Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/314 of a century
would be replaced—that is about all. During the few moments
while the body was passing through the sun's atmosphere, there
might be, and probably would be, phenomena of great interest and
beauty to those who were on the watch; but it is very doubtful
whether people generally would know anything about the
occurrence until they read of it in the papers. By ALFRED
FOUILLEE. THE questions relating to public relief, population,
and natural selection are so inseparable that, in our age,
thought has been logically conducted from one to another of
them, and has been led to important discoveries. It was the
problem of public relief, and the observation of the effects
produced by the poor-rates, that inspired Malthus to compose his
"Law of Population"; it was the law of population, in turn, that
led Darwin to the discovery, first, of the law of the "struggle
for existence," and afterward of that of "natural selection." We
may say, then (and the fact is worthy