the glorious stars, far up in the everlasting belfries of the skies, chime twelve at midnight" (Edward Everett). Our most accurate terrestrial measurements are translations from the heavens above; thus latitude and longitude are determined, and geography becomes a perfected science. The navigator learns his position on the "watery plain" by celestial observations, aided by the compass, and travel on the trackless two thirds of our globe is accomplished with security.

The oceans are no longer barriers to communication between eastern and western continents. Men and merchandise are conveyed on them over vast distances at less expense than on the dry land.

Higher than all utilitarian applications, the telescope affords nutriment to mind and soul. We revel in the boundless glories of immensity. We bow in adoration at this overwhelming demonstration and revelation of the power of the Almighty.

On the other hand, the microscope enables us to revel in the equally boundless mysteries of minitude. With it our study extends from the examination of the solid rocks, crystalline forms, and various waters of the earth, to the minute structure of its plants and animals, up to humanity. We can not only behold the sluggish circulation of the sap in delicate transparent vegetable tissues, but we can verify the discovery of Harvey— the circulation of the blood-as in the tail of a small fish, the wing of a bat, the thin membranes of a frog.

Those who have been on the Kaaterskill Mountains after a prolonged rain-storm have witnessed thousands of little streams of water with pebbles rolling down to larger rills, and these joining others in intricate confusion, until they swell to rivers of reputable dimensions, and at last contribute to the wealth of width and beauty of the majestic Hudson, whose line of light is seen stretching for ninety miles in the distant valley. So when we peer through the thin web of a frog's foot with the aid of the microscope, even of low power, we are startled with the strange sight of capillary tubes with oval disks drifting with a current into wider channels, twisting and turning in zigzag directions until they flow into some large vein, where by their united force a stream of blood moves in a torrent out of the field of vision. Added to the complexity of this fascinating scene, we behold another network of minim tubes, with thousands of blood-corpuscles giving a crimson hue to the vital fluid, and carried swiftly through the arteries to their ultimate hair-like terminations, thence by a power which has been discovered, to return through the veins to the central pulsating organ, the heart. No vision of telescope, with its celestial glories of revolving suns, is so entrancing as this exhibition of the minute clockwork of life!

By the magnifying power of the lens the imperfect work of the most skilful forger, in his attempt to erase names and figures on checks and notes, has been exhibited in courts of justice years after the act, especially when aided by chemical reagents and enlarged negative photographs.

When the astronomer accurately maps the stars in a certain cluster, on photographing the group, lo! hundreds of other stars appear. The photographic retina being more sensitive than the retina of the eye, when a photograph of the human face is taken spots and imperfections appear, to the chagrin of the sitter, invisible to him in a mirror. These must be blotted out, or" retouched," to produce an acceptable picture. How much more startling could one's conscience be photographed !*

A remarkable illustration of the vitality of certain germs, and their capability of development under apparently the most disadvantageous conditions, in a solution which is destructive to human life and supposed to be germicidal, occurred in my laboratory.

In the summer of 1890, to get rid of the annoyance of persistent flies, two china plates were filled with a saturated solution of arsenious acid, to which was added some sugar to make it more tempting to their palates. The plates were placed on the window-sill in the sunlight. After a few days the bottom of the plates exhibited green spots, and later the whole surface of each plate was covered with a dark green vegetation. Then the growths appeared on the surface of the highly poisonous liquid, while dead flies floated near them. This summer (1891) the solution was again prepared as before. The flies partook of fractions of a drop of the liquid and speedily died of arsenical poisoning, but the germs of the penicillium glaucum again developed, first visible only through the microscope. They rapidly increased each day, until both the under and upper surfaces of the solution were covered with this vegetation.

Many of the microzom withstand extremes of temperature destructive to higher orders of life. If moistened with water years after being artificially desiccated they are resurrected, like the dry bones in the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel, when he exclaimed, "O breath, breathe upon these slain that they may live! The breath came into them, and they lived, . . . an exceeding great army!"

To the microscope we are indebted for the recently established schools of bacteriology. Pasteur commenced his researches with the study of fermentation. He was then urged by Dumas to investigate the cause and provide a remedy for the disease in the silkworm. "Little did he suspeet in consenting that he was laying his hand on a link which would ultimately connect the diseases of beer, wine, and all putrescible things with the diseases of all living creatures, from silkworms to man. Any one visiting the silkworm districts to-day will find hundreds of women and girls engaged, under skilful superintendence, in pounding the moths and examining the fluid under the microscope. If any corpuscles (bacteria)

*Centuries past it was the custom to make erasures of writing on parchment, papyrus and cotton paper; then to re-write upon these tissues. These were called palimpsests. In some cases the erasures were apparent to the unaided eye. But the microscope, employed with the photograph, reveals that which the eye could not otherwise detect.

are seen, then the eggs, which have just been laid in a fold of linen, are immediately burned, while those that are sound go to swell the healthy community. For over five years this zealous scientist, with his faithful wife and daughter and four assistants from the École Normale, continued the investigation. Thus in an obscure corner of the Cevennes was formed a colony seeking with ardor the solution of an intricate problem, and a means of curing or preventing a disease which had so long blighted one of the great sources of national wealth" ("Realm of the Microbe," by Mrs. Eliza Priestley).

Pasteur's latest triumphs have resulted in discovering the microscopic cause of rabies, and in presenting a cure for this most frightful malady.

Robert Koch, of Berlin, after his discovery of the cholera bacillus, announced eight years ago that by the microscope he had found the bacillus of tubercle, that fearful scourge of humanity.

