Indiana State University - Sycamore Yearbook (Terre Haute, IN)

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THE NORMAL ADVANCEI 11 largely internal, we feel that we are dealing with matters in which good and bad result di- rectly from our own choice. Whether my thoughts go up or down, whether I am sincere or a hypocrite in my own heart, I can not easily escape the conviction that it is because I choose to be so. For I may guard the sanctuary of my soul to a very large degree, if I will, and what goes on within is my own. But not so upon the stage of the life outside, where I am only one among countless others, and where this and that may so easily interfere, which I can not help, and which will seem to excuse any failure 01' shortcoming on my part. An evil deed is readily accounted for by the iniiuence of our environment, and if we agree to surrender our- selves to our environment and give it the place which it claims, the individual can no longer be blamed for what he does. Hence comes our leniency toward all crime, our readiness to as- sume that a man means well even. when he does ill, and above all, that deep-seated casuistry of so many of the doers of our deeds, by which anything may seem allowable if looked at from some point of view. There is one remedyeto restore the inner life, the conscience, to its proper place as the arbiter of our deeds. But this means that we must give thought to this inner life, and not allow things external to encroach upon it or rob it of its vitality. To perform its full duty of regulating our outer life, it must have grown to full stature by the rule of right which nature gave it. It is out of the abundance ofthe heart that the mouth speaketh, not out of the abund- ance of things seen or heard. But you will ob- serve that this presupposes an abundant heart to begin with. DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE it Terrestrial Magnetism ,, RAY JARED, '10 If we could conceive a huge magnet thrust through the axis of rotation of the earth, hav- ing its north seeking pole at the south geo- grapical pole and the south seeking pole at the north geographical pole, we would get the first crude notion of the earthls magnetism. By the action of such a magnet a magnetic needle at the equator would stand in a hori- zontal position and would remain horizontal at all points on the equator. Advancing poleward we should, in the northern hemisphere, find that the needle loses its horizontal position and dips more and more so that if produced it would cut the earth. At the north pole the needle would stand vertically with its north seeking pole downwards. Subj ect to certain alterations this is just what happens when we travel with a magnetic needle about the earth; and accordingly the earth is regarded as a huge spherical magnet having its north seeking pole at the crown of the southern hemisphere and its south seeking pole at the crown of the northern hemisphere. Thus we see that the earth is in some ways a huge magnet and has in consequence a magnetic field. The distribution of the field upon the surface of the earth is similar to that of a field sur- rounding a bar magnet placed at the center of the earth, the only difference being that the field of a bar magnet would be quite regular and equal while the magnetic field of the earth is more or less irregular. At any one place, however, the field may be regarded as being uniform. Now a freely suspended needle would set itself along the lines of force at any place and if such a needle were carried round the eaI'th,s surface from the north pole to the south pole it would be found to take up different positions and set at diEerent angles with the horizon at the different places on the earth. Such actions of the needle is called ttdipping. This fact, the dipping of a magnetic needle,

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10 of them that will be of real significance to the individuaPs inner being. Hence instead of be- ing the center of their lives, men and women become mere dangling pendants, without any inner meaning or purpose of perfection. It is as if the school of our existence were being continually disturbed by a passing circus of ex- ternal events, with the children of our thought rushing madly from window to window in their Vain effort to see it all, and the room itself and its work, meanwhile, deserted and neglected. It appears to me that some serious and evil results have followed from this driving out of our lives from within uswresults which we can readily see, but which we do not perhaps con- nect with their real cause. First of all, and per- haps least important, I would mention the un- due preference which is given to the man who does things as against him who thinks and is, to actions as opposed to character, and to the Visible, tangible, practical side of things gen- erally. It is our eyes and ears, our hands and noses that are kept busy by our modern environ ment, instead of our thoughts. The power of meditation and reflectiOn becomes, consequently, in a corresponding degree, atrophied, while on the other hand the mere acquisitive faculties are trained and exercised. Hence it is that these call so constantly and insistently for food, and this food for them only the actual happening of things on the outside can supply. It is large- ly because the doer of deeds and the performer of stunts can furnish us with something for our pampered ears and eyes to feed upon, that they keep us busy without the necessity of thinking, that they have come to have the honor that they have. Distinctions between good deeds and indifferent or evil deeds, between beautiful and ugly deeds, tend to fall into the back- ground. It is a stimulus, a thriller, from the outside that we want, and this the mere thinker, or he who simply is something, can give us in only an inferior degree. I am not saying that simply by way of criticism, but to present a condition the effects of which will be found per- meating every activity and estimate of our modern life. I am not saying that the condition THE NORMAL ADVANCE is all bad, or that it may not be made to bear good fruit, but that it is present and abnor- mally exaggerated and therefore. constantly tends to harm, will not be denied. More serious than the condition just describ- ed is the woeful distraction and desire for dis- traction which characterizes so many people of the present day. Having no inner life in which they may find their resources of happiness and satisfaction, they flee to the world without of their own accord. Religion, for example, to use but a single illustration, has for many peo- ple long ceased to be a thing of the heart and the closet, and has become a round of club and committee meetings, of devices and schemes and external show. People get the feeling that they do not count unless they can see themselves somewhere exposed to view and in the push. But the worst of it is that this everlasting search for external satisfaction, for an unceas- ing round of activity outside of ourselves, is disintegrating character. Flitting from one thing to another, each with little or no intimate significance for the individual himself, we lose all steadiness of purpose and all desire we may havelbeen born with to do anything completely and well. It would not be possible to do all the things that appear to make claims upon our time, and the mere attempt to do them leaves us at the end with our sensibilities dulled to- the distinction between what is and what is not worth while. And with out standards we lose our integrity and independence, too. For you must not think that you can constantly indulge in a revel of sensations and external experia ences, without forming the habit of yielding, in general, of being led from without instead of within. Stubbornness and prejudice you may still have, and probably do have, but that thorough downright action of character and personality, which flows from a soul well bal- anced in its own convictions, is surely gone. Finally, and perhaps most disastrous of all, the external life of our day dulls our moral sense and weakens our feeling of responsibility. This, too, comes about most naturally. So long as our experiences and standards of conduct are

