The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1900-11-08
THE POWER OF TRIPLES.
MUCH IN MANY.
Small Things Lead to Great Ones.

4UCa In MANY.
Small Things Lead to Great Ones.
William Mathews in Saturday Evening Post.
The epigrammatic poet, Edward
Young, tells us in one of his satires
to
"Think naught a trife, though II
small appear;
Small sands the mountain, nom.
ents make the year;
And trifles life."
TO the philosopher who knows that
it is only relatively that things are
large or small there is nothing petty
trivial or unlmportant. As the chain
of being begins with the animalcule
and expands into the mammoth so II
Is with the chain OF even Is. No act O,
accident of our lives Is insigniticant
the most trifling may be the germ ot
our destiny. Alike in Nature and in
llfe, the most momentous results spring
often from seemingly the paltriest
causes.
| The chalk beds OF England are hun
dreds of feet thick and many mile,
long. Who piled up these precipitous
masses of "the silver-coasted isle" 7
Billions Of animalcules, so infinitesi-
mally small that it has been calculated
that ten millions of their dead bodies
lie in cubic inch OF space. It Is of the
shells of these microscopic creatures
that large part of the earth's sur
face is composed. Nature exhibits no
contempt for trifles. 1t is only by a
slight deviation from her general law
the deviation by which water con-
tracts down to the temperature of forty
degrees, and then expands until it Is
frozen-that the earth is made habi-
table by man. Were it not for this
provision, instead OF only crust OF Ice
forming on the surface of lake OF
stream the whole body of water would
become solid, the ocean itself would be
frozen, and life on the earth would be
impossible.
"Trifles, light as air." will bring
ruin upon man of family, and blast
the hopes of a kingdom. The vital
! knot of mans nervous system is said
to be no bigger than pins head, yet
upon this tiny speck depends the life
of the nerves, and upon that hangs the
existence of Caesar or a Napoleon
who shapes the destinies of mankind.
Napoleon, after the fruitless siege OF
Acre, declared that grain of sand had
upset all his projects. Sallust tells us
that periwinkle led to the capture OF
Gibraltar. It was goose that In one
age sayed Rome from it's enemies. 1t
was a hare that once caused Its cap
ture. "a chambermaid," says Lord
Chesterfield, "has often made revo-
luton in palaces, which was followed
by political revolution in kingdoms
the subtlest diplomacy has sometimes
been interrupted by cough or a
sneeze," If the nose of Cleopatra had
been shorter, says Pascal, the condition
of the world would haye been different.
The recall of Alcibiades from the COM
mand of the Greek forces before Syra-
cuse sprang from chance influences,
| vet but for that event the Greeks
| might have Overrun and made them
selves masters OF the whole of South
ern Europe, and the Roman Empire
might never have been founded. Had
not Alexander the Great been inter
rupted for three days In his march on
| Persia by sickness caused by cold
| bath in the river Cydnus, he would
have encountered with his small army
the overwhelming host of the enemy
in the plains instead of in the narrow
passes OF Cilicla, and would probably
have been defeated instead OF winning
a momentous victory.
OF all the marvels which history re-
cords none more stagger belief than
the pa!try causes assigned Tor some OF
the bloodiest and most protracted wars
which have desolated Europe. Such q
cause was the circumstance that in the
early history of Rome two friends, NJ.
Liylus Drusus and @. Seryilius Caplo,
persisted in bidding against each other
at an auction for curious ring. This
caused an irreparable breach In the in
timacy of the two friends and kindled
between them an enmity that contrib
uted largely in Its consequences to
the breaking out OF War between
Rome and her Italian allies in the
course OF which 100000 men persisted
in battle. What could be more inslg-
nificant in themselves than the causes
of some of the fiercest of modern wars
ENGLAND and France we're made deadly
enemies for ages by the sim pie circum
stance that Louis VII cropped his
hair and shaved his beard. He thus
rendered himself disgustful to Eleanor
his Queen, who, but for this, would