282 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Oct. 3, 1884. 



Polytechnic students, viz. :— First prize, silver medal, and 

 £3, for the best perspective drawing of a Victoria ; second 

 prize, the Company's bronze medal and X2 ; the Company's 

 prize medal for full-sized drawing of a phaeton; and the 

 Company's certificate and £2 for prize essay on "Carriage 

 Draught." 



The total number of individual students enrolled during 

 last winter session amounted to 5,519. 



In addition to the many attractions above referred to, a 

 weekly journal, called " Home Tidings," containing sixteen 

 pages of very readable matter, is published, which cannot 

 fail to considerably increase the members' interest in the 

 doings of the Institute. 



We have of late heard a good deal about the way things 

 are managed on the Continent, but there does not appear 

 to be anywhere an institution comparable with the Poly- 

 technic, concerning which Mr. Woodall, M.P. (Member of 

 the Royal Commission on Technical Education), stated, at 

 a, public meeting held last June, tbat " he had, in con- 

 nection with the Royal Commission, visited nearly all the 

 technical training schools on the Continent, and he could 

 safely say he had not s-een one in which such a thoroughly 

 practical system was followed as at the Polytechnic Insti- 

 tution." 



For my own part, all that I can say is in praise of the 

 Institution and its various departments. Like the School of 

 Submarine Telegraphy in Hanover-square, it is unique, in 

 its own sphere it stands alone, without a peer and almost 

 without a rival. It is earnestly to be hoped that many such 

 jtnay spring up throughout the country, to teach our fellow 

 men that labour i.s honourable, and, honestly pursued, 

 speedily brings its own reward. 



THE 



THE INFINITELY GREAT AND 

 INFINITELY LITTLE. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



AT first there is a sense of relief in turning from the 

 vast>depths of star-strewn space to contemplate the 

 minute, as revealed by the microscope. One may be said 

 to pass from the infinitely great to the infinitely little. 

 Even the domain of the telescope, though really finite, is 

 ■for us practically infinite ; moreover, the domain of the 

 telescope is obviously but the threshold of a far vaster 

 domain beyond ; every increase of telescopic power has 

 (Shown more and more stars, more and more of that filmy 

 lustre which indicates the presence of stars beyond tele- 

 scopic range. In like manner the microscope reveals the 

 infinitely minute, or what is practically such for us; while 

 manifestly tlie range of the microscope towards minuteness 

 is but a step towards that ultimate structure which may be 

 regarded as representing absolutely infinite minuteness. 

 Every increase of microscopic power has shown more and 

 more minute details of structure. No astronomer supposes 

 for a moment, now that he has learned so much of the 

 vastness of space, that he can ever know of more than the 

 merest point, in extent compared with the infinity which 

 is ; no microscopist hopes tbat he can ever even approach 

 the recognition of the ultimate structure of the objects 

 which come under his scrutiny. We have in fine the same 

 oppression of infinity in studying the minute as in studying 

 the vast. 



But this lesson has its parallel when we consider the 

 realms of time, and when we consider the bearing of what 

 we study in our recognition of law throughout the 

 universe. We cannot but perceive that with increase of 

 scale — to consider that point alone, for the moment — 



comes (on the whole) increase of the duration of the 

 various processes constituting what may be termed life- 

 time. The duration of the animal is far shorter than that 

 of the world, the duration of the world far shorter than 

 that of a system of worlds, the duration of the system of 

 worlds far shorter than that of systems of suns. And as 

 with the duration or totality of life, so is it with the 

 processes belonging to life ; the circulation of an animal's 

 blood, the rotation of a planet, the cycles of planetary revo- 

 lution, the movements constituting what may be termed 

 the circulation of a galaxy of suns^these various processes 

 extend longer and longer in duration the larger the region 

 of space constituting the domain of that which exhibits 

 them. So, in turning to the minute objects revealed, or in 

 part interpreted by the microscope — so far as we can follow 

 these we see that (speaking, of course, with the broadest 

 generality) tlie minuter objects have the shorter lives and 

 the most rapid life-processes. While on the one hand we 

 have evidence of material life lasting for periods which to 

 us are practically eternal, we see on the other hand creatures 

 whose whole lives pass before us so quickly that mere 

 instants must be assigned to the undiscernible life-processes 

 belonging to such creatures. Beyond the range of our 

 telescopes on the one hand and of our microscopes on the 

 other, we see " Actual Eternity " and the " Real Instant " 

 as certainly, though we can conceive neither, as we see the 

 infinitely vast and the infinitely minute, which are equally 

 beyond our powers of conception. 



But, strangely enough, while all who think at all are 

 ready to admit that the study of the vast and the minute 

 bring before us as realities the mysteries of the infinitely 

 great and of the infinitely small, of infinitely long and in- 

 finitely short duration of time, many do not seem to admit, 

 or even to consider it right to admit, the extension of law 

 to the infinitely great or small in extent and in duration. 

 No man now rebukes the astronomer for asserting that 

 the universe is infinitely vaster than that which in former 

 ages men supposed to be the universe, nor is any one 

 troubled (at least, I suppose not) when the microscope 

 reveals millions of millions of tiny objects and minute 

 forms of life of which men in former ages knew nothing, 

 and which in no sense entered into their ideas of creation. 

 So — but perhaps not quite in the same degree — with regard 

 to time : I suppose it may be truly said now that no one 

 with competent power of thinking refuses to recognise the 

 evidence of a practical infinity of time past and to come, 

 during which even that which is has existed, or, on the 

 other hand, to admit that in the duration of a single breath 

 lives begin and end of whose very existence men in past 

 times had no idea. But to extend the operation of law to 

 the vast and the minute, in space and in time, is regarded 

 by many as absurd, if not wicked. They cannot seemingly 

 understand that there is nothing more remarkable in the 

 operation of law throughout infinity of time and space, 

 and down to the minutest atoms of matter, than there is 

 in the operation of law on a scale more within our scope. 

 If we admit that a tree grows from the seed, or an animal 

 from tbe germ, we need not be surprised to find evidence 

 that a world or a system of worlds grows in like manner, 

 or that the tiniest creatures have been developed, even as 

 science recosnises that the various kinds of animals and 

 plants have been developed, through multitudinous phases 

 of evolution. At a first view it may seem that in some of 

 the wonders of minute life, the eye of a fly, the tongue of 

 a moth, and so forth, we have objects presenting great dif- 

 ficulties in the way of the general doctrine of evolution. 

 How, it may be asked, could a fly's eye, with all its thou- 

 sanus of separate facets (or rather eyes) have been deve- 

 loped 1 Yet so soon as we consider how it has actually 



