529 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



itch 

 lanet 



Similarly, when we manage to join an event 

 to a wrong place, we may find that it is be- 

 cause we heard of the occurrence when stay- 

 ing at the particular locality, or in some 

 other way had the image of the place close- 

 ly associated in our minds with the event. 

 But often we are wholly unable to explain 

 the displacement. SULLY Illusions, ch. 10, 

 p. 266. (A., 1897.) 



2609. PLAN AND PURPOSE MARK 

 HUMANITY Passion, Appetite, and Desire 

 Subdued to One Supreme Volition. To 

 plan, to purpose, . . . is to exercise all 

 the faculties of developed manhood, under 

 the control of will. Yet this, like all other 

 complex manifestations of those faculties, is 

 also matter of degrees. We should not, there- 

 fore, by any means confine our estimate of 

 such products of will to those who can say 

 with the Paracelsus of Browning: 



I have subdued my life to the one purpose 

 Whereto I ordained it ; 

 or, again: 



I have made my life consist of one idea, 



however grand the idea and noble the senti- 

 ment belonging to the plan. The lower 

 order of savages, and the average man of 

 the civilized community, do indeed suffer 

 themselves to be swayed by internal pas- 

 sions and external circumstances rather 

 than " subdue " their lives to any " one pur- 

 pose." And yet there is another side to all 

 this. They, too, as sharers in the possi- 

 bilities of human development, habitually 

 take large sections, as it were, of their own 

 lives into their own keeping ; they " or- 

 dain" them to some one purpose (tho it 

 may be no nobler purpose than to take ven- 

 geance on an enemy; to excel in trapping 

 game, or in outdressing and outranking 

 others, or in bulling or bearing the market) ; 

 and they subdue ideas and feelings and 

 minor volitions to this one purpose. They 

 thus rise above the lower animals and show 

 the leading characteristics of a distinctively 

 human development. LADD Psychology, ch. 

 26, p. 630. (S., 1899.) 



2610. PLAN FOR SCIENTIFIC CON- 

 QUEST OF THE GLOBE Humboldt gave 

 the first impulse, at the Scientific Congress 

 of Berlin in 1828, to a great international 

 movement for attacking simultaneously, in 

 various parts of the globe, the complex 

 problem of terrestrial magnetism. Through 

 the genius and energy of Gauss, Gottingen 

 became its center. Thence new apparatus 

 and a new system for its employment is- 

 sued. . . . The letter addressed by 

 Humboldt in April, 1836, to the Duke o'f 

 Sussex as president of the Royal Society, 

 enlisted the cooperation of England. A net- 

 work of magnetic stations was spread all 

 over the British dominions, from Canada to 

 Van Diemen's Land; measures were con- 

 certed with foreign authorities, and an ex- 

 pedition was fitted out, under the able com- 

 mand of Captain (afterwards Sir James) 

 Clark Ross, for the special purpose of bring- 

 ing intelligence on the subject from the dis- 



mal neighborhood of the south pole. In 

 1841 the elaborate organization created by 

 the disinterested efforts of scientific " agita- 

 tors " was complete; Gauss's "magnetom- 

 eters " were vibrating under the view of 

 attentive observers in five continents, and 

 simultaneous results began to be recorded. 

 CLERKE History of Astronomy, pt. ii, ch. 

 1, p. 157. (Bl., 1893.) 



2611. PLAN MANIFESTED BY BEES 



Scouts Select Home for New Colony. M. 

 de Fravifere had the opportunity of observ- 

 ing the manner in which such an examina- 

 tion [of a new hive> by bees] is carried on, 

 and with what prudence and accuracy. He 

 placed an empty beehive, made in a new 

 style, in front of his house, so that he could 

 exactly watch from his own window what 

 went on inside and out without disturb- 

 ance to himself or to the bees. A single bee 

 came and examined the building, flying all 

 round it and touching it. It then let itself 

 down on the board, and walked carefully 

 and thoroughly over the interior, touching 

 it continually with its antennae so as to sub- 

 ject it on all sides to a thorough investiga- 

 tion. The result of its examination must 

 have been satisfactory, for after it had gone 

 away it returned accompanied by a crowd 

 of some fifty friends, which now together 

 went through the same process as their 

 guide. This new trial must also have had 

 a good result, for soon a whole swarm came, 

 evidently from a distant spot, and took 

 possession. Still more remarkable is the 

 behavior of the scouts when they take pos- 

 session of a satisfactory hive or box for an 

 imminent or approaching swarm. Altho it 

 is not yet inhabited they regard it as their 

 property, watch it and guard it against 

 stranger bees or other assailants, and busy 

 themselves earnestly in the most careful 

 cleansing of it, so far as this cleansing is 

 impossible to the setter up of the hive. 

 Such a taking possession sometimes occurs 

 eight days before the entrance of the swarm. 

 ROMANES Animal Intelligence, ch. 4, p. 

 168. (A., 1899.) 



2612. PLAN REVEALED IN RUDI- 

 MENTARY ORGANS History or Prophecy. 

 In this point of view rudimentary or 

 aborted organs need no longer puzzle us, 

 for in respect to purpose they may be read 

 either in the light of history or in the 

 light of prophecy. They may be regarded 

 as indicating always either what had al- 

 ready been or what was yet to be. Why 

 new creations should never have been made 

 wholly new; why they should have been 

 always molded on some preexisting forms; 

 why one fundamental ground-plan should 

 have been adhered to for all vertebrate ani- 

 mals we cannot understand. But as a mat- 

 ter of fact, it is so. ARGYLL Reign of Law, 

 ch. 4, p. 122. (Burt.) 



2613. PLANET COOLED BY CELES- 

 TIAL SPACES Crust Wrinkling into Moun- 

 tains. Astronomy shows us our planet 



