Very little things are not without their importance or value. The earth is nourished all summer by tiny dew-drops. The greatest mountains, even huge Chimilari, towering five and a half miles into the clouds, and all the other peaks in the Himalaya and Andes ranges, are formed of tiny molecules of earthy matter.
Take a lesson from the coral formations. These are the work of a very little creature called a polype, or sea-anemone. Recent research has led to the discovery of much that is highly interesting respecting these little creatures. One polype, fixing its minute body to the rocky bottom of the sea, discharges a chalky secretion, which gradually grows up a branched trunk. The end of each branch is terminated by another polype; and thus it divides and multiplies itself, until a huge mass of red coral is formed. The more common white coral is similarly produced.
Beware of what are called "little sins." Do not think them mere trifles. Bad in themselves, they likewise extend and grow into habits. These, once acquired, will hold you down with the force of a mighty chain.
Of late years vine-stocks have been imported from America into France and Italy. Upon these a tiny insect, called phylloxera, has been found—so small that thirty-three of them placed lengthwise would not measure more than an inch; and yet so destructive have these tiny things proved, and so rapidly have they been known to spread, that they have been the destruction of more than a million acres of vines.
"HER FATHER'S BAD WAYS MADE HER LIFE HARD." (See page 38.)
One has well observed that "a great sin committed once shows where the devil has been; but petty sins, nourished into a habit, show where the devil lives."
One of the discoveries of modern medical science is, that the disease known as cholera may be produced by a microscopic insect (the Conina Bacillus) being taken into the stomach inadvertently with our food. This minute creature propagates with enormous rapidity in the blood, until that terrible malady is the result. Thus many great things are developed from the very smallest—not only great evils, but great blessings also.
In doing good, we must not despise "the day of small things." The beginnings, though imperfect and weak, are not without their own peculiar value, and ultimately they lead on to excellence.