The leader., 1895-08-06
ARP AND NATURE.
Watches the Wonderful Growth
Of the Different Vines.
TOUCHES UPON THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Afraid the Moon VIII Pay Us an UnweI>
eeme visit-Mach Pleased With
Visit to CyclonetA
big neas have smaller ones to bite 'eu,

Naturslists tell us that there is moth
Ing so small but that there is some
thing still smaller, AMI tho only limit
is one of vision, not of fact. The most
powerful microscope yet made has
found no limit TO the infinite smallness
Of animal life. 1t goes on and on and
on, past comprehension. These invisi-
BILE creatures fill the air, the water, the
food, the flesh. and make up all animal
and vegetable life. We eat them
and breathe them, and it makes no diff
ference, unless they are of a poisonous
malignant kind; and then they eat us,
and we call it yellow fever or cholera
or some kind of pestilence.
What wonderful study is nature.
sit in the veranda and watch the vines
as they climb the lattice-with what
wonderful instinct they put out their
delicate arms and tendrils to find some
thing to cling to. The morning glories
and madeira vines and cinnamon vines
twine around the canes, but the gourd
vine will not twine at all. 1t grows
straight up, and every few inches sends
out strong little arr, or tendril that
fastens around a cane or a wire and
holds the vine steady. never saw any
thing to grow as rapidly as this gourd
vine. 1t was late in coming up, but
has already climbed higher than the
other vines. 1t makes foot a day by
measurement.
Iwonder how the Creator wrapped
up SO much sense in a tiny seed. What
a condensation of life and beauty there
Is in the germ, the embryo of a flower
seed-the seed of a carnation pink, for
instance. 1t is a never-ceasing mystery
the mystery of the flowers, the corn,
the cotton, the leaves of the trees. /
was talking to friend about it last
night, and he said he believed that all
plants were conscious Of their existence
and enjoyed life. Look at the pines
how they bleed when cut with an axe.
Look how the scar heals over, just the
same as on a man when he cuts his I'm
ger. Prune it too much, and it dies.
Look at the sensitive plant and see how
II shrinks from the touch. See with
what desire the leaves and flowers of
these vines reach out to the morning
sun. Myriads of flowers are born to
blush unseen; and if they were not con-
scious of their beauty why should they
be born at all?
used to think that everything we
See was created for the use or the pleas
ure of man, and that even the stars
were placed in the heavens to please us.
But don't think SO now. The birds
do not sing for us alone. Even the
sparrow that falls to the ground has
the sympathy of its Creator.
But if a man wishes to ponder upon
his insignifcance let him try to grasp
the extent of the universe. Sir Robert
Ball, of Cambridge, says, in recent
lecture on the stars. that there is no
limit to the universe, no outside bound
Ary-no space beyond the stars-no
space where there are no stars, and he
tries to bring this idea within our reach
by telling us that electricity travels on
the wires 1S0, 900 miles in a second and
= message could be sent seven times
around the earth in the tick of a clock,
and to the moon in a second and a half
and to the sun in eight minutes, but it
would take four years to send a tele-
gram to Alpha Centauri, the star that
Is nearest the earth. Over our heads
and visible to the naked eye are stars
so remote that if when Columbus dis
covered America he had telegraphed
the news to them the message would
not vet have reached them. But the
telescope at the Lick observatory
has brought stars into view
% utterly distant that if the wise
men who visited the Savior at his birht
had autographed the glad tidings to
these stars the message would still be
going on and on and on at the speed OF
ls0, 600 miles every second and not have
gotten there.
Well, that settles it, don't want to
try to think any farther than that. I'm
afraid it would strain my mind--like
Cabe said when he refused to shoot at
squirrel in the top of a very high pine
said he didn't like to strain his gun.
And now the astronomers declare
that this solar system of ours is very
limited affair when compared with the
other solar System that the big tel
escope has discovered. That instru-
ment magnifes 1000 times and has ac-
tually brought the moon within 240
miles of the earth. wish they would
quit fooling with that moon. First
thing we know it will get loose from
its orbit and come tearing down upon
the earth and knock hole to the hol-
low and set us ali ON fire. don't see
much use in the mooa nohow except to
tell US when to make soap, Kill hogs
and plant potatoes. They are making
20 much light by electricity now that be
fore long we wont need any moonlight.
But what are we've poor mortais
who are jumping up and down upon this
little earth, fighting fussipg and quar-
reling about our rights. property, ana
money. Are the angels all up among the
stars and we the only sinncrs, the prls-
oners of hope, confined here as sort
Of Botany Bay--a place OF probation
where we may have chance to repene
and prepare ourselves Cor another hab-
Itation. even heavenly. Verify, e y
al : mystery-one little planet futi q
people who don't know whence they
snme nor whittier they are going ana
Who can't add . day to their existence !
Thev don't know by what power they
r.ise an arm or step . foot forward q
breathe the hreath of life, but DOM
thev braa-was there ever 20 much con-
..ited. self-sstiafed set Of creaturesl
They ass carried aleng in space st tne
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