollable ; 

 but the general law holds good that he 

 who wisely calculates what admits of 

 calculation, and wisely controls what 

 admits of being controlled, will place 

 his life and happiness on sound founda- 

 tions. Such a man will have little rea- 

 son to complain of luck and little dispo- 

 sition to praise it. We suggested, last 

 month, a theme for teachers in our pub- 

 lic schools; we suggest, this month, an- 

 other — the folly of trusting to luck, and 

 the almost equal folly, on the part of 

 those who do not believe in luck, of 

 talking as if they did. 



TEE RECENT EARTHQUAKE. 



TnE earthquake of the night of the 

 31st of August, by which the city of 

 Charleston, South Carolina, suffered 

 severely, was generally felt through- 

 out the States east of the Mississippi 

 River, extending along the Atlantic coast 

 from the Gulf of Mexico to Northern 



New England, and being perceptibly felt 

 in several towns on the Mississippi. It 

 was more strongly felt in the South than 

 in the North, and the center of most 

 violent manifestation was at Charles- 

 ton, or near it. In other parts of the 

 country the strength of the shock va- 

 ried without any obvious rule, spots at 

 a very short distance from one anoth- 

 er feeling it in very different degrees. 

 The time of the shock was fixed at 

 about 9*54 Eastern standard time, while 

 the gradual retardation in going west 

 showed that the propagation of the 

 movement was generally in that direc- 

 tion. At Charleston, the earthquake 

 was extraordinarily severe. Many 

 buildings were destroyed, the historic 

 churches of St. Michael and St. Philip 

 were ruined, between fifty and one hun- 

 dred persons were killed, telegraphic 

 communication was interrupted, and 

 the streets were so filled with rubbish, 

 or so dangerous in consequence of the 

 imminence of tottering walls, that busi- 

 ness was suspended for several days. 

 Hardly a house in the city, it was said, 

 escaped injury, and many were so shaken 

 and cracked that a hard blow would 

 bring them to the ground. The shock 

 was equally severe at Summerville, 

 where the whole business part of the 

 town was wrecked, and several lives 

 were lost. At Tybee Island, at the 

 mouth of the Savannah River, the lenses 

 in the lighthouse were broken, and the 

 machinery of the lamps was disarranged, 

 while the water was so agitated that 

 the approach of a tidal wave was for a 

 time apprehended. At Cleveland, Ohio, 

 clocks whose pendulums swung east 

 and west stopped at half-past nine, local 

 time. The most coherent observations 

 of the phenomenon were made at Wash- 

 ington in the Signal-Service Office, and 

 by Mr. McGee, of the Geological Sur- 

 vey, and Professor Simon Newcomb. 

 At the Signal-Service Office four shocks 

 were noticed, of which the first lasted 

 forty seconds and was most severe. 

 The first of the three or four shocks 

 mentioned at Charleston was also the 



