Sbo' SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Rep 



The Cumulative Value of Small and Remote 

 Influences. 



It is a startling fact that if the earth were dependent upon 

 the sun alone for heat, it would not keep existence in animal 

 and vegetable life upon its surface. It results from the re- 

 searches of Pouillet that the stars furnish heat enough in the 

 course of the year to melt a crust of ice seventy feet thick 

 almost as much as is supplied by the sun. This may appear 

 strange when we consider how immeasurably small must be the 

 amount of heat received from any of these distant bodies. But 

 the surprise vanishes when we remember that the whole firma- 

 ment is so thickly sown with stars that in some places thousands 

 are crowded together within a space no greater than that occu- 

 pied by the full moon. We learn from this fact that we are 

 greatly indebted in the physical world to the cumulative opera- 

 tion of small and remote influences. The same truth holds 

 good in the intellectual world. We may, according to our 

 estimate, consider any great mind either before or after Shake- 

 speare as our intellectual sun, and may attribute to his influence 

 the glory of our literature. But upon a closer inspection we 

 shall find that we are deeply indebted to thousands of remote 

 and modest mental stars whose united influence has done 

 a work for us far greater than has been adequately recognised. 

 They have shone over gaols and gibbets, over persecuted altars 

 and desecrated houses, and have borne names never known to 

 fame ; but because they were stars, their influence has made 

 itself felt, and our intellectual world owes to them as much 

 gratitude as it does to its intellectual sun. c. M. 



The Principle of Reprisals. 



When we consider the almost invincible power which the 

 crustaceans derive from their armour, their muscular vigour, 

 their ferocity, and their numbers, we ask how is it that they 

 have not depopulated the shores where they meet none but 

 victims, no enemies capable of contending with them upon 

 equal terms ? For formidable as they are to all the tribes 

 ojt molluscs and zoophytes, what have they to fear except 



