VOL. 54, No. 9 HEAD OFFICE: MONTREAL, SEPTEMBER 1973

It’s the Little Things that CountMANKIND’S SUPERIOR STATUS in the evolution ofspecies came about through the development of hismind, little by little, so that he learned the quality ofthings and mastered the techniques of improving them.Everything human beings invented and achievedstarted small.

Even the greatest successes are won by fine margins.The fastest swimmer in the world is no more than afew inches ahead of competitors. In the women’sgiant slalom at Squaw Valley there was a difference ofonly one-tenth of a second between the first andsecond competitors.

Leonardo da Vinci wrote in his notebook that whena drop of water falls into the sea the whole surface ofthe sea is raised imperceptibly; and, again, "the earthis moved from its position by the weight of a littlebird alighting upon it."

A "drop in the bucket" is not unimportant. It maybe of very great importance in the result it produces.Consider the landslides in Quebec and the sink holesin parts of the United States. Here are no greatcatastrophes as the cause of terrifying experiences andthe loss of acres of farm land: just little streams eatingaway their banks or a slight fall in the undergroundwater level.

The launch into orbit of Canada’s second domesticcommunications satellite, Anik lI, was delayed 24hours when a small piece of adhesive tape disappearedfrom its position on an attachment at the launch pad.

The biggest events in life depend upon the smallest,and the significant ideas start in a small way. As apoet wrote: "Think naught a trifle, though it appearsmall; small sands the mountain, moments make theyear, and trifles life."

Every tiny triangle or square of glass in a stainedglass window counts. Every piece of stone or marblein a mosaic is indispensable. The late Professor E. J.Urwick, of the University of Toronto, reminded usin his book The Values of Life (University of TorontoPress, 1948) to consider the peacock’s tail and re-member the tiny bit of matter within the egg fromwhich it grew.

When the English monk Roger Bacon wrote:"Take seven parts of saltpeter, five of charcoal, andfive of sulphur" he had no foreboding of the influencehis recipe would have on the course of civilization.It was the formula for gunpowder.

The most common mechanisms in the world todayare automobiles. Think of the millions of air-filledtires on our roads. They had their origin in Belfast,Ireland, when Dr. John Dunlop made wooden wheelsfor his boy’s bicycle and fastened inflated rubbertubes around their edges with linen cloth tacked tothe wheels.

For a closer-to-home example of the importanceof little things, look at how a little maintenance workattended to when the need is seen saves dollars andtime. A screw nail tightened, an axle greased, a waterdrain cleaned, a faulty switch repaired: all these arelittle things but they add up to the saving of money,time and irritation.

Little things may be important, not because ofwhat they are in themselves but because they are partof, or lead inevitably to, something that is of greatconsequence. Blaise Pascal remarked in his PensOesthat had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter the wholeaspect of the world would have been different.

Just because a deed or an event is small is not agood reason for ignoring it, and the phrase "it doesn’treally matter" should be used sparingly. The Prophetsemphasized this in their repeated references to "littleby little", and we recall the "little cloud like a man’shand" referred to by Elijah that preceded a drought-breaking rain for which he had prayed.

Smallness is normal

No matter what our purpose may be--to dosomething, to make something, to improve something,to protect something--it starts as a small idea anda small action. We must do many little things toaccomplish just one big thing.

An artist may draw and paint mighty mountains,range upon range, in broad brush strokes, but heshows the perspective subtly, by thin lines anddelicate shading.

We need a sense of proportion in determining whatis small and what is big. Things that seem importanttoday in the existing circumstances may appeartrifling tomorrow under different conditions.

In our meditation on what is important we mightthink with some humility about a tiny drop of water.In it is a world of inhabitants all busy about their ownaffairs, and we can imagine them as being as sure aswe are about our activities that their doings are themost important in the universe.

We must observe

It is not wise to give too much credit to accident orinspiration for ideas, inventions and successes. Anaccident does not make an invention, but only offersthe observer an opportunity to apply his mind to thesituation it reveals.

