Balance 

 Beauty 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



valleys, or plains, or alluvial flats are any- 

 where to be discerned upon the lunar sur- 

 face. But by the admirable balancing of 

 the external and internal forces on our own 

 globe, the conditions necessary to animal 

 and vegetable existence are almost con- 

 stantly maintained, and those interruptions 

 of such conditions, produced by hurricanes 

 and floods, by volcanic outbursts and earth- 

 quakes, may safely be regarded as the in- 

 significant accidents of what is, on the 

 whole, a very perfectly working piece of 

 machinery. JUDD Volcanoes, ch. 10, p. 305. 

 (A., 1899.) 



308. BALANCE OF HAPPINESS IN 

 THE ANIMAL WORLD On the whole, 

 then, we conclude that the popular idea of 

 the struggle for existence entailing misery 

 and pain on the animal world is the very 

 reverse of the truth. What it really brings 

 about is the maximum of life and of the 

 enjoyment of life with the minimum of suf- 

 fering and pain. Given the necessity of 

 death and reproduction and without these 

 there could have been no progressive de- 

 velopment of the organic world and it is 

 difficult even to imagine a system by which 

 a greater balance of happiness could have 

 been secured. WALLACE Darwinism, ch. 2, 

 p. 27. (Hum., 1889.) 



309. BARBARIANS OF ANCIENT 



EUROPE Use of Iron Known by Them. 

 The soldiers of Brennus were provided with 

 iron swords, and when the armies of Rome 

 brought the civilization of the South into 

 contact with that of the North they found 

 iron already well known to, and in general 

 use among, their new enemies. Nor is there 

 any reason to suppose that arms of bronze 

 were also at that time still in use in the 

 North, for, had this been so, they would 

 certainly have been mentioned by the 

 Roman writers; whereas the description 

 given by Tacitus of the Caledonian weapons 

 shows that in his time the swords used in 

 Scotland were made of iron. Moreover, 

 there are several cases in which large quan- 

 tities of arms belonging to the Roman 

 period have been found together, and in 

 which the arms and implements are all of 

 iron. This argument is in its very nature 

 cumulative, and cannot therefore be fully 

 developed here. AVEBUEY Prehistoric Times, 

 ch. 7, p. 8. (A., 1900.) 



31 0. BARBARISM, NURSERIES OF 



The Steppes of Asia Have Sent Destruction 

 to Europe. These Mongolian and Tartar 

 Steppes, which are intersected by numerous 

 mountain chains, separate the ancient and 

 long-civilized races of Tibet and Hindustan 

 from the rude nations of Northern Asia. 

 They have also exerted a manifold influence 

 on the changing destinies of mankind. They 

 have inclined the current of population 

 southward, impeded the intercourse of na- 

 tions more than the Himalayas, or the 

 Snowy Mountains of Sirinagur and Gorka, 

 and placed permanent limits to the progress 



of civilization and refinement in a northerly 

 direction. 



History cannot, however, regard the 

 plains of Central Asia under the character 

 of obstructive barriers alone. They have 

 frequently proved the means of spreading 

 misery and devastation over the face of the 

 earth. Some of the pastoral tribes inhabit- 

 ing this steppe the Mongols, Getse, Alani, 

 and Ustini have convulsed the world. If 

 in the course of earlier ages the dawn of 

 civilization spread like the vivifying light 

 of the sun from east to west, so in subse- 

 quent ages and from the same quarter have 

 barbarism and rudeness threatened to over- 

 cloud Europe. HUMBOLDT Views of Nature, 

 p. 4. (Bell, 1896.) 



311. BAROMETER, ETHICAL, THE 



Lessons Taught by Statistics of Crime. The 

 statistics of crime within a given period reg- 

 isters how the ethical barometer stands in 

 dry figures. The statistics of the cases 

 brought before the law are facts that cannot 

 be shaken they speak for themselves. BAS- 

 TIAN Allgemeine Grundzuge der Ethnologic. 

 (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



312. BARRENNESS SELF-PERPETU- 

 ATING Cause and Effect Reciprocal 

 Clouds Wait Vainly over the Sahara. The 

 vertical ascent of currents of air is one of 

 the principal causes of the most important 

 meteorological phenomena. Where a desert 

 or a sandy surface devoid of vegetation is 

 surrounded by a high mountain chain, the 

 sea-wind may be observed driving a dense 

 cloud over the desert, without any precipi- 

 tation of vapor taking place before it 

 reaches the crest of the mountains. This 

 phenomenon was formerly very unsatisfac- 

 torily referred to an attraction supposed to 

 be exercised by the mountain chain on the 

 clouds. The true cause appears to lie in the 

 ascent from the sandy plain of a column of 

 warm air, which prevents the condensation 

 of the vesicles of vapor. The more barren 

 the surface, and the greater the degree of 

 heat acquired by the sand, the higher will 

 be the ascent of the clouds, and the less 

 readily will the vapor be precipitated. Over 

 the declivities of mountains these causes 

 cease. The play of the vertical column of 

 air is there weaker; the clouds sink, and 

 their disintegration is effected by a cooler 

 stratum of air. Thus deficiency of rain and 

 absence of vegetation in the desert stand in 

 a reciprocal action to one another. It does 

 not rain because the barren and bare sur- 

 face of sand becomes more strongly heated 

 and radiates more heat; and the desert is 

 not converted into a steppe or grassy plain 

 because without water no organic develop- 

 ment is possible. HUMBOLDT Views of Na- 

 ture, p. 266. (Bell, 1896.) 



313. BASKET-MAKING OF PRIMITIVE 

 PEOPLES There are no savages on earth 

 so rude that they have no form of basketry. 

 The birds and beasts are basket-makers, and 



