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SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



could not by any effort of the will prevent 

 himself from starting back when the snake 

 struck with fury at the glass. BAKER Hand- 

 look of Physiology, vol. ii, ch. 18, p. 101. 

 (W. W., 1885.) 



3738. WILL IS ULTIMATE Not To 

 Be Translated into Simpler Terms. The 

 transition from merely considering an object 

 as possible to deciding or willing it to be 

 real; the change from the fluctuating to 

 the stable personal attitude concerning it; 

 from the " don't care " state of mind to that 

 in which " we mean business," is one of the 

 most familiar things in life. We can partly 

 enumerate its conditions ; and we can partly 

 trace its consequences, especially the momen- 

 tous one that when the mental object is a 

 movement of our own body it realizes itself 

 outwardly when the mental change in ques- 

 tion has occurred. But the change itself as 

 a subjective phenome'non is something which 

 we can translate into no simpler terms. 

 JAMES Psychology, vol. ii, ch. 26, p. 569. 

 (H. H. ^Co., 1899.) 



3739. WILL MAY SHUT OUT EVI- 

 DENCE Refusal to Look through Telescope. 

 In the discussion of a question of intel- 

 lectual truth, the will has the power of 

 keeping some considerations more or less 

 completely out of view, whilst it increases 

 the force of others by fixing the attention 

 upon them. Another familiar proverb, that 

 " there are none so blind as those that won't 

 see," precisely expresses the way in which 

 the will thus exerts its influence. For as the 

 opponents of the Copernican system refused 

 to look at the satellites of Jupiter through 

 the telescope of Galileo, so there are too 

 many who wilfully turn away the eyes of 

 their minds from inconvenient truths, or re- 

 fuse to get a gleam of sunshine into the dark 

 chambers of their intellects, where they hide 

 as sacred treasures the antiquated beliefs 

 of past ages, the worthlessness of which 

 would be at once apparent if the full light 

 of day were permitted to shine in upon them. 

 CARPENTER Nature and Man, lect. 7, p. 

 231. (A., 1889.) 



3 7 4O. WILL, WEAKNESS OF, COUN- 

 TERACTED Mozart Saved by Good Influ- 

 ence Help of Father and of Wife Sustained 

 Great Composer. Mozart certainly stands 

 alone among musicians, and deserves to rank 

 as a typical example of genius. Mozart, like 

 Coleridge, was a man whose will was weak 

 in proportion to the automatic activity of 

 his mind; and it is probable that if he had 

 not been under the guidance, in the first 

 instance, of a judicious father, and after- 

 wards of an excellent wife, to both of whom 

 he had the good sense to submit himself, 

 his career would have been comparatively 

 inglorious. For his lively sensibility made 

 him the sport of every kind of impulse, so 

 that he could neither keep firm to a resolu- 

 tion, nor resist a temptation; and hence he 

 would never of his own accord have sub- 

 jected himself to the discipline which his 



father imposed upon him, and without which 

 he Co aid not have been anything else than 

 a " muoical prodigy " ; nor would he have 

 had tne motive which his conjugal affection 

 supplied, for the steady application that was 

 required for the elaboration of his greatest 

 works. Hence his life becomes a most in- 

 teresting study to the psychologist, no less 

 than to the musician. CASPENTEE Mental 

 Physiology, ch. 6, p. 271. (A., 1900.) 



3741. WIND CHANGES CONTOUR 

 OF MOUNTAINS Cliffs Shaped by Viewless 

 Air. When a strong wind is blowing during 

 a volcanic outburst, the materials may be 

 driven to one side of the vent, and accumu- 

 late there more rapidly than on the other. 

 Thus lop-sided cones are formed, such as 

 may frequently be observed in some vol- 

 canic districts. In areas where constant 

 currents of air, like the trade-winds, prevail, 

 all the scoria-cones of the district may thus 

 be found to be unequally developed on op- 

 posite sides, being lowest on those from 

 which the prevalent winds blow, and highest 

 on the sides towards which these winds blow. 

 JUDD Volcanoes, ch. 4, p. 90. (A., 1899.) 



3742. WIND SCATTERS SEEDS 



Samaras or " Keys " of Maple and Ash. 

 There are many methods by which seeds 

 have been adapted to dispersal by the wind. 

 The degree of adaptation is greatly varied. 

 With the fruits of many trees the seed-en- 

 velopes have been drawn out into thin plates, 

 by means of which in a strong wind when 

 of course they are most likely to break away 

 from the stem they may be carried to a 

 considerable distance before falling to the 

 ground. Even then during high winds many 

 of them will be picked up and carried 

 farther. 



The familiar fruits, or " keys," of maple 

 and ash at once come to mind as examples 

 of this kind of dispersal. It is to be noted 

 that generally in such cases the seed has a 

 decided advantage in starting at a point 

 some distance from the ground. Its chances 

 of going far afield are much greater than 

 they would be if the seed was borne on a 

 herbaceous plant only a foot or two high. 

 WEED Seed Travellers, pt. i, p. 13. (G. & 

 Co., 1899.) 



3743. WINDS OF THE UPPER AIR 

 Direction Opposite to That of Surface Cur- 

 rents Volcanic Ashes Shot into Upper 

 Stream of Air. It is not by reasoning alone 

 that we arrive at a knowledge of the exist- 

 ence of the upper atmospheric current, tho 

 reasoning is sufficient to show that compen- 

 sation must take place somehow that a 

 wind cannot blow in any direction without 

 an equal displacement of air taking place 

 in the opposite direction. But clouds are 

 sometimes seen in the tropics, high in the 

 atmosphere, moving in a direction opposed 

 to that of the constant wind below. Could 

 we discharge a light body with sufficient 

 force to cause it to penetrate the lower cur- 



