, 1884-06-28

be 1t ever so small or Insignificant, but has
its own peculiar use and object. In the
depths of ocean there lies an insect, hard
ly visible to mans naked eye, that from
hour to hour, from day to day, from year
to year tolls on; and thus, little by little,
builds its coral reefs. These at first only
appear with the ebb of the tides, but in
time they grow into vast structures against
which the mad waves dash in impotent
fury, finging their white foam far up
against heavens blue vault.
LII these little creatures could think and
reas0D they might give up their work in
despair, because the little each did made
No p~erceptible difference in the vast
whole.
We, who are far above these insects in
the scale OF animal creation, in our rest
lessness and impotence, often show far
less wisdom than they. There are little
insect. inhabiting some forms of animal
matters, so small that it requires a power
full microscope to make them visible, yet
they can undermine the foundations of
that most glorious structure, the human
body, gnaw away its life props, and leave
it a horrid mass, fit only for death and
decay.
HOW LITTLE A THING A MINUTE SEEMS,
and yet how important. Only sixty
seconds of time, but they sometimes
change the course of a life or the destiny
of a nation. On the field o! Waterloo
Napoleon saw his empire, his liberty, his
power, the dearest thing on earth to his
ambitious heart, swept away forever by
the loss of u few minutes. How
many precious lives were lost by that
delay, how many happy homes made
desolate, how many wives widowed and
children orphaned-broken hearts and
ruined lives, and all for a few moments of
time lost, moments that sped into eternity
swift as the arrow or the eagles fight.
Yet the influence of their result will last
rs long as nation shall war with nation or
mans hand be lifted against his brother.
a poor emigrant sat watching his wife at
her task of mending, and noting her
needle threading its way in and out of the
cloth, he came to the conclusion that a
machine might be constructed which
would do the SAM work inmuch less time.
Who can estimate the amount of labor
the sewing machine has lessened, the
bread it has earned for furnishing ones, or
the lives it has saved2
The power Of steam was suggested to
Watts mind by the merry singing of a tea
kettle, and out of this little thing grew
the great inventions that facilitate com
merce and travel and make it possible
that the people and products of one nation
may be replaced by those of another, even
unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
1t is quite probable that those who saw
Franklin taking his kite out into the field
during the thunder shower, and raising it
that it might soar up among the lark and
threatening clouds, sneered at the folly of
one who was supposed to be too wise for
such frivolity; yet from this simple expert
ment came the telegraph, the telephone
and the electric light.
Sir Isaac Newton, the most renowned
philosopher hat has ever lived, was led to
the discovery of
II LAW OF GRAvTTATIoN,
the divine law that guides the stars in
their course and the planets in their or
bits, by such a little and insignifcantth thing
as the falling of an apple from its parent
tree. .
Galileo caught the idea of the pendu-
lum from the accidental swinging of a
lamp, hanging in the church where he
was wont to worship.
So in many other cases, the little, sim
pie thingsi II every day life, which pass
by the careless without a second thought,
suggest to some master mind, laws that are
universal.
When the Creator of all things gave
the command Let there be light, only
four little %monosylabic words were used,
yet their utterance changed the whole as
pect of nature.
The darkness, the h~ideousness of Chaos,
was dispelled; light, glorious and abund-
ant, took its place, and the worlds that He
had created woke into life and beauty.
WHAT A DREARY PLACE
this world would be had those four words
never been spoken. Not a tree, not n
flower, not a blade of grass, all seasons
alike, earth a blank and dreary void,
darkness and solitude its only inhabitants.
How strange it is that in our thoughts
of childhood's days, tho memory of
trivial, insignificant things stand out clear
and distinct, while the important events
fade away, leaving nothing to tell they
had never been. If the story of a life
could be written out, every little detail
clearly and distinctly told, we would find
that it was not the great sorrows that had
tried the heart and furrowed the brow,
but the
LITTLE sTTNGs oil EVERYDAY LIFE,
the sharp word, the iL-natured or
thoughtless remark had cut their way
into the soul with a hurt as keen and
sharp as the poisoned arrows sting.
In the days, months and years of the
school life tonight ended, the mind, the
grandest portion of this human machinery,
from the time of its earliest impressions,
has grown and expanded, becoming deeper,
broader, more acute, until it has grasped
some of the grandest truths of science.
Yet all this has been accomplished little
by little. each DAVIS lesson. each new fact.