36 THE EYE 



blasting ever attempted by the skilful combination of 

 human ingenuity. The labour of years had been expended 

 on the preparations, in the opening of shafts and gal- 

 leries. The largest quantity of powder ever yet used, 

 185 cwts., was ignited at once by means of a gigantic 

 galvanic battery. Almost in silence was the enormous 

 cliff hurled into the sea ; in one minute were a million tons 

 of chalk torn away, and a surface of almost fifteen acres 

 covered twenty feet deep with its fragments. From this 

 may be estimated the tremendous force which must have 

 been exerted. And with what did the power of the 

 human mind enter into this giant struggle ? With the 

 remains of creatures, a thousand of which might be 

 annihilated by the pressure of a finger. We wonder, and 

 ask ourselves : What does " small " mean, in Nature ? 



There can, however, be no possible doubt that it indi- 

 cates a most barbarous age, or a very low state of refine- 

 ment, when the value, the importance of a thing is 

 measured by great and small, a standard indeed which finds 

 no application in all that we know most essential and 

 valuable, for the human mind is not to be defined by foot, 

 inch or line. Physical magnitude imposes only on the 

 sensuous nature ; cultivated man seeks to know the object 

 of his contemplation perfectly in all its relations ; and then 

 only, from the perfect knowledge, does he permit himself to 

 judge as to the essential and inessential ; very frequently 

 this leads him to declare that the most significant which 

 has the smallest dimensions. 



This observation is especially applicable to Botany. 

 There was an era in this science, in which it began to 

 work its way out of the mediaeval night of Nothing ; 

 when, therefore, only its crudest elements existed; this 

 was the era of the Linnaean school. We wish not to 



