I
16
THE BATTALION.
every department in natnre. Wield the visible part of the
univeree; the stars in countless numbers studding the celes
tial vault like clusters of diamonds, display their motions,
their forms, their densities to us only through mathematics.
The changes of the seasons, the extremes of cold and heat,
can only be explained by mathematical changes in our globe
with respect to the sun. The astonished student of nature
may fly to the surface of the earth to escape from the domin
ions of mathematics, but these multitudinous layers of earth
and rocks require the agenc}' of mechanical forces to account
for their formation. He pauses, and betakes himself to min
eralogy, but there he finds no rest; the first crystal exhibits
a geometrical form. Chemistry lectures on ratio and propor
tion : botany addresses itself to every sense in forcible terms,
and teaches the necessity of equilibrium. Machinery and
engineering point out the mathematical laws of gravity. He
cannot mount his horse without using his stirrups for a
fulcrum in mathematical style, and when he is seated he
must be circumspect, or gravity will draw him down, or
inertia precipitate him forward in case he should check his
gait suddenly. He cannot protect himself in his onward
flight from the inclemency of the weather without using the
mathematical principles of cohesion to draw his clothes to-
geter. Should^ he get on cars, steamboats or wagons, he
is carried on by mathemathematical motion Should
his determination to avoid mathematics cause him to lay
down and die rather than move by its agency, he finds him
self reclining upon a soil held together by cohesion, and that
he is only allowed to remain at all by the politeness of
gravity. If he wishes to inhale fresh air to alleviate Lis
suffering moments, he must acknowledge the mathematical
attraction that keeps it together, and if finally he meditates
suicide to release himself from the impositions of the detest
able science, he must use a weapon propelled by a mathe
matical force to rid himself of its ubiquitous presence.
F. D. Perkins.