295 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Half-truth 

 Harp 



1437. HARMONY AMID DIVERSITY 



Relative Size of Sun and Planets Great 

 find Small in Balanced Movement. Let 

 the reader consider a terrestrial globe three 

 inches in diameter, and search out on that 

 globe the tiny triangular speck which rep- 

 resents Great Britain. Then let him en- 

 deavor to picture the town in which he lives 

 as represented by the minutest pin-mark 

 that could possibly be made upon this speck. 

 He will then, have formed some conception, 

 tho but an inadequate one, of the enormous 

 dimensions of the earth's globe, compared 

 with the scene in which his daily life is cast. 

 Now, on the same scale, the sun would be 

 represented by a globe about twice the 

 height of an ordinary sitting-room. A room 

 about twenty-six feet in length, and height, 

 and breadth, 'would be required to contain 

 the representation of the sun's globe on this 

 scale, while the globe representing the earth 

 could be placed in a moderately large goblet. 

 Such is the body which sways the motions 

 of the solar system. The largest of his 

 family, the giant Jupiter, tho of dimensions 

 which dwarf those of the earth or Venus al- 

 most to nothingness, would yet only be rep- 

 resented by a thirty-two-inch globe on the 

 scale which gives to the sun the enormous 

 volume I have spoken of. Saturn would 

 have a diameter of about twenty-eight 

 inches, his ring measuring about five feet 

 in its extreme span. Uranus and Neptune 

 would be little more than a foot in diameter, 

 and all the minor planets would be less than 

 the three-inch earth. . . . The sun out- 

 Aveighs fully 730 times the combined mass 

 of all the planets which circle around him. 

 PROCTOR Other Worlds than Ours, ch. 2, p. 

 S3. (Burt.) 



1438. HARMONY OF NATURE An- 

 cient and Recent Features of Landscape 

 Perfectly Blend. There is nothing, indeed, 

 so calculated to instruct the geologist as 

 the striking manner in which the recent 

 volcanic hills of Ischia ... blend with 

 the surrounding landscape. Nothing seems 

 wanting or redundant; every part of the 

 picture is in such perfect harmony with 

 the rest that the whole has the appearance 

 of having been called into existence by a 

 single effort of creative power. Yet what 

 other result could we have anticipated if 

 Nature has ever been governed by the same 

 laws? Each new mountain thrown up 

 each new tract of land raised or depressed 

 by earthquakes should be in perfect ac- 

 cordance with those previously formed. 

 LYELL Principles of Geology, bk. ii, ch. 23, 

 p. 373. (A., 1854.) 



1439. 



Flowers The Whole Earth Enlisted 

 the Snowdrop in Position Our 

 Could Not Grow on Mars. Another 

 tion, and a very beautiful one, is 

 out by Whewell in the positions of 

 " Some flowers grow with the hollow 

 cup upwards; others 'hang the 



Gravity and the 

 To Hold 

 Flowers 

 illustra- 

 pointed 

 flowers, 

 of their 

 pensive 



head ' and turn the opening downwards." 

 It is obvious that an increase of gravity 

 would force the upright plants to hang 

 their heads, while a decrease to the value 

 of gravity which actually exists in Mars 

 would cause the drooping heads to stand 

 erect. But it has been shown by Linnaeus 

 that on the position of the heads of flowers, 

 combined with the greater or less length 

 of the pistil and stamens, depends the fer- 

 tility of the plant. So-fchat, as Whewell 

 remarks, " the whole mass of the earth, 

 from pole to pole, and from circumference 

 to center, is employed in keeping a snow- 

 drop in the position most suited to the pro- 

 motion of its vegetable health." PROCTOR 

 Expanse of Heaven, p. 72. (L. G. & Co., 

 1897.) 



1440. HARMONY OF NATURE AND 

 OF THE HUMAN MIND How can it be 

 true that man is so outside of that unity 

 [of Nature] that the very notion of seeing 

 anything like himself in it is the greatest 

 of all philosophical heresies? Does not the 

 very possibility of science consist in the 

 possibility of reducing all natural phenom- 

 ena to purely natural conceptions, which 

 must be related to the intellect of man when 

 they are worked out and apprehended by 

 it? And if, according to the latest theories, 

 man is himself a product of evolution, and 

 is, therefore, in every atom of his body and 

 in every function of his mind a part and 

 a child of Nature, is it not in the highest 

 degree illogical so to separate him from 

 it as to condemn him for seeing in it some 

 image of himself? If he is its product and 

 its child, is it not certain that he is right 

 when he sees and feels the indissoluble 

 bonds of unity which unite him to the 

 great system of things in which he lives? 

 ARGYLL Unity of Nature, ch. 8, p. 165. 

 (Burt.) 



1441. HARMONY OF THE UNIVERSE 



Gravitation Proved Universal Discov- 

 ery of Neptune Newton Finds a Law The 

 Law Enables Astronomers To Find an Un- 

 known World. This discovery [of Neptune] 

 seems to me in some respects even more 

 striking than Newton's discovery of the 

 law of gravitation. Newton explained the 

 laws according to which known objects 

 move; Adams and Le Verrier showed where 

 a hitherto unknown object would be found 

 when telescopes were turned to that part 

 of the heavens. Newton recognized laws 

 hitherto unknown. Adams and Le Verrier 

 by abstract reasoning inferred the existence 

 of a world which men as yet had never 

 seen. PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 122. 

 (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



1442. HARP DERIVED FROM BOW- 

 STRING The Piano a Perfected Harp. It is 

 told in the "Odyssey" (xxi, 410) how the 

 avenging hero, when he has strung his 

 mighty bow compact of wood ^nd horn, 

 gives the stretched string a twang that 

 makes it sing like a swallow in a soft tone 



