433 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Matter 

 Measure 



simply as it exists in space or as it exists 

 in time. As it exists in space we inquire 

 into its composition, or, in other words, en- 

 deavor to discover what are the elementary 

 bodies that coexist in the space which it oc- 

 cupies; as it exists in time, we inquire 

 into its susceptibilities or its powers, or, in 

 other words, endeavor to trace all the va- 

 rious changes which have already passed 

 over it, or of which it may yet become the 

 subject." MILLER Old Red Sandstone, ch. 

 12, p. 211. (G. &L., 1851.) 



2119. MATTER, MORAL RELA- 

 TIONS OF Man Communicates His Own 

 Character Use or Abuse of Material. 

 Nothing, however indifferent in itself, can 

 come into human hands without acquiring 

 thereby an ethical, social, political, or even 

 religious significance. An ounce of lead or 

 a dynamite cartridge may be in itself a 

 thing altogether destitute of any higher 

 significance than that depending on physical 

 properties; but let it pass into the power 

 of man, and at once infinite possibilities of 

 good and of evil cluster round it according 

 to the use to which it may be applied. This 

 depends on essential powers and attributes 

 of man himself, of which he can no more be 

 deprived than matter can be denuded of its 

 inherent properties; and if the evils ari- 

 sing from misuse of these powers trouble us, 

 we may at least console ourselves with the 

 reflection that the possibility of such evils 

 shows man to be a free agent, and not an 

 automaton. All this is eminently applicable 

 to science. DAWSON Facts and Fancies in 

 Modern Science, lect. 1, p. 12. (A. B. P. S.) 



2 1 2O. MATTER, MUTABILITY OF 



Change Alone Is Constant. All things in 

 existence are nothing but temporary phases 

 of the transition of matter, appearing 

 greater or smaller, of longer or shorter dura- 

 tion. Nothing but change is constant. 

 MERSHALL (A Lecture). (Translated for 

 Scientific Side-LigJits.) 



2121. MATTER RECOGNIZED BY 



RESISTANCE The Not-meThe Putt of Air 

 on a Sail. We must, therefore, seek a satis- 

 factory definition of matter elsewhere; and 

 we find the clue to it in the consideration 

 that the sense of effort we experience in an- 

 tagonizing the downward pressure of a body, 

 is but a particular case of our more general 

 cognition of resistance. When we project 

 our hand against a hard and fixed solid 

 body, our consciousness of its resistance to 

 our pressure is exactly that which we ex- 

 perience when we try to raise a weight that 

 we have not strength to lift; whilst if that 

 solid be either yielding in its parts or mov- 

 able as a whole, we measure its resistance, 

 as in lifting a weight, by our sense of the 

 effort necessary to overcome it. When we 

 move our hand through a liquid, we are con- 

 scious of a resistance to its motion, which is 

 greater or less according to the " viscosity " 

 of the liquid. And when we move our open 

 hand through air at rest, we are still con- 



scious of a resistance, our sense of it being 

 augmented by an extension of the surface 

 moved, as in the act of fanning; whilst if 

 the air is in motion, we feel its pressure on 

 the sail of a boat by the " pull " of the sheet 

 we hold in our hand, or on the sails of a 

 windmill by the rotation it imparts, the 

 force of which we can estimate by the effort 

 we must put forth to resist it. Attenuate 

 any kind of air or gas as we may, its resist- 

 ance can still be made apparent by the like 

 communication of its own motion to solid 

 bodies. CARPENTER Nature and Man, lect. 

 12, p. 356. (A., 1889.) 



2122. MAZE OF ASTEROIDAL OR- 

 BITS Labyrinth of the Heavens. The crowd 

 of orbits [of asteroids] invites attentive 

 study. D'Arrest remarked in 1851, when 

 only thirteen minor planets were known, 

 that supposing their paths to be represented 

 by solid hoops, not one of the thirteen could 

 be lifted from its place without bringing the 

 others with it. The complexity of inter- 

 woven tracks thus illustrated has grown al- 

 most in the numerical proportion of dis- 

 covery. Yet no two actually intersect, be- 

 cause no two lie exactly in the same plane, 

 so that the chances of collision are at pres- 

 ent nil. There is only one case, indeed, in 

 which it seems to be eventually possible. 

 M. Lespiault has pointed out that the curves 

 traversed by " Tide's " and " Maia " ap- 

 proach so closely that a time may arrive 

 when the bodies in question will either 

 coalesce or unite to form a binary system. 



The maze threaded by the 375 asteroids 

 contrasts singularly with the harmoniously 

 ordered and rhythmically separated orbits 

 of the larger planets. Yet the seeming con- 

 fusion is not without a plan. CLERKE His- 

 tory of Astronomy, pt. ii, ch. 8, p. 347. (Bl., 

 1893.) 



2123. MEANING OF HISTORY 

 Character and Achievement Transcend Psy- 

 chology. Does history really mean for us 

 what psychological and economical and sta- 

 tistical laws put in its place ? Are " hero- 

 ism and hero-worship " empty words ? Have 

 Kant and Fichte, Carlyle and Emerson, 

 really nothing to say any more, and are 

 Comte and Buckle our only apostles? Do 

 we mean, in speaking of Napoleon and 

 Washington, Newton and Goethe, those com- 

 plicated chemical processes which the phys- 

 iologist sees in their life, and those accom- 

 panying psychical processes which the psy- 

 chologist enumerates between their birth 

 and their death? Do we really still think 

 historically if we consider the growth of the 

 nations and this gigantic civilization on 

 earth as the botanist studies the growth of 

 the mold which covers a rotten apple? Is it 

 really only a difference of complication? 

 MUNSTERBERG Psychology and Life, ch. 1. p. 

 17. (H. M. & Co., 18990 



2124. MEASURE OF ANCIENT GLA- 

 CIER A Mountain for a Plummet. Mount 

 Washington, for instance, is over six thou- 

 sand feet high, and the rough, unpolished 



