Spoch 

 Error 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



214 



attended from Galileo's observation of Ju- 

 piter's satellites, of the crescentic form of 

 the disk of Venus, and the spots on the sun, 

 to the theory of gravitation discovered by 

 Newton ranks as the most important epoch 

 of a newly created physical astronomy. 

 This period constitutes, therefore, from the 

 unity of the efforts made toward the obser- 

 vation of the heavenly bodies, and in 

 mathematical investigations, a sharply de- 

 fined section in the great process of intel- 

 lectual development, which, since then, has 

 been characterized by an uninterrupted 

 progress. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. ii, 

 p. 201. (H., 1897.) 



1044. EPOCHS, BREACHES OF CON- 

 TINUITY Sudden Developments of Human 

 Power Great Men in Clusters. It is an 

 order of facts observable in the progress of 

 mankind, that long ages of comparative si- 

 lence and inaction are broken up, and 

 brought to an end, by shorter periods of al- 

 most preternatural activity. And that 

 activity is generally spent in paths of inves- 

 tigation, which, tho independent, are con- 

 verging. Different minds, pursuing different 

 lines of thought, find themselves meeting 

 upon common ground. Such, in respect to 

 literature, was the period of the Revival of 

 Learning; such, in respect to religion, was 

 the period of the Reformation; such, in re- 

 spect to the abstract sciences, was the period 

 of Tycho Brahe, of Galileo, and Kepler. 

 Hardly less memorable than these, certainly 

 not less powerful, as affecting the condition 

 of society, were those few years in the last 

 quarter of the eighteenth century which 

 were marked by such an extraordinary burst 

 of mechanical invention. Hargreaves, and 

 Arkwright, and Watt, and Crompton, and 

 Cartwright were all contemporaries. They 

 were all working at the same time, and in 

 the same direction. Out of their inventions 

 there arose for the first time what is now 

 known as the factory system; and out of 

 the factory system arose a condition of 

 things, as affecting human labor, which was 

 entirely new in the history of the world. 

 ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 7, p. 204. (Burt.) 



1045. EQUALITY, MENTAL, A DE- 

 LUSION Cruel Result of Such Belief Tyran- 

 ny of Bad Mental Organization. Perhaps of 

 all the erroneous notions concerning mind 

 which metaphysics has engendered or 

 abetted, there is none more false than that 

 which tacitly assumes or explicitly declares 

 that men are born with equal original men- 

 tal capacity; opportunities and education 

 determining the differences of subsequent 

 development. The opinion is as cruel as it 

 is false. What man can by taking thought 

 add one cubit either to his mental or to his 

 bodily stature? Multitudes of human be- 

 ings come into the world weighted with a 

 destiny against which they have neither the 

 will nor the power to contend ; they are the 

 step-children of Nature, and groan under 



the worst of all tyrannies the tyranny of a 

 bad organization. Men differ, indeed, in the 

 fundamental characters of their minds, as 

 they do in the features of their counte- 

 nances, or in the habits of their bodies ; and 

 between those who are born with the poten- 

 tiality of a full and complete mental devel- 

 opment, under favorable circumstances, and 

 those who are born with an innate incapac- 

 ity of mental development, under any cir- 

 cumstances, there exists every gradation. 

 What teaching could ever raise the congeni- 

 tal idiot to the common level of human in- 

 telligence? W T hat teaching could ever keep 

 the inspired mind of the man of genius at 

 that level? MAUDSLEY Body and Mind, lect. 

 2, p. 43. (A., 1898.) 



1046. EQUILIBRIUM OF NATURE 



Chance Does Not Give Order and Progress 

 The Loaded Dice. It has been well said 

 that if a pair of dice were to turn up aces 

 a hundred times in succession, any reason- 

 able spectator would conclude that they were 

 loaded dice; so if countless millions of 

 atoms and thousands of species, each inclu- 

 ding within itself most complex arrangement 

 of parts, turn up in geological time in per- 

 fectly regular order and a continued gra- 

 dation of progress, something more than 

 chance must be implied. It is to be ob- 

 served here that every species of animal or 

 plant, of however low grade, consists of 

 many coordinated parts in a condition of 

 the nicest equilibrium. Any change occur- 

 ring which produces unequal or dispropor- 

 tionate development, as the experience of 

 breeders of abnormal varieties of animals 

 and plants abundantly proves, imperils the 

 continued existence of the species. Changes 

 must, therefore, in order to be profitable, 

 affect the parts of the organism simultane- 

 ously and symmetrically. The chances of 

 this may well be compared to the casting of 

 aces a hundred times in succession, and arc 

 so infinitely small as to be incredible under 

 any other supposition than that of intelli- 

 gent design. DAWSON Facts and Fancies in 

 Modern Science, lect. 3, p. 122. (A. B. P. S.) 



1047. EQUIPMENT FOR DESTRUC- 

 TION Deceptive Coloration among Birds. 

 Deceptive, or, as Poulton terms it, " aggres- 

 sive " coloration is perhaps best illustrated 

 by common flycatchers (Tyrannidce). Altho 

 these birds live in and about trees, they are, 

 as a rule, quietly attired in olive-green or 

 olive-gray, and are quite unlike the bril- 

 liantly clad, fruit-eating tanagers, orioles, 

 parrots, and other birds that may be found 

 near them. Insects are therefore more likely 

 to come within snapping distance than if 

 these birds were conspicuously colored. In 

 the same manner we may explain the colors 

 of hawks, which are never brightly plu- 

 maged. It is well known that many arctic 

 animals become white on the approach of 

 winter. With ptarmigans this is doubtless 

 an instance of protective coloration, but the 



