50 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



gtoic also), which will admit of references, as it were, 

 side notes, and glosses upon the original text. It is on 

 this margin that we may err or wander — ^the greatness 

 of a mistake depending rather upon the extent of the 

 departure from the original text, than on the direction 

 that the departure takes. A little error on the bad side 

 is more pardonable, and less likely to hurt the organ- 

 ism than a too great departure upon the right one. 

 This is a fundamental proposition in any true system 

 (Jf ethics, the question what is too much or too sudden 

 being decided by much the same higgling as settles 

 the price of butter in a country market, and being as 

 invisible as the link which connects the last moment 

 of desire with the first of power and performance, and 

 with the material result achieved. 



It is on this margin that the fulcrum is to be found, 

 whereby we obtain the little purchase over our struc- 

 ture, that enables us to achieve great results if we use 

 it steadily, with judgment, and with neither too little 

 effort nor too much. It is by employing this that those 

 who have a fancy to move their ears or toes without 

 moving other organs learn to do so. There is a man 

 at the Agricultural Hall now playing the violin with 

 his toes, and playing it, as I am told, sufficiently well. 

 The eye of the sailor, the wrist of the conjuror, the 

 toe of the professional medium, are all found capable 

 of development to an astonishing degree, even in a 

 single lifetime; but in every case success has been 

 attained by the simple process of making the best 

 of whatever power a man has had at any given time, 

 and by being on the look out to take advantage of 



