NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



the waves of sound which bear to us the carolling 

 of the lark; suppose that in the dancing air we 

 could see the myriad particles wildly chasing one 

 another at a speed of nearly half a mile a second ; 

 that in the lump of sugar or grain of salt we could 

 watch the twirly-whirly Sir Roger de Coverley of 

 the atoms, partners skipping gayly one to the 

 other like as on a ballroom floor ; suppose we could 

 watch the twinge of pain, the thrill of joy as it 

 travels along the nerves, that we could see the 

 " lines-of-f orce " which circle round a magnet and 

 generate electricity in a dynamo; suppose that 

 beyond the deepest red, or the faintest violet, all 

 the colors of the spectrum might be opened to our 

 view would not such a world seem as weird to us 

 as would our visible world, could Helen Keller's 

 sightless eyes be touched to the light of day? 



It is from our eyes that we learn most concern- 

 ing the things about us. Were it not for them, 

 the images we make of objects and events would 

 be confused and crude enough. Beside our other 

 senses, marvellous they seem. They measure and 

 compare every little dot and stroke and turn on 

 this printed page, so hopelessly bewildering to the 

 untaught ; and, alike, the gleam of a star, distant, it 

 may be hundreds of thousands of millions of miles. 



Yet beyond all that the eye may see, that ear 

 may hear, that hands may feel, outside of taste or 



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