551 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Precision 

 Present 



heavens, and tho the building might be 

 protected by good conductors from the lan- 

 tern to the earth, yet no protection which 

 the present state of science could devise 

 would be as safe as no exposure; the very 

 idea of protection involving that of a less 

 degree of danger. Tho in the case of the 

 ordinary lightning-rod the lightning is sel- 

 dom or never attracted from the cloud by 

 the conductor, yet in this case the great 

 height of the mast, the height of the dome 

 above the ground, and the elevated position 

 cf the building itself gave a total elevation 

 bearing a considerable ratio to the height 

 of the cloud: add to this the great amount 

 of metallic surface, and, above all, the large 

 gas-burner, and we have an arrangement 

 well calculated to elicit a discharge from 

 the cloud when under ordinary influences 

 no effect of the kind would take place. . . . 

 The fixture on the Capitol was indeed an 

 exploring apparatus on a magnificent scale. 

 The result was such as had been anticipated. 

 The first thunder-storm which passed over 

 the city after the erection of the lantern 

 discharged itself upon it, put out the light, 

 and when the whole was taken down sev- 

 eral perforations were found melted in the 

 copper ball which surmounted the lantern. 

 HENRY Remarks on the Form of Light- 

 ning-Rods (Scientific Writings, vol. i, p. 

 291). (Sm. Inst., 1886.) 



2714. PREOCCUPATION OF MIND PRO- 

 DUCES INSENSIBILITY TO PAIN The 

 writer has himself frequently begun a lec- 

 ture whilst suffering neuralgic pain so se- 

 vere as to make him apprehend that he 

 would find it impossible to proceed; yet no 

 sooner has he by a determined effort fairly 

 launched himself into the stream of thought 

 than he has found himself continuously 

 borne along without the least distraction 

 until the end has come and the attention 

 has been released, when the pain has re- 

 curred with a force that has overmastered 

 all resistance, making him wonder how he 

 could have ever ceased to feel it. CARPEN- 

 TER Mental Physiology, ch. 3, p. 138. (A., 

 1900.) 



2715. PREPARATION, NATURE'S, FOR 

 MOTHERHOOD Four Great Steps The Young 

 Fewer in Number, Recognizable at Birth, 

 Needing Mothers Care, and Necessary to 

 Mother's Comfort. Now, before maternal 

 love can be evolved out of this first care, 

 before love can be made a necessity, and 

 carried past the unhatched egg to the living 

 thing which is to come out of it, Nature 

 must alter all her ways. Four great changes 

 at least must be introduced into her pro- 

 gram. In the first place she must cause 

 fewer young to be produced at a birth. In 

 the second place she must have these young 

 produced in such outward form that their 

 mothers will recognize them. In the third 

 place, instead of producing them in such 

 physical perfection that they are able to 

 go out into life the moment they are born, 



she must make them helpless, so that for 

 a time they must dwell with her if they 

 are to live at all. And fourthly, it is re- 

 quired that she shall be made to dwell with 

 them; that in some way they also should 

 be made necessary physically necessary to 

 her to compel her to attend to them. All 

 these beautiful arrangements we find car- 

 ried out to the last detail. A mother is 

 made, as it were, in four-processes. She 

 requires, like the making of a colored pic- 

 ture, four separate paintings, each adding 

 some new thing to the effect. DRUMMOND 

 Ascent of Man, ch. 8, p. 272. (J. P., 1900.) 



2716. PRESENCE THAT FILLS IM- 

 MENSITY, THE Exalted Conception of the Di- 

 vine Majesty. Shall we say, then, of these 

 vast luminaries that they were created in 

 vain? Were they called into existence for 

 no other purpose than to throw a tide of 

 useless splendor over the solitudes of im- 

 mensity? Our sun is only one of these 

 luminaries, and we know that he has worlds 

 in his train. Why should we strip the rest 

 of this princely attendance? Why may not 

 each of them be the center of his own sys- 

 tem, and give light to his own worlds? It 

 is true that we see them not; but could the 

 eye of man take its flight into those distant 

 regions it would lose sight of our little world 

 before it reached the outer limits of our 

 system the greater planets would disappear 

 in their turn before it had described a 

 small portion of that abyss which separates 

 us from the fixed stars, the sun would de- 

 cline into a little spot, and all its splendid 

 retinue of worlds be lost in the obscurity 

 of distance; he would at last shrink into a 

 small, indivisible atom, and all that could 

 be seen of this magnificent system would 

 be reduced to the glimmering of a little 

 star. Why resist any longer the grand and 

 interesting conclusion? Each of these stars 

 may be the token of a system as vast and 

 as splendid as the one which we inhabit. 

 Worlds roll in these distant regions, and 

 these worlds must be the mansions of life 

 and of intelligence. In yon gilded canopy 

 of heaven we see the broad aspect of the uni- 

 verse, where each shining point presents us 

 with a sun, and each sun with a system of 

 worlds; where the Divinity reigns in all 

 the grandeur of his attributes; where he 

 peoples immensity with his wonders, and 

 travels in the greatness of his strength 

 through the dominions of one vast and un- 

 limited monarchy. CHALMERS Astronomical 

 Discourses, p. 31. (R c Ct., 1848.) 



2717. PRESENT, THE ETERNAL A 



Spirit Projected Timelessly through Space 

 Would See Ancient Deeds and Scenes as 

 Present Fact The Omnipresent also the 

 Omniscient " The High and Lofty One That 

 Inhabiteth Eternity" (Is. Ivii, 15). A man, 

 a spirit, leaving the earth, either by death 

 or otherwise, this year, and transported in 

 some hours or days to a great distance, 

 would see the earth of former times, and 



