THEE ADVANTAGE OF TWO EYES.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1595, 23 September 1882, Page 6

THEE ADVANTAGE OF TWO EYES.

In response to the question, " What is the use of having two eyes?" the answer has been given, " To have one left if the other is hurt." Much as. we may admire the sagacious foresight of this youthful physiologist, it will not be found sufficient to rest contented with his ultimatum. He had evidently not tried his skill to find how unexpectedly he would miss the inkstand while endeavouring to dip his pen into it at arm's length, with one eye closed. He had not thought of holding his finger a few inches in front of his face to find what part of the wall it would hide from «ach eye in succession, or how different it would look when regarded from those two points of view separately, «how much thicker it would appear when both eyes were open, how readily he could examine three sides of it at once, how much more definitely he could judge its distance, in a word how much more comprehensive was the information given by two eyes if used at the same moment. Assuming that lie knows exactly how to account for the inversion of the retinal Image and the erect appearance of "the object there pictured, how our visual perceptions are only signs of what we momentarily feel on the retina, signs that generally , represent the realities with a fair degree of accuracy, but may sometimes represent "almost anything else,, on demand, .hojjj,, if the eyes ,be healthy, we have

A WIND INSTRUMENT. An interesting trial of a new musical instrument took place recently in the speech-room . of Harrow school, before a numerous audience, comprising many old pupils of Harrow and other distinguished persons. The name of Baillie Hamilton, the inventor of the instrument in question, has long been known in connection with practical acoustics. As long ago as January, 1875, he read before the Musical Association a thoughtful paper on the application of wind to string instruments, in which he explained and developed the idea originally invented by John Farmer, the organist of Harrow school, of effecting the harmonious vibration of strings by means of a current of air instead of striking them with bow, or plectrum or fingers. Mr. Hamilton's plan of applying this invention to instruments of the organ type has for the present been abandoned, although we believe that Mr. Farmer still hopes to turn his idea to practical account. The principle of the instrument shown lately is entirely different from that of the systematized JsBolian harp above referred to. It resembles in shape the harmonium, and the means of producing sound are substantially those used in instruments of I that class —with a very important modification, however. Mr. Hamilton employs what is technically known as " free reeds," but instead of acting upon them singly, he divides them into groups of three connected by a bridge, which so modifies their individual sounds as to emit a single note of great sonorous beauty and power. To each group of reeds belongs a sounding-box or cavity, through which the air passes very much as our breath in singing passes through the throat, the intention being to produce a quality of tone resembling the human voice. In this attempt Mr. Hamilton has been remarkably successful, by means, it will be seen entirely different from those employed in the "vox humana," stops of ordinary organs. The timbre of the new invention varies somewhat between the voice and the softer wind instruments, such as French horn, clarionet, etc., partaking of the qualities of both, the beauty of the sustained notes being, indeed, very remarkable. The chief defect of the instrument—and, like most new inventions, it has its defects—is its slowness of speech, which makes the execution of rapid passages a matter of extreme difficulty, if not anj impossibility. This drawback, however, does not appear 'to bo structural, and may, no doubt, be remedied in subseqnent specimens. Comparing the new instrument, which, by the way, is still in want of a name, with its congeners, the organ and the harmonium — and in discussing the usefulness of a new invention comparision becomes a duty —we find that, as a matter of course, it is inferior as regards power and nuance of tone and variety of resource to the former, which is altogether on a different level. On the other hand, it is decidedly superior in all these respects to the ordinary run of harmoniums, and will, no doubt, be a dangerous rival to them, both for the accompaniment of voices and for solo performances, provided always that its mechanism can bo improved in the direction pointed out by us.

THE DEADLY CIGARETTE. Ten little cigarettes in a wrapper fine. A small boy samples them and then there arc nine. Nine little cigarettes quickly, ona»by one, Get their work in on the youth—then there are none. Four boarded doctors sitting 'round the bed, Each with a different shake to his head. Three big diseases waiting to destroy, All bearing Latin names as long as the boy. Two undertakers, gratitude in eye, Bend low to the doctors as they pass 'em by. One little funeral in the graveyard score, One little smoker less —one angel more.

