477 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Mystery 



Bar 



not been duly recognized. BONNET Ice-work, 

 Present and Past, pt. iii, ch. 2, p. 260. (A., 

 1896.) 



2340. MYSTERY UNEXPLAINED 

 Darwin's Conjecture Unfounded The Eu- 

 calyptus on South-American Pampas. Sci- 

 entists have not yet been able to explain why 

 the pampas, with a humid climate and a soil 

 exceedingly rich, have produced nothing but 

 grass, while the dry, sterile territories on 

 their north, west, and south borders have 

 an arborescent vegetation. Darwin's con- 

 jecture that the extreme violence of the 

 pampero, or southwest wind, prevented trees 

 from growing, is now proved to have been 

 ill-founded since the introduction of the 

 Eucalyptus globulus; for this noble tree at- 

 tains to an extraordinary height on the pam- 

 pas, and exhibits there a luxuriance of foli- 

 age never seen in Australia. HUDSON Nat- 

 uralist in La Plata, ch. 1, p. 4. (C. & H., 

 1895.) 



2341. MYSTERY UNFATHOMABLE 

 Distances of Few Stars Known Most 

 Forever Unknown. Even the mighty instru- 

 ments of our own day, wielded with all the 

 skill and acumen which a long experience 

 has generated, have not sufficed to enable us 

 to measure the distances of more than about 

 a dozen stars. Nor probably will it ever 

 he possible for man to count by the hun- 

 dred the number of stars whose distances 

 are known. Of all the millions of stars re- 

 vealed by the telescope, not the ten-thou- 

 sandth part will have their true position 

 in space assigned to them, however roughly. 

 The real architecture of the stellar system 

 must remain forever unknown to us, ex- 

 cept as respects a relatively minute por- 

 tion lying within certain limits of distance 

 from the earth. PROCTOR Our Place among 

 Infinities, p. 188. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



2342. MYTHOLOGY APPROPRIA- 

 TED ANCIENT VOLCANOES The Forge 

 of Vulcan. The ancients were acquainted 

 only with the four or five active volcanoes 

 IP the Mediterranean area, the term "vol- 

 cano " being the name of one of these (Vul- 

 cano, or Volcano, in the Lipari Islands), 

 which has come to be applied to all similar 

 phenomena. It is only in comparatively 

 modern times that it has become a known 

 fact that many hundreds of volcanoes exist 

 upon the globe, and are scattered over al- 

 most every part of its surface. Classical 

 mythology appropriated Vulcano as the 

 forge of Hephaestus, and his Roman repre- 

 sentative Vulcan, while Etna was regarded 

 as formed by the mountains under which the 

 vengeful deity had buried the rebellious 

 Typhon ; it may be imagined, therefore, that 

 any endeavor to more closely investigate the 

 phenomena displayed at these localities 

 would be regarded not simply as an act of 

 temerity, but as one of actual impiety. 

 JUDD Volcanoes, ch. 1, p. 3. (A., 1899.) 



2343. MYTHOLOGY OF GREEKS 



The Simplicity of Nature Spoiled Sense of 



Natural Beauty Fitfully Expressed. The 

 Greek regarded the vegetable world as 

 standing in a manifold and mythical rela- 

 tion to heroes and to the gods, who were 

 supposed to avenge every injury inflicted on 

 the trees and plants sacred to them. Im- 

 agination animated vegetable forms with 

 life, but the types of poetry to which the 

 peculiar direction of mental activity among 

 the ancient Greeks limited them gave only 

 a partial development to the descriptions of 

 natural scenery. Occasionally, however, 

 even in the writings of their tragic poets, a 

 deep sense of the beauty of Nature breaks 

 forth in animated descriptions of scenery in 

 the midst of the most excited passions or 

 the deepest tones of sadness. Thus, when 

 (Edipus is approaching the grove of the 

 Eumenides, the chorus sings, " the noble 

 resting - place of the illustrious Colonos, 

 where the melodious nightingale loves to 

 tarry and pour forth its clear but plaintive 

 note." Again it sings, " the verdant gloom 

 of the thickly mantling ivy, the narcissus 

 steeped in heavenly dew, the golden-beaming 

 crocus, and the hardy and ever fresh- 

 sprouting olive-tree.'' Sophocles strives to 

 extol his native Colonos by placing the lofty 

 form of the fated and royal, wanderer by the 

 brink of the sleepless waters of Cephisus, 

 surrounded by soft and bright scenery. The 

 repose of Nature heightens the impression 

 of pain called forth by the image of the 

 noble form of the blind sufferer, the victim 

 of mysterious and fatal passion. Euripides 

 also delights in picturesque descriptions of 

 " the pastures of Messenia and Laconia, 

 which, under an ever-mild sky, arfe refreshed 

 by a thousand fountains and by the waters 

 of the beautiful Pamisos." HTJMBOLDT Cos- 

 mos, vol. ii, pt. i, p. 25. (H., 1897.) 



2344. MYTHS, DISAPPEARANCE 

 OF, NO LOSS Science Makes Nature Not 

 Less Grand A Higher Poetry and a 

 Mightier Philosophy. To a right-thinking 

 and right-feeling mind, the beauty, the 

 grandeur, the mystery of Nature are aug- 

 mented, not lessened, by each new glimpse 

 into the secret recesses of her operations. 

 The sun going forth from its chamber in the 

 east to run its course is not less glorious in 

 majesty because we have discovered the law 

 of gravitation, and are able by spectral 

 analysis to detect the metals which enter 

 into its composition because it is no longer 

 Helios driving his golden chariot through 

 the pathless spaces of the heavens. The 

 mountains are not less imposing in their 

 grandeur because the oreads have deserted 

 them, nor the groves less attractive nor the 

 streams more desolate because science has 

 banished the dryads and the naiads. No, 

 science has not destroyed poetry, nor ex- 

 pelled the divine from Nature, but has fur- 

 nished the materials and given the presages 

 of a higher poetry and a mightier philos- 

 ophy than the world has yet seen. The 

 grave of each superstition which it slays is 

 the womb of a better birth. And if it come 



