HAROLD’S DISCUSSIONS. 
CHAPTEE I. 
INTRODUCTION. 
“ Modern Science may be regarded as one vast miracle, 
whether we view it in relation to the Almighty Being, by whom 
its objects and laws were formed, or to the feeble intellect of 
man, by which its depths have been sounded and its mysteries 
explored.”— Brewster. 
Some years ago a lad just entering his teens was 
taken by his father to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 
As he beheld it, his first thought prompted the ques¬ 
tion, Why doesn’t it tip over ? ” He learned that 
the tower is one hundred and eighty-three feet high, 
its walls fifteen feet thick at the bottom and twelve 
at the top, and that it is one of the noblest remaining 
specimens of the Eomanesque style of architecture. 
He looked upon its fine columns, and wondered at the 
bells in the upper story which is smaller than the 
others. All this interested him, but nothing made so 
profitable an impression upon him as the unanswered 
question. He was told that it stands because its heavy 
base keeps it in an upright position. Still, he could 
not comprehend the cause ,* the fact that the top of 
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