Like a skilful general, he is leading his army of medical men in hopes of vanquishing the host of microbes that have slain their victims for centuries. Davaine and Rayer first discovered splenic fever vaccine. Pasteur cultivated these parasites, and introduced them in the blood of living animals.

The bacteria of tetanus, or lockjaw, of typhoid fever, scarlet fever, puerperal fever, and of other diseases of animals and human beings have already been detected by patient observers.

What brilliant hopes for future triumphs of the marvel-revealing instrument !

No graduate in medicine considers his education completed without a knowledge of it and skill in its use. He must employ it in examining the secretions of his patients, not only for diagnosing certain maladies, but in determining the success of his treatment day by day.

After we have travelled with the telescope to the most distant realms of space, beholding all the visible universes, we may then drop the "leaden wings of light," and, with vivid imagination, speed on and on to unseen regions, then again onward and onward, till we sink exhausted, and we realize that it is but the " beginning of the end !"

Equally unfathomed are the unfoldings of the microscope. We behold microzoa with pulsating hearts, intricate circulation, organs provided with fluids for digestive purposes, muscles and nerves they must possess to give motion to their minim bodies, also intelligence, as demonstrated by their actions.

Then we descend to smaller and smaller forms, which tax the highest powers of the microscope, and setting aside the wonder-revealing instrument, imagination may convey us to objects more minute than those visible to the aided eye, and downward and downward until the tired brain, fatigued with minitude as with magnitude, attempts to imprison the conception of the ultimate atom.

The telescope unfolds to us systems upon systems in boundless space.

The microscope demonstrates that the glory of all this enlargement is not

tarnished by imperfection.

The telescope belittles us; the microscope elevates us.

The telescope exhibits only masses on masses of inanimate matter. The microscope largely deals with life.

If such soul-inspiring exhibitions are vouchsafed us from telescopic to microscopic extremes, while "now we see through a glass darkly," what may we not anticipate when we shall be permitted to see face to face? "Now we know in part, but then we shall know as we are known.” How exalting the thought, how cheering the prospect, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him"!

III. —ATHLETIC VIRTUES.

BY PRESIDENT WILLIAM DEWITT HYDE, BOWDOIN COLLEGE, BRunsWICK, ME.

THE open secret of successful homiletics is the ability to recognize that the whole universe is built upon a few fundamental principles which crop out everywhere, and to seize these principles as they occur in the natural world and the every-day life of men, and transfer them to the moral and spiritual sphere. This is the essence of the parable in the use of which Jesus is the world's acknowledged master.

The art of illustration consists in this same power of passing from one sphere of experience to another, along the lines of the hidden principles which are common to both. The best place to draw illustrations from is one in which life presents itself in the most intense and interesting aspects. These conditions are found in war and in athletic games; hence these were favorite themes with the great apostle.

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Well-contested athletic games bring out all there is in a man in a way that nothing else does. Success depends so directly on the presence of certain qualities of mind and heart and will, that these contests offer to the preacher an inexhaustible store of effective illustration. Illustrations drawn from this source have the added advantage of appealing strongly to the interest and sympathy of the young. A minister, above all men, should take every chance to witness ball-games, boat-races, and athletic tournaments. Even the gossip about the merits of teams and players he will find highly instructive, if he will only take pains to penetrate beneath the surface of excited prejudice to the deep principles on which athletic excellence depends.

As a guide to such intelligent appreciation of the athletic virtues the following points are suggested:

First The contestant must " lay aside every weight.' Tall hats, overcoats, and canes are well enough in their place; but they have no place in a race. The runner must strip off everything he can dispense with. He must even reduce his superfluous flesh. There must be nothing about him which does not contribute directly and effectively to the winning of the contest. What a gain it would bring to the Christian Church if all its members would strip for the race in this thorough, athletic way! How many things, harmless in themselves, they would throw aside because of their interference with better things! It is a great day for a man when he learns to measure things, not by the question, "How bad is this thing in itself?" but by the question, "How much good does this interfere with ?" That is the athletic test of conduct. The Romans called their baggage impedimenta, which means literally things that get in the way of the feet. Discard whatever hinders progress, is the first athletic rule.

Second The athlete must train. No pie, no cake, no candy, no cigarettes, no all night dancing for him; but beef, mutton, eggs, and milk; steady, hard work and plenty of sleep. It is dull, dreary business, this doing the same thing over and over until you can do it perfectly and automatically. It is hard to forego the indulgences the other fellows are enjoying, but it is the indispensable condition of success. If you doubt it, enter a mile run without this training. For the first quarter you will run splendidly, then you will begin to fall behind, and before the race is half over you will see that it is hopeless and give it up. In explanation you will tell your disappointed friends that your "wind" gave out, or you had a cramp in your stomach, or you felt as though you should faint ; but the one all-inclusive reason will be that you were not in training. Athletics teaches this lesson with mighty emphasis. You cannot neglect training and then make up for it by a tremendous effort at the last. Contests must be won by patient, faithful training for days and weeks before the day appointed, or they will not be won at all. There is no second probation here. There is nothing corresponding to death-bed repentance. The period of training is decisive.

What better approach can the preacher find than this to the importance of habits of Bible-reading, prayer, and public worship? These things may be irksome at times, but these things are to the formation of Christian character what diet and exercise are to the formation of muscle. They may not show great immediate results; but when the time comes for the testing of character by some great trial, or temptation, or call to arduous duty, the man who from childhood has nourished his soul upon these religious exercises will rise superior to temptation and equal to the duty. The man who has neglected this training will go down in disaster and disgrace.

Third Athletic sports cultivate co-operation. A boat crew must pull as one man. Each man must do his best for the sake of the common cause.