The Wonder of the World 5 



And one note in that song is Power, which we can- 

 not think of as beginning or as ending, which never 

 seems to alter in quantity though it is always chang- 

 ing its quality, which is not a whit less wonderful 

 though we say that it is " all electricity " and cer- 

 tainly not less wonderful if we are able to say 



"God on His throne 

 Is Eldest of poets, 

 Unto His measures 

 Moveth the whole." 



A Modern Instance. Let us take a now familiar 

 instance of this Power. Besides theoretical and 

 possibly practical results, there has been some emo- 

 tional gain in the recent startling discoveries which 

 centre around the word radio-activity. From a 

 ton of pitch-blende, the investigators extract less 

 than a grain of radium, which, apart from living 

 matter, is the most wonderful kind of matter in the 

 world. Incessantly and without appreciable loss 

 it pours forth heat and light; its rays penetrate 

 thick plates of metal, excite phosphorescence in 

 other bodies, discharge electroscopes from a dis- 

 tance, and have strange effects on living creatures. 

 We are told that radium gives off not only recti- 

 linear darting rays, but also a gaseous emanation 

 which is radio-active, which precipitates itself as 

 a "something" on various kinds of bodies and 

 makes them also radio-active. It decays and be- 



