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SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



the result of one creative act, with all its 

 outlines established from the beginning. It 

 has been the work of modern science to show 

 that its inequalities are not contemporane- 

 ous or simultaneous, but successive, includ- 

 ing a law of growth that heat and cold, 

 and the consequent expansion and contrac- 

 tion of its crust, have produced wrinkles and 

 folds upon the surface, while constant os- 

 cillations, changes of level which are even 

 now going on, have modified its conforma- 

 tion, and molded its general outline through 

 successive ages. AGASSIZ Geological 

 Sketches, ser. i, ch. 4, p. 98. (H. M. & Co., 

 1896.) 



1848. LAW OF MAN TO FOLLOW 

 LAW OF NATURE Control by Change of 

 Conditions A Recent Conception. Just as 

 the will of the individual can operate upon 

 itself by the use of means, some of which 

 are known instinctively, whilst others are 

 found out by reason; so can the collective 

 will of society operate upon the conduct of 

 its members in two ways first, directly by 

 authority; and secondly, indirectly by al- 

 tering the conditions out of which the most 

 powerful motives spring. This last is a 

 principle of government which has been 

 distinctly recognized only in modern times, 

 and which admits of applications not yet 

 foreseen. The idea of founding human law 

 upon the laws of Nature is an idea which, 

 tho sometimes instinctively acted upon, was 

 never systematically entertained in the an- 

 cient world. Indeed, the true conception of 

 natural law is one founded on the progress 

 of physical investigation, and growing out 

 of the habits of scientific thought. ARGYLL 

 Reign of Law, ch. 7, p. 194. (Burt.) 



1849. LAW, ORDINARY ACTION 

 OF, REVERSED Death by Falling Upwards 

 Peculiar Peril of Deep-sea Fish. The fish 

 that live at these enormous depths are, in 

 consequence of the enormous pressure, liable 

 to a curious form of accident. If, in cha- 

 sing their prey or for any other reason, they 

 rise to a considerable distance above the 

 floor of the ocean, the gases of their swim- 

 ming-bladder become considerably expanded 

 and their specific gravity very greatly re- 

 duced. Up to a certain limit the muscles of 

 their bodies can counteract the tendency to 

 float upwards and enable the fish to regain 

 its proper sphere of life at the bottom ; but 

 beyond that limit the muscles are not strong 

 enough to drive the body downwards, and 

 the fish, becoming more and more distended 

 as it goes, is gradually killed on its long 

 and involuntary journey to the surface of 

 the sea. The deep-sea fish, then, are exposed 

 to a danger that no other animals in this 

 world are subject to, namely that of tum- 

 bling upwards. 



That such accidents do occasionally occur 

 is evidenced by the fact that some fish, 

 which are now known to be true deep-sea 

 forms, were discovered dead and floating on 

 the surface of the ocean long before our 



modern investigations were commenced. 

 HICKSON Fauna of the Deep Sea, ch. 2, p. 21. 

 (A., 1894.) 



185O. LAW, UNIVERSAL Courses 

 of Shooting-stars Obey Why Not Each 

 Human Life? Such is the course of these 

 minute shooting- stars, a course now per- 

 fectly determined. A lesson as profound as 

 unexpected, the shooting-star itself does not 

 glide by chance, borne along by an arbitrary 

 wind; it describes a mathematical orbit as 

 well as the earth or the colossal Jupiter. 

 All is ruled, decreed by the supreme Law; 

 and who knows ? perhaps each of our frail 

 existences, each of our ephemeral actions, is 

 also determined by the invisible Nature 

 which places the star in the sky, the infant 

 in the cradle, the old man in the tomb. 

 FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, bk. v, ch. 

 4, p. 541. (A.) 



1851. Holds Every Par- 

 ticle of Matter The Lost Comet Every 

 Fragment Would Follow Path of Total 

 Mass. Since the comet [Biela's] was last 

 seen it has thrice traversed the enormous 

 orbit here described, passing from a least 

 distance of about eighty millions of miles 

 to its greatest distance, amounting nearly 

 to six hundred millions of miles. Whether 

 it has been destroyed as a comet, or whether 

 it has only been so far dissipated as to be 

 invisible in our most powerful telescopes, 

 we do not know. But in either case it has 

 pursued the same general course, for the 

 minutest fragment of its substance would 

 obey as implicitly the law of gravity as the 

 once complete comet, or even as the staider 

 members of the solar family the planets. 

 PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 132. (L. G. 

 & Co., 1897.) 



1852. LAWS, DESIGN TRANS- 

 FERRED FROM PHENOMENA TO The 



question now before us whether the evi- 

 dences of intelligent design, which theology 

 has hitherto recognized in the structure of 

 organized beings, are or are not any longer 

 tenable, when viewed under the new light 

 thrown upon them by the Darwinian lamp 

 is one which, tho science has much to say 

 upon it, it is beyond the province of sci- 

 ence to decide. Newton and Laplace were 

 both accused of atheism by their contem- 

 poraries for setting up their own concep- 

 tions in the place of the action of the Crea- 

 tor; and you well know that the same 

 charge has been brought against Darwin. 

 I shall endeavor to show you that in his 

 case, as in that of his great predecessors, 

 the real result of his scientific work has been 

 to effect for biology what they are well said 

 by Dr. Whewell to have effected for astron- 

 omy the " transfer of the notion of design 

 and end from the region of facts to that of 

 laws." CARPENTER Nature and Man, lect. 

 15, p. 413. (A., 1889.) 



1853. LAWS, INDUSTRIAL AND 

 MORAL In All Industries Man Is Still Man. 

 We do not regard the industrial life as 



