in a hollow cane. The eggs were hatched by
means of heat, and Asia no longer held the monopoly of the silk
business.

In comparison with Ferdinand, preparing to lead forth his magnificent
army in Europe's supreme contest with the Moors, how insignificant
seemed the visionary expedition of Columbus, about to start in three
small shallops across the unknown ocean. But grand as was the triumph
of Ferdinand, it now seems hardly worthy of mention in comparison with
the wonderful achievement of the poor Genoese navigator.

Only one hundred and ninety-two Athenians perished in the battle of
Marathon, but Europe was saved from a host which is said to have drunk
rivers dry, and to have shaken the solid earth as they marched.

Great men are noted for their attention to trifles. Goethe once asked
a monarch to excuse him, during an interview, while he went to an
adjoining room to jot down a stray thought. Hogarth would make
sketches of rare faces and characteristics upon his finger-nails upon
the streets. Indeed, to a truly great mind there are no little things.
"The eye of the understanding is like the eye of the sense; for as you
may see objects through small crannies or holes, so you may see great
axioms of nature through small and contemptible instances," said Bacon.
Trifles light as air suggest to the keen observer the solution of
mighty problems. Bits of glass arranged to amuse children led to the
discovery of the kaleidoscope. Goodyear discovered how to vulcanize
rubber by forgetting, until it became red hot, a skillet containing a
compound which he had before considered worthless. Confined in the
house by typhoid fever, Helmholtz, with a little money which he had
saved by great economy, bought a microscope which led him into the
field of science where he became so famous. A ship-worm boring a piece
of wood suggested to Sir Isambard Brunei the idea of a tunnel under the
Thames at London. Tracks of extinct animals in the old red sandstone
led Hugh Miller on and on until he became the greatest geologist of his
time. Sir Walter Scott once saw a shepherd boy plodding sturdily
along, and asked him to ride. This boy was George Kemp, who became so
enthusiastic in his study of sculpture that he walked fifty miles and
back to see a beautiful statue. He did not forget the kindness of Sir
Walter, and, when the latter died, threw his soul into the design of
the magnificent monument erected in Edinburgh to the memory of th