thousands of people had seen the hanging lamp swing, or the colours glisten, or the apple fall; but it is very certain that only Galileo and Newton thought out the business as man should think. When little Watt quietly watched the teakettle lid, which was being lifted up by the force of steam, he saw in his mind's eye the cause, and henceforward England and the world were assured of a new motive power. The old cavalier, who, throwing an emptied flask on his prison fire, was astonished at the steam being generated and blowing the cork out, hit upon the same strain, but was too lazy to follow it out and apply it. Perhaps there is not one of us in the world to whom these chances are not given many times over; only our observation is neither strong nor accurate enough, and we let the matters pass. And this position is strengthened by Shakspeare's often quoted sentence—

"There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;"

The

and this flood comes more than once to every one of us. sad part of the matter is, that want of perseverance, industry, and quickness, mar so many thousands.

The value of this quality is especially exemplified in the case of Jenner, a benefactor of his race, to whom a statue was erected in Trafalgar Square, ugly and ungraceful enough even for an English statue, to which it will be remembered one of the younger aristocracy much objected, not because of its ugliness, but on account of the fact of a physician being ranked with heroes such as Napier and Nelson. When

Jenner, who had thoroughly cultivated his observation in botanical studies, came to practise, an obscure, retiring physician, at Sudbury, he was consulted by a pretty young countrywoman, a dairymaid, who, being warned of the ravages committed by small-pox, answered quite carelessly and confidently too—“Oh, I cannot take that disease: I have had the cow-pox." Jenner made a note of the remark, and upon further inquiry found that the milkers of the cow usually contracted upon their arms a pustular eruption, which, after working itself out, left them free from any danger of contagion with the small-pox, a dreadful scourge which at that time swept away its tens of thousands annually. Two people out of every three were fearfully seamed and marked with it, and hundreds were totally blind, or had lost one eye, by the same scourge. But Jenner's observation, directed to the matter, found that the vaccine pus and the small-pox virus were so far analogous, that if one had overrun the human frame, the other would certainly be banished. He experimentalized, succeeded, and is now looked up to, and will be for generations, as a benefactor of his species, for his discovery; for by it alone small-pox has been comparatively banished. But it would be silly to suppose that Jenner was the only medical man who had heard of the fact. Others knew it, but poohpoohed it, or were too careless to observe. The dairy-maids knew it, and the great people too; for when the Duchess of Cleveland was taunted by Moll Davis (Lady Mary Davis) with the probable loss of that beauty which was her boast, by the small-pox which was then raging, she replied, just as

the milk-girl did, there was no fear in her about the matter she had had a disorder which would for ever prevent her from having the small-pox. The court physicians laughed at the reply of the Duchess, as others who were with Jenner had at the Dorsetshire milkmaid; but events proved how truly they had spoken; and all the wise and the crowned heads of Europe saved themselves and their children by the milkmaid's fashion; notably the house of Hapsburg, which had nearly been extinguished by it. It was observation which led to the discovery of that greatest of necessaries for sailors, the mariner's compass; and the same quality, of a more reverential turn, saved the life of Bruce, the African traveller, who, when fainting and ready to lie down and die upon the hot sands of the desert, observed a little lowly plant flourishing away, even in that remote and arid spot. That desert flower was not "born to blush unseen," and very few probably are. "Will the same Providence who nourishes that plant," thought Bruce, "suffer me to die?" and he crawled on to find a spring, and live. It were well if discontented and desponding people thought with Bruce. We should all "find goodness even in things evil, could we, observing, distil it out ;" and we do not know any Divine or human law which prevents us from so doing. There is not a situation in the world so low, or desperate, or mean, that observation will not either improve it, or make it bearable. Half the envyings and strife and bickerings, the jostlings and wranglings, the quarrels, wars, and murders, might be prevented and entirely eradicated, if we only encouraged this most useful faculty a

little more. We owe every kind of sanitary improvement, all kinds of medicine, and all surgical skill, all the grand discoveries, and all the civilization to which we have arrived, to the quiet exercise of observation. If those who thirst for gold, for power, and for position, had only thoroughly observed the state of those above them, who have all that they hunger for, they would probably sit still and be at peace. There is a good story-an old one, of course-told of a certain great king who was deterred from a series of sanguinary battles, and a destructive war, by the observation of a philosophic counsellor. "I shall invade such a kingdom," said the monarch. "And that taken ?" asked his friend. 66 Then another province." "And that added ?" "Why, then I shall pass such and such a river, and add the whole country beyond." "And that attained?" continued the questioner. "Why, then I shall rest quietly at home." "Could you not do so now, without undergoing all that fatigue and danger, with a very questionable issue ?" "Ah !" returned the king, struck with the observation, "I never thought of that." So it is with most of us. We do not observe till it is too late; but of this we may be sure, that a due exercise of the faculty distinguishes, perhaps more than any other, the philosopher from the fool.

66

ON THE CULTIVATION OF MEMORY.

NE of the most curious of mental phenomena, the most difficult to account for, the most subtile,

and frequently the most evanescent, is that connection between the will and the brain which

results in memory. The faculty does not belong alone to man. It is shared by the inferior animals, by reptiles, birds, and even fish and insects. So subtile is it, that it cannot be controlled. It is alike treacherous in its tenacity and its looseness. We often forget that which we chiefly desire to recall, and again we are forced to remember that which we wish to forget. It may depend upon a casual moment, an accident, or a trick. A London mechanic, whilst watching his Sunday dinner, as it twirled round on a roasting-jack, was endeavouring to teach an obstinate but tame starling how to speak. The bird obstinately refused, and the mechanic persisted, when suddenly the spring of the jack broke, and it ran down with a startling "whirr." The bird, frightened off its perch, at once imitated the sound, and ever afterwards exercised the new accomplishment. It had fixed itself on the bird's memory to the exclusion of other teaching. Thus,