260 SIR J. HERSCHELL AND ARISTOTLE. 



the same reason, alcohol rises through all such 

 solids by capillary attraction, as are soluble in 

 it; and so of the strong acids. Tallow and 

 water have no tendency to unite chemically 

 when cold. For the same reason, when glass 

 plates are smeared with tallow, and brought 

 close together, water will not rise between them, 

 unless they be first wetted. But in this last 

 case, the water rises, owing to its attraction for 

 its own particles, for the same reason, that they 

 aggregate into spherical drops. 



It was observed by Sir John Herschell, that 

 "the discovery of a new law or general fact is 

 scarcely announced when its traces are found 

 everywhere, by which unexpected lights are 

 shed over parts of science that had been aban- 

 doned in despair, and given over to hopeless 

 obscurity." (Discourse on the study of Nat. Phil, 

 p. 131.) Nothing could more aptly illustrate 

 this observation than the phenomena of capillary 

 attraction, the cause of which, when once pointed 

 out, may be traced everywhere around and within 

 us. But such is the blinding influence of custom, 

 that men disregard what is common and familiar, 

 though it be from analysing the most ordinary 

 phenomena, that the greatest discoveries have 

 been made, such as that of steam power, the art 

 of printing, rail-roads, &c. 



It was said by Aristotle, that everything is best 

 seen in its smallest proportions. Such is the 

 admirable simplicity with which Infinite Wisdom 



