Surprise 

 Sustenance 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



674 



by affixing a stone for a counterpoise. What 

 was my surprise to see this stone, while 

 descending, suspended beneath the balloon 

 as if it had slipped the length of a cord. 

 The balloon sails rather fast. Instead of 

 falling on the spot I had chosen, or even 

 in the town, the despatch, following a diag- 

 onal, fell into the Loire. I had not reflected 

 on one of the oldest questions of my bache- 

 lor's degree, the independence of simultane- 

 ous motions. Very fortunately the balloon, 

 having crossed the Loire, had towards even- 

 ing descended sufficiently near the earth to 

 allow us to hail an inhabitant of the town, 

 who was following the Orleans road, on his 

 way home, seated in a cabriolet, which ad- 

 vanced at a slow pace. It was nightfall, and 

 the Angelus was wafted from the village 

 bells. Much surprised was this traveler on 

 hearing himself hailed from the height of 

 heaven. He seemed at first to believe neither 

 his ears nor his eyes. But the horse was 

 promptly stopped, and we had sufficient time 

 to announce our passing, which next morn- 

 ing was published in the newspapers. 

 FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, p. 58. (A.) 



3334. SURPRISE OF A GREAT DIS- 

 COVERY Newton Discovers the Spectrum 

 Light Composite Its Apparent Simplicity 

 Delusive. In the rainbow a new phenome- 

 non was introduced the phenomenon of col- 

 or. And here we arrive at one of those 

 points in the history of science when great 

 men's labors so intermingle that it is diffi- 

 cult to assign to each worker his precise 

 meed of honor. Descartes was at the thresh- 

 old of the discovery of the composition of 

 solar light ; but for Newton was reserved the 

 enunciation of the true law. He went to 

 work in this way: Through the closed win- 

 dow-shutter of a room he pierced an orifice 

 and allowed a thin sunbeam to pass through 

 it. The beam stamped a round white image 

 of the sun on the opposite wall of the room. 

 In the path of this beam Newton placed 

 a prism, expecting to see the beam refracted, 

 but also expecting to see the image of the 

 sun, after refraction, still round. To his 

 astonishment, it was drawn out to an image 

 with a length five times its breadth. It was, 

 moreover, no longer white, but divided into 

 bands of different colors. Newton saw im- 

 mediately that solar light was composite, 

 not simple. His elongated image revealed 

 to him the fact that some constituents of 

 the light were more deflected by the prism 

 than others, and he concluded, therefore, 

 that white solar light was a mixture of 

 lights of different colors, of different de- 

 grees of refrangibility. TYNDALL Lectures 

 on Light, lect. 1, p. 26. (A., 1898.) 



3335. SURRENDER OF PRETEN- 

 SIONS A RELIEF FROM STRAIN Yonder 

 puny fellow, , whom every one 

 can beat, suffers no chagrin about it, for he 

 has long ago abandoned the attempt to " car- 

 ry that line," as the merchants say, of self 

 at all. With no attempt there can be no 



failure; with no failure no humiliation. So 

 our self-feeling in this world depends en- 

 tirely on what we back ourselves to be and 

 do. It is determined by the ratio of our 

 actualities to our supposed potentialities, a 

 fraction of which our pretensions are the 

 denominator and the numerator our success : 

 thus 



Such a fraction may be increased as well 

 by diminishing the denominator as by in- 

 creasing the numerator. To give up pre- 

 tensions is as blessed a relief as to get them 

 gratified; and where disappointment is in- 

 cessant and the struggle unending, this is 

 what men will always do. The history of 

 evangelical theology, with its conviction 

 of sin, its self-despair, and its abandonment 

 of salvation by works, is the deepest of pos- 

 sible examples, but we meet others in every 

 walk of life. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 

 10, p. 310. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3336. - - Illusions Aban- 

 doned Burdens Dropped. There is the 

 strangest lightness about the heart when 

 one's nothingness in a particular line is once 

 accepted in good faith. All is not bitterness 

 in the lot of the lover sent away by the final 

 inexorable " No." Many Bostonians, crede 

 experto (and inhabitants of other cities, 

 too, I fear) would be happier women and 

 men to-day if they could once for all aban- 

 don the notion of keeping up a Musical Self, 

 and without shame let people hear them 

 call a symphony a nuisance. How pleasant 

 is the day when we give up striving to be 

 young or slender! Thank God! we say, 

 those illusions are gone. Everything added 

 to the Self is a burden as well as a pride. 

 A certain man who lost every penny during 

 our civil war went and actually rolled in 

 the dust, saying he had not felt so free and 

 happy since he was born. JAMES Psychol- 

 ogy, vol. i, ch. 10, p. 311. (H. H. & Co., 

 1899.) 



3337. SURVIVAL NOT BY CHANCE 



Some Quality of the Organism Determines. 



Variations Universal. Why do some live 

 rather than others? If all the individuals 

 of each species were exactly alike in every 

 respect we could only say it is a mat- 

 ter of chance. But they are not alike. 

 We find that they vary in many different 

 ways. Some are stronger, some swifter, 

 some hardier in constitution, some more 

 cunning. An obscure color may render con- 

 cealment more easy for some, keener sight 

 may enable others to discover prey or escape 

 from an enemy better than their fellows. 

 Among plants the smallest differences may 

 be useful or the reverse. The earliest and 

 strongest shoots may escape the slug; their 

 greater vigor may enable them to flower and 

 seed earlier in wet autumn; plants best 

 armed with spines or hairs may escape being 

 devoured; those whose flowers are most con- 

 spicuous may be soonest fertilized by in- 



