Revolution 

 Rivers 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



590 



2915. REVOLUTION IN ASTRON- 

 OMY New Centering of the Solar System by 

 Copernicus. The fundamental views of Co- 

 pernicus have indicated to theoretical as- 

 tronomy paths which could not fail to lead 

 to sure results. . . . " By no other ar- 

 rangement," he exclaims with enthusiasm, 

 " have I been able to find so admirable 

 a symmetry of the universe, and so har- 

 monious a connection of orbits, as by pla- 

 cing the lamp of the world (lucernam 

 mundi), the Sun, in the midst of the beau- 

 tiful temple of Nature as on a kingly 

 throne, ruling the whole family of circling 

 stars that revolve around him (circumagen- 

 tem gubernans astrorum familiam)." Even 

 the idea of universal gravitation or attrac- 

 tion (appetentia qucedam naturalis partibus 

 indita) toward the sun as the center of the 

 world (centrum mundi), and which is in- 

 ferred from the force of gravity in spher- 

 ical bodies, seems to have hovered before the 

 mind of this great man, as is proved by a 

 remarkable passage in the 9th chapter of 

 the 1st book [of] " De Revolutionibus."- 

 HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. ii, pp. 305, 

 308. (H., 1897.) 



2916. REWARDS OF EARLY IN- 

 VENTORS The First Patent. The earliest 

 invention was a single homogeneous act, an 

 original suggestion, a happy thought. The 

 patent on this was an immediate and indi- 

 vidual benefit. A sharper knife of flint, a 

 better scraper, a longer spear, a stouter 

 thread wrought better, and the reward was 

 more execution. Now, the man who made 

 the best weapons killed the most game, 

 from that game he got better food, that 

 food made him stronger, that strength 

 made him chief, that chieftaincy gave him 

 more wives, more children, more cohorts to 

 support his throne. The best woman to 

 cook or sew or carry loads got the best 

 husband; that was her patent. From these 

 simple methods of inventing and reward- 

 ing invention we come on to the Olympic 

 games, the monopolies, the patent system. 

 And now, in the inventor's laboratory of 

 Graham Bell or Edison the climax is 

 reached, where one machine is the co- 

 operative result of any number of trained 

 minds, and the reward is meted out to each 

 by the manufacturer. MASON The Birth of 

 Invention (Address at Centenary of Ameri- 

 can Patent System, Washington, D. C., 1891 ; 

 Proceedings of the Congress, p. 411). 



2917. RHYTHM OF THOUGHT 

 LIKE PERIODS OF LANGUAGE Intervals 

 between Sentences Full of Meaning. As 

 we take, in fact, a general view of the won- 

 derful stream of our consciousness, what 

 strikes us first is this different pace of its 

 parts. Like a bird's life, it seems to be 

 made of an alternation of nights and perch- 

 ings. The rhythm of language expresses 

 this, where every thought is expressed in a 

 sentence, and every sentence closed by a 

 period. The resting-places are usually oc- 



cupied by sensorial imaginations of some 

 sort, whose peculiarity is that they can be 

 held before the mind for an indefinite time, 

 and contemplated without changing; the 

 places of flight are filled with thoughts of 

 relations, static or dynamic, that for the 

 most part obtain between the matters con- 

 templated in the periods of comparative 

 rest. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 9, p. 

 243. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



2918. RICHES OF CREATIVE POW- 

 ER INEXHAUSTIBLE Wonderfully Varied 

 Light of Colored Suns. The colors of the 

 double stars, then, are real, so that if 

 we could pay a visit to one of these pairs 

 we should find colored suns red, orange, 

 and yellow ruling suns, and green, purple, 

 or blue minor suns, or, as the case might 

 be, lilac, puce, mauve, russet, or olive suns 

 of the smaller sort. Nor must we think 

 of these smaller suns as really small in 

 themselves. It is only by comparison with 

 the leading orbs of unequal pairs that the 

 lesser is called small. In reality it is 

 probable that many of the lesser suns of 

 these double systems are very much larger 

 than all the planets of the solar system to- 

 gether. PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 

 222. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



2919. RICHES OF SCIENCE NOT 

 TO BE WASTED Revelation of Nature Must 

 Help Religion. It is impossible to believe 

 that the amazing succession of revelations 

 in the domain of Nature during the last 

 few centuries, at which the world has all 

 but grown tired wondering, are to yield 

 nothing for the higher life. If the develop- 

 ment of doctrine is to have any meaning 

 for the future, theology must draw upon 

 the further revelation of the seen for the 

 further revelation of the unseen. It need, 

 and can, add nothing to fact; but as the 

 vision of Newton rested on a clearer and 

 richer world than that of Plato, so, tho see- 

 ing the same things in the spiritual world 

 as our fathers, we may see them clearer 

 and richer. With the work of the centu- 

 ries upon it, the mental eye is a finer instru- 

 ment, and demands a more ordered world. 

 DRUMMOND Natural Law in the Spiritual 

 World, int., p. 29. (H. Al.) 



2920. RIDDLE OF ATTRACTION OF 



AMBER Dawning Study of Electricity. The 

 sphinx of the centuries follows the flies 

 and the reptiles into the golden recesses 

 of the amber, and there enthroned poses 

 once more the nature of the amber soul 

 as a new riddle. There is no kinship be- 

 tween this evanescent energy drawn from 

 these yellow depths and the stolid pull of 

 the dull stone, no similarity between the 

 wayward and mastering spirit which seizes 

 upon anything within its strength and the 

 unrelenting tyranny with which the magnet 

 enforces servitude only upon the stubborn 

 iron. What, then, is this genius which is 

 called forth by the friction of the amber, 



