318 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Sil 



into it, and bears it off to the woods. "When we find the shrewd 

 man dealing in a particular stock, or speculating in a particular 

 fund, we well know by his very presence and connection with 

 them, that the stock and the fund are the best of their kind 

 anywhere to be found. And if any panic or alarm does force 

 him into other directions, depend upon it that he, like the 

 red-headed wood-pecker, will be certain to carry off something 

 substantially good for any trouble he has taken, They are 

 interesting, these quick, shrewd men, who always know the best 

 market and the best way of getting on in life ; these commer- 

 cial woodpeckers also know where to find and how to fly off 

 with the golden apples of the world. N. H. 



Silent Work may be Stupendous. 



The mechanical power exerted in silence by the air and the 

 sun in lifting water from the earth, in transporting it from one 

 place to another, and in letting it down again, is inconceivably 

 great. The utilitarian who compares the water-power that the 

 Falls of Niagara would afford if applied to machinery, is 

 astonished at the number of figures which are required to 

 express its equivalent in horse-power. Yet what is the horse- 

 power of the Niagara, falling a few steps, in comparison with 

 the horse-power that is required to lift up all the water that is 

 discharged into the sea, not only by this river, but by all the 

 other rivers in the world as high as the clouds 1 The calculation 

 has been made by engineers, and according to it the force for 

 making and lifting vapour from each area of one acre that is 

 included on the surface of the earth, is equal to the power of 

 thirty horses ; and for the whole area of the earth it is 800 

 times greater than all the water-power in Nature. If we turn 

 for a moment from considering the stupendous work performed 

 in silence by mechanical forces, and investigate that which is 

 accomplished, without noise, by moral and intellectual power, we 

 shall find still more striking phenomena. The mere influence of 

 ideas has permeated whole nations, crossed seas, and revolutionised 

 the institutions of mankind. A single book may contain a silent 

 force of thought which will move the hearts and rouse the armies 

 of a continent. T. 



