719 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Unit 



Unity 

 Uplifting 



Formed of unequal intervals, but com- 

 bined according to a correct proportion, har- 

 mony results from tke motion of the sphere, 

 which, forming grave and high tones in a 

 common accord, makes with all these varied 

 notes a melodious concert. Such grand mo- 

 tions cannot be accomplished in silence, and 

 Nature has placed a grave tone at the slow 

 and inferior orbit of the moon, and a high 

 tone at the superior and rapid orbit of the 

 starry firmament; with these two limits of 

 the octave, the eight moving globes produce 

 seven tones in different ways, and this num- 

 ber is the bond of all things in general. The 

 ears of men filled with this harmony know 

 not how to hear it, and mortals do not pos- 

 sess a more imperfect sense. It is thus that 

 the tribes near the Cataracts of the Nile 

 have lost the power of hearing them. The 

 splendid concert of the whole universe in 

 its rapid revolution is so prodigious that 

 your ears are closed to this harmony, as 

 your glances sink before the fires of the 

 sun, whose piercing light dazzles and blinds 

 you. FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, bk. 

 iv, ch. 1, p. 332. (A.) 



3563. UNIVERSE DIVIDED DIF- 

 FERENTLY BY EACH INDIVIDUAL 



" Me " and " Not-me." There is ... one 

 entirely extraordinary case in which no two 

 men ever are known to choose alike. One great 

 splitting of the whole universe into two 

 halves is made by each of us; and for each 

 of us almost all of the interest attaches to 

 one of the halves; but we all draw the line 

 of division between them in a different place. 

 When I say that we all call the two halves 

 by the same names, and that those names 

 are " me " and " not-me " respectively, it 

 will at once be seen what I mean. The alto- 

 gether unique kind of interest which each 

 human mind feels in those parts of creation 

 which it can call me or mine may be a moral 

 riddle, but it is a fundamental psychological 

 fact. No mind can take the same interest 

 in his neighbor's me as in his own. . . . 

 Each of us dichotomizes the cosmos in a 

 different place. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, 

 ch. 9, p. 289. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3564. UNIVERSE EVANESCENT 



Its Energy at Last Expended Science Has 

 No Prophecy Beyond " They All Shall Grow 

 Old as a Garment, and as a Vesture Shalt 

 Thou Change Them, and They Shall Be 

 Changed" (Ps. cii, 26). We are dependent 

 upon the sun and center of our system, 

 not only for the mere energy of our frames, 

 but also for our delicacy of construction 

 the future of our race depends upon the 

 sun's future. But we have seen that the 

 sun must have had a beginning, and that 

 he will have an end. We are thus induced 

 to generalize still further, and regard, not 

 only our own system, but the whole material 

 universe, when viewed with respect to serv- 

 iceable energy, as essentially evanescent, 

 and as embracing a succession of physical 

 events which cannot go on forever as they 



are. But here at length we come to mat- 

 ters beyond our grasp; for physical science 

 cannot inform us what must have been be- 

 fore the beginning, nor yet can it tell us 

 what will take place after the end. STEW- 

 AKT Conservation of Energy, ch. 6, p. 414. 

 (Hum., 1880.) 



3565. UNIVERSE, MECHANICAL 

 THEORY OF THE Lapiaces Nebular Hy- 

 pothesis Change of View from Eighteenth 

 to Nineteenth Century. [Laplace's] scheme 

 of cosmical evolution was a characteristic 

 bequest of the eighteenth century to the 

 nineteenth. It possessed the self-sufficing 

 symmetry and entireness appropriate to the 

 ideas of a time of renovation, when the com- 

 plexity of Nature was little accounted of in 

 comparison with the imperious orderliness 

 of the thoughts of man. Since it was 

 propounded, however, knowledge has trans- 

 gressed many boundaries, and set at naught 

 much ingenious theorizing. How has it 

 fared with Laplace's sketch of the origin 

 of the world? It has at least not been dis- 

 carded as effete. The groundwork of specu- 

 lation on the subject is still furnished by 

 it. It is, nevertheless, admittedly inade- 

 quate. Of much that exists it gives no ac- 

 count, or an erroneous one. The march of 

 events certainly did not everywhere even 

 if it did anywhere follow the exact path 

 prescribed for it. Yet modern science at- 

 tempts to supplement, but scarcely ventures 

 to supersede it. CLERKE History of Astron- 

 omy, pt. ii, ch. 9, p. 375. (Bl., 1893.) 



3566. UNIVERSE NOT MERELY 

 MATTER AND FORCE Contains at Least 

 One Rational and Conscious Being. The 

 universe does not consist merely of insen- 

 sate matter and force and automatic vital- 

 ity; there happens to be in it the rational 

 and consciously responsible being, man. 

 DAWSON Facts and Fancies in Modern Sci- 

 ence, lect. 1, p. 27. (A. B. P. S.) 



3567. UPLIFTING, GRADUAL, OF 

 CONTINENTS Rise of a Century Measured 

 by Inches. Perhaps it may be said that 

 there is no analogy between the slow up- 

 heaval of broad plains or table-lands and 

 the manner in which we must presume all 

 mountain chains, with their inclined strata, 

 to have originated. It seems, however, that 

 the Andes have been rising century after 

 century, at the rate of several feet, while 

 the pampas on the east have been raised 

 only a few inches in the same time. Cross- 

 ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in a 

 line passing through Mendoza, Mr. Darwin 

 traversed a plain 800 miles broad, the east- 

 ern part of which has emerged from be- 

 neath the sea at a very modern period. The 

 slope from the Atlantic is at first very gen- 

 tle, then greater, until the traveler finds, 

 on reaching Mendoza, that he has gained, 

 almost insensibly, a height of 4,000 feet. 

 The mountainous district then begins sud- 

 denly, and its breadth from Mendoza to the 



