306 THE CUPFUL OF SAND. CHAP. xvm. 



plained, and the littleness of the things attempting to 

 explain it : 



" Take a cupful of sand and strew it over the floor. 

 It is a mere sprinkling, scarcely discernible. A fly 

 settles down on it, walks over and across it, and regard 3 

 it as hi no way remarkable. A smaller creature than 

 the fly comes and walks over it To him it is a very 

 great matter, quite a Sahara ! Now, were the whole of 

 the formations of geologists, by some superhuman power, 

 let loose particle from particle, and the whole strewed 

 over the floor of the ocean, would they form more than 

 a mere sprinkling ? 



" Brush the cupful of sand together again. It forms 

 a little hill, or, if of a lengthened form, a mountain 

 range. The fly from your window comes again and 

 settles down beside it. He looks up. ' How magnifi- 

 cent ! ' says he. He walks round it and over it. ' How 

 vast ! millions and millions of years must have been 

 consumed in their formation ! ' Ignorant, simply igno- 

 rant, all the while, of the means by which a body of 

 matter so apparently formidable to his puny ideas was 

 brought together. The fly will not understand it, but 

 he'll buzz and buzz, and make a noise ; and his fellow 

 flies, hearing the noise, will exclaim, ' What a long- 

 headed fellow ! ' " 



George Shearer of Thurso, then a student at Edin- 

 burgh, was a great admirer of Dick. He got from him 

 a great deal of his first knowledge of botany. As in 

 the case of Dr. Meiklejohn, Dick took him to see the 

 plants growing in their native habitats. They had con- 



