Conquest 

 Consciousness 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



120 



as if with intention of deepening it, until 

 by the friction the dust became ignited. A 

 peculiarly white and very light wood is 

 alone used for this purpose. . . . The 

 fire was produced in a few seconds; but to 

 a person who does not understand the art, 

 it requires, as I found, the greatest exer- 

 tion; but at last, to my great pride, I suc- 

 ceeded in igniting the dust. . . . The 

 Tahitians, having made a small fire of 

 sticks, placed a score of stones, of about the 

 size of cricket-balls, on the burning wood. 

 In about ten minutes the sticks were con- 

 sumed and the stones hot. They had pre- 

 viously folded up in small parcels of leaves 

 pieces of beef, fish, ripe and unripe bananas, 

 and the tops of the wild arum. These green 

 parcels were laid in a layer between two 

 layers of the hot stones, and the whole then 

 covered up with earth, so that no smoke or 

 steam could escape. In about a quarter of 

 an hour, the whole was most deliciously 

 cooked. The choice green parcels were now 

 laid on a cloth of banana-leaves, and with a 

 coconut-shell we drank the cool water of 

 the running stream; and thus we enjoyed 

 our rustic meal. DARWIN Naturalist's Voy- 

 age around the World, ch. 18, p. 409. (A., 

 1898.) 



594. CONQUESTS OF SCIENCE 



Warriors Accomplished Less than Peaceful 

 Travelers. Altho in Columbus a capacity 

 for exact observation was developed in mani- 

 fold directions, notwithstanding his entire 

 deficiency of all previous knowledge of nat- 

 ural history, and solely by contact with 

 great natural phenomena, we must by no 

 means assume a similar development in the 

 rough and warlike body of the conquista- 

 dores. Europe owes to another and more 

 peaceful class of travelers, and to a small 

 number of distinguished men among munic- 

 ipal functionaries, ecclesiastics, and physi- 

 cians, that which it has unquestionably ac- 

 quired by the discovery of America, in the 

 gradual enrichment of its knowledge re- 

 garding the character and composition of 

 the atmosphere, and its action on the human 

 organization; the distribution of climates 

 on the declivities of the Cordilleras; the 

 elevation of the line of perpetual snow in 

 accordance with the different degrees of lati- 

 tude in both hemispheres ; the succession of 

 volcanoes; the limitation of the circles of 

 commotion in earthquakes; the laws of 

 magnetism ; the direction of oceanic currents, 

 and the gradations of new animal and vege- 

 table forms. The class of travelers to whom 

 we have alluded, by residing in native In- 

 dian cities, some of which were situated 

 twelve or thirteen thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea, were enabled to observe with 

 their own eyes, and, by a continued residence 

 in those regions, to test and to combine the 

 observations of others, to collect natural 

 products, and to describe and transmit them 

 to their European friends. It will suffice 



here to mention Gomara, Oviedo, Acosta, 

 and Hernandez. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. ii 

 pt. ii, p. 273. (H., 1897.) 



595. CONSCIENCE ACTIVE IN OPI- 

 UM-EATER Paralysis of WillDe Quincey. 

 " The opium-eater loses none of his moral 

 sensibilities or aspirations: he wishes and 

 longs, as earnestly as ever, to realize what 

 he believes possible and feels to be exacted 

 by duty; but his intellectual apprehension 

 of what is possible infinitely outruns his 

 power, not of execution only, but of power 

 to attempt. He lies under the weight of in- 

 cubus and nightmare : he lies in sight of all 

 that he would fain perform, just as a man 

 forcibly confined to his bed by the mortal 

 languor of a relaxing disease, who is com- 

 pelled to witness injury or outrage offered 

 to some object of his tenderest love he 

 curses the spells which chain him down from 

 motion he would lay down his life if he 

 might but get up and walk; but he is 

 powerless as an infant, and cannot even at- 

 tempt to rise." [De Quincey, op. cit., pp. 

 136-138.] CARPENTER Mental Physiology, 

 bk. 2, ch. 17, p. 648. (A., 1900.) 



596. CONSCIENCE, AGGREGATE, 

 CONTROLLING INDIVIDUAL Laws In- 

 variable Combinations Subject to Change. 

 As the reason and the conscience of the 

 whole political community can interfere by 

 the exercise of authority, so also may ade- 

 quate remedies be found in the reason and 

 the conscience of voluntary societies. The 

 external conditions which tell upon the indi- 

 vidual will are themselves very often noth- 

 ing but conditions depending on the aggre- 

 gate will of those around us; and if upon 

 them, by any means, new motives can be 

 brought to bear, then the whole of those ex- 

 ternal conditions may be changed. . . . 

 It is often said that the conduct and condi- 

 tion of men are governed by invariable 

 laws; and the conclusion is that the evils 

 which arise by way of natural consequence 

 out of the action of those laws are evils 

 against which the struggles of the will are 

 hopeless. But the facts on which this con- 

 clusion is founded are, as usual, inaccu- 

 rately stated. The conditions of human life 

 and conduct, like the conditions of all nat- 

 ural phenomena, are never governed by those 

 separate and individual forces which alone 

 are invariable, but always by combinations 

 among those forces which combinations are 

 of endless variety, and of endless capability 

 of change. ARGYLL Feign of Law, ch. 7, p. 

 218. (Burt.) 



597. CONSCIENCE, THE UNIVERSAL 

 BELIEF OF MANKIND Formation of Char- 

 acter the Great Aim. The idea of " respon- 

 sibility," on the other hand, which is enter- 

 tained by mankind at large, rests upon the 

 assumption, not only that each ego has a 

 conscience which recognizes a distinction be- 

 tween right and wrong, and which (accord- 

 ing to the training it has received) decides 



