“I thought it was a pretty fair sort of telescope for one that
wasn’t very big,” said Uncle Silas. “I rigged it up in the attic
by the high north window and had it fixt so it would swing
around easy. I took a deal of satisfaction in looking through
it, the sky seemed so wide and full of wonders; so when Hester
was here I thought I’d give her the pleasure, too.
“She stayed a long time up-stairs and seemed to be enjoying it.
When she came down I asked her if she’d discovered anything new.
“‘Yes,’ she says; ‘why, it made everybody’s house seem so near
that I seemed to be right beside ’em, and I found out what John
Pritchard’s folks are doin’ in their out-kitchens. I’ve wondered
what they had a light there for night after night, and I just
turned the glass on their windows. They are cuttin’ apples to
dry--folks as rich as them cuttin’ apples!’
“And actually that was all the woman had seen! With the whole
heavens before her to study, she had spent her time prying
into the affairs of her neighbors! And there are lots more
like her--with and without telescopes.”--_Christian Endeavor
World._
(2559)
* * * * *
The necessity of having right proportion between the place and the
occasion is illustrated by the following:
The only musical sounds which really master vast spaces like the
Albert Hall are those of a mighty organ or an immense chorus.
The Handel Festival choruses are fairly proportioned to
the Crystal Palace, but on one occasion, when a terrific
thunder-storm burst over Sydenham in the middle of “Israel
in Egypt,” every one beneath that crystal dome felt that,
acoustically, the peal of thunder was very superior to the whole
power of the chorus, because the relation between the space to
be filled and the volume of sound required to fill it was in
better proportion.--H. R. HAWEIS, “My Musical Memories.”
(2560)
=Proportion Distorted by Fatigue=--See FATIGUE.
=Proportion, Sense of=--See FATIGUE.