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12 . THE NORMAL ADVANCE as x- was known Ivery early. In 1269 it is believed to have been khoWn in Europe, although some doubts are expressed c'oneeining this. At any rate Columbus is said to have noticed the. Var- ring of the tidipll about 1480. Some accounts state that it was known to the Chinese as eafly as the eleventh century. The first real work to get at the causes, or to show the nature of this strange phenomena was done by Gilbert in the sixteenth century. His primary thesis was that-the globe consists of a certain solid homogenous substance, firmly coj herent and endowed with primordial proper- ties. The Various substances which appear at the surface of the globe through contact with the atmospheric waters, and influence of the heavenly bodies, have become deprived of the prime qualities, properties and true nature of terrene matter. But lodestone and all magnetic substances contain the potency of the earth,s core and its imnost viscera, in virtue of which the earth itself remainsfin'p'osi'tion and is di- ' rected in its movements. Thus, reasons Gilbert, the earth is a huge magnet, or the lodestone is a fragment of the magnetic earth which possesSes the primal form of terrestrial bodies. In other words Gilbert thinks that the magnetic qual- ities of the earth are due to the core, which is made up of lodestone and other magnetic sub- stances. The investigations made by Gilbert in sup- port of his theory are very interesting and logical. They consist first, in determining what a magnet is. Second, the cause and char- acter of magnetic attractions, and third, the nature of its polarity. Having found certain phenomena of the lodestone true of the earth, and conversely certain terrestrial phenomena true in a miniature earth made of lodestone, he concludes the earth itself to be a magnet. The research begins with a comparison of the poles of the heavens, the poles of the earth and the poles of lodestone; the proposition is at once laid down that the poles of magnet on the earth look towards the poles of the earth, move towards them and are subject to them. This was the first statement of the truth that xxg the compass needle is governedenot by the poles of the heavens, or by the 'pole star, but by the magnetic quality of the globe itself. . In order to prove the like natu're of the earth and lodestone, Gilbert carved a piece of the stone into Spherical form. Thisminiature earth he called an ttearthkinll 0r ttterrellay and upon this he made his experiments mainly by placing near to it pivoted iron needles or plates, and noting the directive 0r attractive force ex- erted by this globe. Another theory similar somewhat to Gilbertls is that the crust contains an abundance of iron and other less strongly magnetizable metals. Iron pervades all ttprimaryll and ttsecondaryll rocks and forms an essential part of innumer- able minerals. But the source of this magnet- ism is not clear. The least unsatisfactory ex- planation seems to be something like this: ttThe earth turning towards the east, offers the more westerly parts of its surface to solar radiation. The thermal eifect is the same as though a fiood of heat travelled around the earth from east to west. We have seen many in- stances which show that heat and electricity travel together, that in a closed circuit, if we can get heat to circulate, the current travels with it. There may, therefore, be prevailing earth currents moving with the sun from east to west around the earth. The earth being mag- netizable, these currents would convert it into an electro-magnet. The light of the aurora, which seems to have its greatest activity at the poles, is not unlike the light seen on making a strong electro-magnet in a dark room. With all that has been discoVered regarding the nature of the earthls magnetism, there re- mains a great deal to be discovered before its nature will be clearly understood. The practical application of the earthls mag- netic field and the ttsettingl, property of a sus- pended needle is made use of in navigation. The magnetic needle which is used by sailors is much more elaborate than the ordinary pivoted needle. The mariner,s compass now used was designed by Lord Kelvin. Instead of having a needle swinging over a circle on which