been the fashion of our ancestors to indulge in
the excitement of severe earthquakes towards
the latter part of each century for some centuries
past, we may make use of our figures to somewhat
more comforting purpose: inasmuch as it
also seems that in every third or fourth century
there is a general lull, and that the present ought
to be one of these quiet periods. We may
therefore, escape altogether, having fallen upon
less excited times than have been experienced
since the middle of the sixteenth century.

However this may be, our position is serious;
we stand, as it seems, between fire and water
—liable to be blown up at a moment's notice,
if not certain to be drowned at the end of the
six thousand years.

But there is another and a very curious result
of these statistics that is worth looking at. If
it be the case that earthquakes are to a
certain extent periodical; if, as we have seen, they
occur most frequently at certain times of the
year, at certain periods of the moon's age, in
certain magnetic conditions of the earth, and in
certain relations to the sun; we must see whether
this extends further, and whether we may not,
perhaps, discover some distinct influences exerted
by various heavenly bodies on what goes on in
the interior of our earth.

One or two matters of this kind are now
within the range of direct observation. The face
of the sun, for example, is occasionally observed
with spots, and these spots have been noticed
to increase in number and obscurity until they
attain a maximum, and then to decrease to
a minimum. Between ten and eleven years is
the time taken for the complete cycle of changes,
and the changes are now admitted to have direct
influence on the magnetism of the earth. Thus,
the magnetism of the earth—one of the most
important and universal of the forces, producing
marked results on all matter, animal, vegetable,
and mineral—is governed by some condition of
the sun's atmosphere, observed only by the
astronomer who watches carefully with a good
telescope, and of which nobody suspected the
existence a few years ago.

So, also, the moon, in some way as yet little
understood, has decided influence on the
magnetism of the earth. It may, also, directly
affect the mass of the interior, if in a fluid state:
producing a tide, on a smaller scale, perhaps,
but resembling that occurring in the open ocean
of water.

Some have even attempted to go beyond the
sun and moon, connecting the cycle of magnetic
variation with the period of the planet Jupiter,
finding coincidences betwen that planet's
periodic return and those of the solar spots, and
thus assuming a combined, and therefore
increased, magnetic influence on our own planet.

It has occurred to us, while investigating this
subject, that Sir Isaac Newton was, perhaps, not
far wrong when he described himself as a mere
collector and arranger of superficial facts thrown
by chance in his way. "I do not know what I
may appear to the world," he is reported to
have said, shortly before his death, "but to
myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing
on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now
and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier
shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of
truth lay all undiscovered before me."

There is much sound philosophy hidden under
this quaint conceit. Newton collected the facts in
his own department of science, put them
together, thought about them, and, by bringing to
bear upon, them the full force of his rare and
powerful intellect, arrived at conclusions, many
of which have never since been reached by his
method, though confirmed by other methods less
intellectual and more mechanical. But even
Newton's marvellous generalisations do but serve as
the basis of still higher generalisations, arising
from the rapid increase since his time in the
number of facts accurately observed. Newton's
so-called laws, once looked on as universal, are
now becoming recognised as only subordinate to
some other laws yet to be made out. All the
recent facts about earth-magnetism are new; all
the workings out of electricity in every department,
are new; all we hear about certain rays of
the sun not communicating light or heat, but
having chemical effects, illustrated in what we
call photography, is new; and what little is
known about the interior of the earth has been
learnt since Newton lived. Others, since he
showed the way, have been picking up pebbles
and shells, and many, not content with picking
up and admiring, have also endeavoured to
arrange them as he did. It is true that no
second Newton has yet arisen, with an instinct
beyond ordinary intellect, grasping the shadowy
law before it is near enough to be recognised by
ordinary vision; but the tendency of discovery
is to prepare for such a result, and perhaps
before long we ourselves may see many branches of
science, now apparently without mutual
relations, brought together to explain each other.

Thus, these investigations about earthquakes
are not mere matters of curiosity; they also
represent pebbles on the shore of the ocean of
truth; they are not without beauty, and
certainly not without interest. Let us hope that
it will not be long before they are placed in
their proper niche in the cabinet of science.

CONVICT CAPITALISTS.

MR. SMILES'S Self-Help is a book that has
been extensively sold and adopted as an
educational text-book by certain American colleges.
Its success has been well deserved. The world
can never hear too much in praise of application
and perseverance, energy and courage,
industry and ingenuity, self-culture and the dignity
of work. As the taste of a nation is purified
by looking upon the best models of art, so the
character of a nation must be strengthened by
looking upon the best models of living men.

The task which Mr. Smiles has performed for
virtue, ought to be performed for vice. The
rising generation gains nothing by being
admitted to view human nature only on its brightest
side. Without going the length of saying that