alent would be
accomplished by a steam-engine in the course of burning one kilogram
(two pounds) of coal. Watt has, therefore, ascertained that the daily
power of a man does not exceed what is contained in half a kilogram (one
pound) of coal.

Herodotus records that the construction of the great Pyramid of Egypt
employed 100,000 men during 20 years. The pyramid consists of calcareous
stone; its volume and its weight can be easily calculated; its weight
has been found to be about 5,900,000 kilograms (nearly 5,000 tons). To
elevate this weight to 38 metres, which is the pyramid's centre of
gravity, it would require to burn 8244 hectolitres of coal. Our English
neighbors have some foundries where they consume this quantity every
week.

FOOTNOTES:

[57] Watt was one of the eight foreign associates of the French Academy
of Sciences, which body Arago was addressing.--ED.

FIRST PARTITION OF POLAND

A.D. 1772

JAMES FLETCHER

Of the three partitions which Poland underwent in the last quarter of
the eighteenth century, the first was due to the jealousies of European
powers. It was an event of great significance for the Polish kingdom,
ominous of future spoliations, which indeed followed, to the destruction
of its political life. It had been long since Poland passed her golden
age--two centuries and more. In the mean time she had undergone many
vicissitudes, yet had preserved her identity as a state.

When Russia had won successes in the war of 1768-1774 with Turkey, she
seized the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. Austria, seeing in
this acquisition a menace to her eastern frontier, opposed it. Russia,
in order to appease Austria, looked about for territory that might be
obtained for her in compensation. The state of affairs in Poland
presented a tempting opportunity for interference which might lead to a
division of the kingdom. Stanislaus II, King of Poland, had been elected
in 1764, mainly through the influence of Russia--he was one of Catharine
II's lovers. His people had risen against him when Russia adopted her
policy of spoliation. Prussia, as well as Austria, advanced territorial
claims, and the partition of 1772, really planned by Frederick the
Great, was consummated on the basis of a secret treaty of those powers
with Catharine's government.

Some writers, possessed with the love of reducing political transactions
to one rigid scale of cause and effect, and at the same time of
exhibiting