A TIU'INO PIECE. " Somktiiino for spelling and pronunciation. The following affecting tale is commended to all who wish to test their ability in spelling and pronunciation. It is the production of a friend of ours. Some might think he was laboring under a spell, and pronounce him insane, but we assure them that there is no ground for any such suspicion :—: — Roland and Diana were lovers. Diana was ephemeral but comely, hypochondriacal but not lugubrious, didactic but not dishonest, nor given to ribald or truculent grimaces. Her pedal extremities were, perhaps, a trifle too large for playing organ pedals successfully, but her heart was not at all adamantine, and her address was peremptory without being diffuse. Roland on the other hand, was of a saturnine countenance, at once splenetic and combative in disposition, so that his wassails and orgies were almost maniacal in their effects. He was a telegrapher by profession, having received a diploma from Caius College, but aggrandized his stipend by dabbling in philology, or theopy and zoology during his leisure hours, so that he was accused of fetichism and tergiversation by his patrons. Still his acumen and prescience were such that only a misogynist would discern that he was an aspirant for the gallows. His acetic, rather than his ascetic nature, naturally inclined him to visit a chemical laboratory, well filled with apparatus, to which he had access, whence he often returned with globules of iodine and albumen on his caoutchouc shoes, which subjected him to the risk of numerous altercations with his landlady, a virago and pythoness in one, and with the servant, her accessory or ally. Roland had, however, become acclimated to his place, received everything with equability, reclined upon the divan where he contemplated the elysium where Diana dwelt, hnd addressed donative distichs to her in the subsidence of raillery. There was a certain- artisan who endeavored to dispossess Roland in the affections of Diana. He had sent Diana a ring with onyx, a chalcedonic variety of stone, and once hung a placard where he knew she would see it from her casement, but she steadfastly rejected his overtures and ogled him as if ho were a dromedary. The artisan betook himself to absolutory prayers, but continued his digressions and inquiries. Roland became cognizant of this amour, and, armed with a withe, he inveighed against this " gay Lothario," who defended himself with a falchion until Roland disarmed h^m, houghing his palfry withal." After the joust the artisan abjectly apologized, albeit in a scarcely respirable condition, then hastened to the pharmaceutics eerie for copaiba, morphine and quinine, and was not seen again till the next Michaelmas. Roland returned on Thanksgiving Day, took an inventory of his possessions, which consisted of a large package of almond cement, a package of envelopes, a dish of anchovy sauce, a tame falcon, a book of acoustics, a miniature of a mirage, a treatise on the epizotic, a stomacher lined with sarcenet, a cerement of sepulture, a cadaver and a bomb. The next day the hymmeneal rites were performed, and she became thenceforth his faithful *coadju tan t and housewife.—Educational Reporter.

THE VENERABLE BEDE. BiEDA, the venerable Bede, as later times styled him, was born in 673, nine years ofter the Synod of Whilby, on ground which passe,d a year later to Benedict Biscop as the site of the abbey which he reared by the mouth of the Wear. The youth was trained, and his long tranquil life was wholly spent at Jarrow, in an offshoot of Benedict's house, which had been founded by his friend Ceolfred. Bfflda tells us in his own charming way a story of his boyhood there ; how one of the great plagues which followed the Synod. St "Whitby swept off every monk who knew bw to sing in choir save, the abbot and, this BWH^BHMHKaaMßE^ftn Ar.djropping 'only the

its simplicity that it is the life of the first great English scholar. The quiet grandeur of a life consecrated to knowledge, the tranquil pleasure that lies in learning and teaching and writing, dawned in fact for Englishmen in the story of Baeda. While still young he became a teacher, and GOO monks besides strangers that flocked thither for instruction formed the school of Jarrotf. It is hard to imagine how, among the toils of schoolmasters and the duties of the monk, Breda could have found time for the composition of the numerous works that made his name famous in the West. But material* for study had accummulated in Northumbria through the journey of Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop, and the libraries which were forming at Wearmouth and York. The tradition of the older Irish teachers still lingered to direct the young scholar into that path of Scriptural interpretation to which he owed his fame. Greek, a rare accomplishment in the West, came to him from the school which the Greek Archbishop Theodore had founded beneath the walls of Canterbury, while his skill in the ecclesiastical chant was derived from a Roman cantor whom Pope Yitalian had sent in the train of Benedict Biscop. Little by little the young scholar made himself master of the whole range of the science of his time, he became, as Burke rightly styled him, " the father of English learning." The tradition of the older classic culture was revived for England in his quotations of Plato and Aristotle, of Seneca and Cicero, of Lucretius and Ovid. Virgil cast over him the spell that he cast over Dante; verses from the " jEneid" break his narratives of martyrdoms, and the disciple ventures on the track of the great master in a little eclogue descriptive of the approach of the spring. — The Milking of England — J. JJ. Green.