205 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Elements 



less lump of clay. As with an invisible 

 trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided 

 into smaller and smaller portions, until it 

 is reduced to an aggregation of granules not 

 too large to build withal the finest fabrics 

 of the naseent organism. And then it is 

 as if a delicate finger traced out the line 

 to be occupied by the spinal column, and 

 molded the contour of the body; pinching 

 up the head at one end, the tail at the other, 

 and fashioning flank and limb into due sala- 

 mandrine proportions, in so artistic a way 

 that, after watching the process hour by 

 hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed 

 by the notion that some more subtle aid to 

 vision than an achromatic would show the 

 hidden artist, with his plan before him, stri- 

 ving with skilful manipulation to perfect his 

 work. HUXLEY Lay Sermons, serm. 12, p. 

 260. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



1001. EMOTION AND PASSION, DE- 

 VELOPMENT DEPENDENT OK Mission 

 of Pain. But human life and human de- 

 velopment, in the wider and higher mean- 

 ing of those words, would be infinitely less 

 rich and interesting were it not for so varied 

 and mighty emotions and passions, with all 

 the part they have played in history, art, 

 and religion. In a grander significance than 

 biology or comparative psychology can prop- 

 erly recognize, the effective forces have 

 been " serviceable " to the race. If the final 

 purpose of life were merely to conserve and 

 propagate itself, there would seem to be as 

 little use for so many and strong emotions 

 as for so much and such qualitatively varied 

 pain. At this point, psychology is com- 

 pelled to hand over to ethical philosophy 

 rather than to biology the larger problems 

 started by the study of human feeling. Here 

 we find, on one side, the conclusion ex- 

 pressed by Matthew Arnold, as follows : 



" Fulness of life and power of feeling, ye 

 Are for the happy, for the souls at ease, 

 Who dwell on a firm basis of content." 



But, on the other side, the rational faith of 



Browning : 



" Put pain from out the world, what room 



were left 

 For thanks to God, for love to man ? " 



LADD Psychology, ch. 23, p. 558. (S., 



1899.) 



1002. EMOTION, FIELD FOR STUDY 



OF Best Observed among the Common People. 

 In order to analyze the involuntary move- 

 ments occasioned by pain, joy, fear, anger, 

 and other emotions, Leonardo da Vinci coun- 

 seled young artists to mingle with the com- 

 mon people, where the various stirrings of 

 the heart are naturally imprinted in change 

 of countenance and of gesture. KAAT Leo- 

 nardo da Vinci als Naturforscher. (Trans- 

 lated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



1OO3 EMULATION HAS A NOBLE 



SIDE Rivalry Leads to Magnanimity. The 

 feeling of rivalry lies at the very basis of 



our being, all social improvement being 

 largely due to it. There is a noble and 

 generous kind of rivalry, as well as a spite- 

 ful and greedy kind ; and the noble and gen- 

 erous form is particularly common in child- 

 hood. All games owe the zest which they 

 bring with them to the fact that they are 

 rooted in the emulous passion, yet they are 

 the chief means of training in fairness and 

 magnanimity. JAMES Talks to Teachers, 

 ch. 7, p. 52. (H. H. & CD., 1900.) 



1004. ENDOWMENT CONDITIONS 

 EXPERIENCE Child Learning to Walk 

 Chimpanzee Dancing Dog. It must be 

 clear to any one who compares the erect 

 progression of a child who has just learned 

 to walk with that of a " dancing dog," or 

 even of a chimpanzee, that while experience 

 makes its acquirement possible in each case, 

 only an organism which is at the same time 

 structurally adapted for erect progression, 

 and possessed of a special coordinating fac- 

 ulty, can turn such experience to full ac- 

 count. CARPENTER Mental Physiology, bk. 

 ii, ch. 11, p. 474. (A., 1900.) 



1005. ENDS AND MEANS IN SCI- 

 ENCE Each Achievement a Step to New Dis- 

 covery. The growth of science is organic. 

 That which to-day is an end becomes to-mor- 

 row a means to a remoter end. Every new 

 discovery in science is immediately made the 

 basis of other discoveries, or of new meth- 

 ods of investigation. Thus about fifty years 

 ago, Oersted, of Copenhagen, discovered the 

 deflection of a magnetic needle by an elec- 

 tric current; and about the same time 

 Thomas Seebeck, of Berlin, discovered ther- 

 mo-electricity. These great discoveries were 

 soon afterwards turned to account by Nobili 

 and Melloni in the construction of an in- 

 strument which has vastly augmented our 

 knowledge of radiant heat. TYNDALL Lec- 

 tures on Light, lect. 5, p. 179. (A., 1898.) 



1006. 



Magnetic Attrac- 



tion vs. Human Man Changes Means to 

 Reach Determined End. If some iron filings 

 be sprinkled on a table and a magnet 

 brought near them, they will fly through the 

 air for a certain distance and stick to its 

 surface. A savage seeing the phenomenon 

 explains it as the result of an attraction or 

 love between the magnet and the filings. 

 But let a card cover the poles of the magnet, 

 and the filings will press forever against its 

 surface without its ever occurring to them 

 to pass around its sides and thus come into 

 more direct contact with the object of their 

 love. ... If now we pass from such ac- 

 tions as these to those of living things, we 

 notice a striking difference. Romeo wants 

 Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and 

 if no obstacles intervene he moves towards 

 her by as straight a line as they. But 

 Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between 

 them, do not remain idiotically pressing 

 their faces against its opposite sides like the 

 magnet and the filings with the card. 

 Romeo soon finds a circuitous way, by 



