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SYDNEY T. KLEIN, F.L.S., E.R.A.S., ON 



condition. We are conditioned in Time and Space, we are 

 conditioned in finality, and by reason of the imperfection of our 

 nature we may guess that we must be so conditioned in order to 

 work out our life. We work subject to those conditions, and if we 

 try to know everything that is not our business, to know and try 

 to understand the Infinite, we run our heads against something, and 

 the sooner a child learns that it hurts its head to run it against a- 

 door the better. It seems to me that the line of thought presented 

 here is valuable. The power of conception by the senses of course 

 varies in different animals. I believe a dog's conception of sound 

 is keener than ours, and that he can hear a considerably higher 

 octave than we can. Again, a cow can hear considerably below. 

 For myself I have grave doubts whether grasshoppers, for instance, 

 make any noise except occasionally ; I have heard members of my 

 family say, " What a fearful noise they were making ! " As far a,'? 

 my knowledge goes they do not make a noise, and possibly there 

 are other things where one is equally unable to grasp the whole. 

 It is humiliating, but I think it is very wholesome, to have this sense 

 of limitation of our thoughts, and if we carry it out the world-old 

 puzzle of Predestination and of Free Will is only caused by this 

 idea of ours that we understand things absolutely, and that, 

 therefore, that sequence of thought that is present to our minds is 

 the thing itself. Words fail when we contemplate the al)solute 

 existence of Time and Space, and the more we think of it the more 

 we doubt. 



Eev. F. A. Walker, D.D. — The author says, " An insect vibrates, 

 its wings 10,000 times in a second." It would be useful to know 

 what insect he refers to, or whether it usually vibrates its wings so- 

 many times a second. I think the vibration of the wings of an 

 insect is caused in great measure by the circumstances under which 

 the insect finds itself, and that if the insect is in a condition of 

 hunger or fright it will vibrate its wings much more rapidly than 

 ordinarily. A blue-bottle fly, when caught by a spider, will vibrate 

 its wings very rapidly, and clutch the spider in its eff"orts to escape,, 

 and so rapidly will it vibrate its wings that you can scarcely see 

 them. The wings become more visible again as its physical condition 

 becomes weaker, and it succumbs to the spider, but it would be 

 interesting to know if the ordinary vibrations are so rapid as 

 stated here. Again, Mr. Klein mentions an instance of an insect's. 



