563 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Protection 

 Psychology 



2777. PROTECTION, PRECIOUSNESS 

 OF THE DIVINE Human Littleness and In- 

 security. Now, it is this littleness and this 

 insecurity which make the protection of the 

 Almighty so dear to us, and bring, with 

 such emphasis, to every pious bosom the 

 holy lessons of humility and gratitude. The 

 God who sitteth above, and presides in high 

 authority over all worlds, is mindful of 

 man; and tho at this moment his energy 

 is felt in the remotest provinces of creation, 

 we may feel the same security in his provi- 

 dence as if we were the objects of his un- 

 divided care. It is not for us to bring our 

 minds up to this mysterious agency. But 

 such is the incomprehensible fact that the 

 same Being, whose eye is abroad over the 

 whole universe, gives vegetation to every 

 blade of grass, and motion to every par- 

 ticle of blood which circulates through the 

 veins of the minutest animal; that, tho 

 his mind takes into its comprehensive grasp 

 immensity and all its wonders, I am as 

 much known to him as if I were the single 

 object of his attention; that he marks all 

 my thoughts; that he gives birth to every 

 feeling and every movement within me, and 

 that, with an exercise of power which I can 

 neither describe nor comprehend, the same 

 God who sits in the highest heaven and 

 reigns over the glories of the firmament 

 is at my right hand, to give me every breath 

 which I draw and every comfort which I 

 enjoy. CHALMERS Astronomical Discourses, 

 p. 39. (R. Ct., 1848.) 



2778. PROTECTION SECURED BY 

 THE "SLEEP" OF PLANTS SavingUpper 



Surface of Leaf from Radiation the Object 

 Gained. The fact that the leaves of many 

 plants place themselves at night in widely 

 different positions from what they hold 

 during the day, but with the one point in 

 common that their upper surfaces avoid 

 facing the zenith, often with the additional 

 fact that they come into close contact with 

 opposite leaves or leaflets, clearly indicates, 

 as it seems to us, that the object gained 

 is the protection of the upper surfaces from 

 being chilled at night by radiation. There 

 is nothing improbable in the upper surface 

 needing protection more than the lower, as 

 the two differ in function and structure. 

 All gardeners know that plants surfer from 

 radiation. It is this and not cold winds 

 which the peasants of Southern Europe fear 

 for their olives. Seedlings are often pro- 

 tected from radiation by a very thin cover- 

 ing of straw, and fruit-trees on walls by a 

 few fir branches, or even by a fishing-net, 

 suspended over them. DARWIN Power of 

 Movement in Plants, ch. 6, p. 284. (A., 1900.) 



2779. PROTECTION THE CHIEF CARE 

 OF NESTING BIRDS The first step in 

 nest-building is the selection of a site. 

 There is almost no suitable location, from 

 a hole in the ground to branches in the 

 tree-tops, in which birds may not place 

 their nests. Protection seems to be the 



chief desideratum, and this is generally se- 

 cured through concealment. Most birds hide 

 their nests. Many sea-birds, however, lay 

 their eggs on the shores or cliffs, with no 

 attempt at concealment; but, as a rule, 

 birds that nest in this manner resort to 

 uninhabited islets and secure protection 

 through isolation. Some birds nest alone 

 and jealously guard the vicinity of their 

 home from the approach" of other birds, 

 generally of the same species. Others nest 

 in colonies brought together by tempera- 

 ment or community of interests, and dwell 

 on terms of the closest sociability. CHAP- 

 MAN Bird-Life, ch. 5, p. 65. (A., 1900.) 



2780. PROVISION OF NATURE FOR 



MAN The Bamboo. Almost all tropical 

 countries produce bamboos, and wherever 

 they are found in abundance the natives 

 apply them to a variety of uses. Their 

 strength, lightness, smoothness, straight- 

 ness, roundness, and hollowness, the facility 

 and regularity with which they can be split, 

 their many different sizes, the varying length 

 of their joints, the ease with which they 

 can be cut, and with which holes can be 

 made through them, their hardness out- 

 side, their freedom from any pronounced 

 taste or smell, their great abundance, and 

 the rapidity of their growth and increase, 

 are all qualities which render them useful 

 for a hundred different purposes, to serve 

 which other materials would require much 

 more labor and preparation. The bamboo 

 is one of the most wonderful and most 

 beautiful productions of the tropics, and 

 one of Nature's most valuable gifts to un- 

 civilized man. [Quoted from Wallace, 

 " Malay Archipelago."] MASON Origins of 

 Invention, ch. 6, p. 209. (S., 1899.) 



2781. PSEUDO-SCIENCE Comte's Sec- 

 ond - hand Knowledge. As I have said, 

 that part of M. Comte's writings which 

 deals with the philosophy of physical 

 science appeared to me to possess singu- 

 larly little value, and to show that he 

 had but the most superficial and merely 

 second-hand knowledge of most branches of 

 what is usually understood by science. I 

 do not mean by this merely to say that 

 Comte was behind our present knowledge, 

 or that he was unacquainted with the de- 

 tails of the science of his own day. No one 

 could justly make such defects cause of 

 complaint in a philosophical writer of the 

 past generation. What struck me was his 

 want of apprehension of the great features 

 of science; his strange mistakes as to the 

 merits of his scientific contemporaries, and 

 his ludicrously erroneous notions about the 

 part which some of the scientific doctrines 

 current in his time were destined to play 

 in the future. HUXLEY Lay Sermons, serin. 

 8, p. 147. (A., 1895.) 



2782. PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTAL 



Not Advanced by Hypnotism. It must, 

 moreover, be plain to you all that there 



