The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1902-04-17
BEYOND THE GRASP OF MAN
The Sage Of Possum Fork illustrates
the Marvets Of InfinitY.

| y lC SoSS " 'S
the Marvets Of lnfinitY.
Editor County Record
| have been asked to count again in
regard to the postage stamps require d
70 send all the letters In the Kansas
letter chain to the Tooth term, that is
il it was carried out, and also to give
names so the number can.be numera.
ted. Names however are not essential
to understand higher numbers. for the
mind cannot grasp theR with names
or without names.
English writer's apply new names to
every new power of a million. That is,
to every six figures, and the names
applied were indicative Of the powers
of 4 million involved to produce the
number, thus million multiplied by
itself is the end power of a million,
and was called billion. from the Latin
prefix "bs" meaning twice; and a
million raised to the third power was
named with the prefix ''tri" meaning
3. the 4lh power was named quadrillion.
The fifth power, that is million null
tiplied by itself times, has the Latin
prefix quin. quintillion, and so on, ap-
plying names that show the different
bowers in numerical succession as far
as needed. sextillion, the 9Th power
"sep"-7. 'ect," s. NOV" 8. "dec"
10, &C., &C. l may not have these
Latin pretixes exactly spelled right
because am not Latin scholar, but
YOU cen understand them all the same
Now word about the numerationS
The English style is this land it Is the
way was fought in the old Daboll
arithmetic in the fOrties) to wit: units,
tens. hundreds, thousands, tens OF
thousands, hundreds of thousands,
millions, which is the present mode, so
far but it went on. thus. tens
Of milliOns,- hundreds OF millions
thousands Of Millions tens OF thous'
ands of millions,-hundredS Of thJus-
ands Of millions-billions: which Is
|. 900, 900, 0O0, 600, an English billion.
But the French plan calling a thous-
and millions billion, has been adopt
ell by us and most of the nations, and
reckon old England TOO by now; SO
new name to every new power ei a
thouSand,-that is to every three fg>
ures,-is perhaps universal TO day. But
the old names are still applied, how
ever unmeaning they may be, for one
OF our billions is only the one th0pS-
andth part of an old English billion.
All this however has nothing IN 40
with the value Of the figures. They
remain the same, 70 matter what you
call them, and 5000, 900, ,0O0, 600 900, :
OOO, 600, 600, 600, 900. 600. 600. .00O.O 90 90 0
stamps would weigh 150, 600, ,O00. 600, OOO,
O0O, 900, 600, 600, 600, 600, QUO, 600, tons
and require more ships than all the
oceans Of the world could hold, a
thousand times over, to carry so many
tons. But this is too big for me, let
lis look ut it another way.
II can be shown that said NUMBER OF
stamps is far greater than the whole
number Of leaves and blades OF grass
that ever grew from Adam and Ewes
time till now. not because they can he
counted up, but because the vegetation
that grow every year is sufficient to
cover the ground only Few inches
yearly, But that number OF postage
stamps would be more than enough 70
cover foot of land in the world, ten
miles deep. over and over again. once
every wear, since old father Adam S
time, wether it be G000 years or mill
lions of years. SO the more l try te
comprehend it the worse it gets. 1t
is too big for me. so l believe | will
drop it, and wait until l 60 to the
spirit land where my mind will be ex-
nanded so l can understand all these
my steries and praise God for his ex-
ceeding goodness iii giving US minds
to understand. Then when you come
a ong shall be able to talk more to
the point. But am going to get some
good out Of it here too. That is to
learn to be content to manage small
things, and not to tackle things too big
for my means. not to plant more land
than can work, and above all not to
make Big Debts. Yes, Mr.. Editor. put
these lessons in print, put them in The
RECORD and send them down here to