When his child overturned a spinning wheel,leaving the spindle revolving vertically, James Har-greaves got the idea for the spinning jenny that couldtwist several threads at once. It was accident thatgave George Stephenson the opportunity to put inmotion a steam engine that needed repairs: he wenton from there to construct a locomotive. CharlesDickens wanted to go on the stage, but he was rejectedbecause he had a husky voice due to a head cold, ahappenstance that caused him to turn to writing inwhich he became a world master.

These were accidents that provided ideas andopportunities of benefit to people who were so sharp-sighted as to see them. Usually, opportunity doesnot force itself upon our attention bearing gifts. Weneed to be watchful to catch the littlest intimationof a chance to do something that is worth while.

A Burmese proverb says: "There is not a gem inevery rock," but it does not hurt to look. SherlockHolmes founded his detection upon his carefulnessin taking notice of trifles, as he told Watson in TheBoscombe Valley Mystery.

Among the notable discoveries of recent years areradar and penicillin. Both of these began in theobservation by a careful worker of a phenomenonirrelevant to his immediate preoccupation. In bothcases the observation aroused the curiosity andimagination of the scientist.

There are other examples. A music teacher, RobertFoulis, walked home through a Saint John, N.B. fogone evening, listening for the piano music that wouldassure him that his daughter was practising the piecehe had assigned to her. Strangely, she seemed to beplaying only one note, low in the bass. Then his bigidea came: that was the only note that pierced thefog. He built a steam boiler and attached a whistlewhose tone matched the fog-penetrating note. Hehad invented the steam fog-horn.

Dr. Alexander Fleming did not throw away theplate of culture that was spoiled by a blue-greenmould. He wrote in his notebook: "I was sufficientlyinterested in the anti-bacterial substance produced by

the mould to pursue the subject." He named his newdrug "Penicillin".

Professor W. C. R6ntgen was studying the flow ofelectricity through rarefied air when out of the cornerof his eye he saw that some crystals quite a distancefrom his table were glowing. He had discovered X-ray.

Scatter seed

Some observations yield ideas which take a longtime to prove and develop. In 1899 Nicola Teslapredicted that radio waves could be used to determinethe position and course of a moving object such as avessel at sea. In the 1930’s Sir Robert Watson-Watt,in charge of a small research group, noticed thataircraft overhead gave reflected signals from radiowaves. Thus was born radar.

An idea is seed. It needs to be planted, cultivatedand harvested. Pliny told us: "In my pleadings atthe bar I scatter broadcast various arguments likeso many kinds of seed, in order to reap whatever mayhappen to come up."

An idea should not be discarded merely because it issmall. Seize the smallest idea and do something aboutit before it disappears, perhaps for ever. When K. C.Gillette found his straight-blade razor dull onemorning, he started speculating about why it shouldbe thought necessary to hone down a big piece ofsteel when only a thin cutting edge was needed. Hedeveloped his idea into the thin-blade safety razor.

Much is said about the virtue of keeping an openmind, and indeed that virtue is worthy of praise. Butin addition one’s mind should be inquiring, notaccepting every new notion but stopping it at the doorto check its passport. Is it worth thinking about?

We need the capacity to see values and to analysethem. Regard an idea as something precious andfragile. Make a note of it at once. You might as wellnot have an idea as have it and not know that youhave it. Then toss the idea around in your mind.Credit intuition, if you wish, for the first glance intothe unknown, but proceed to cut and try. Bringabstractions to heel by experiment so that you gainknowledge of how they can be given form.

Draw upon knowledge

Sometimes you run across people who make agreat mystery of the source of the ideas that led themtoward accomplishment. There are scientists whoswaddle their infant thoughts about weighty discoveriesin learned language. Roger Bacon recorded hisformula for gunpowder in a Latin cryptogram. Thereare writers who give the credit for their pieces to adivine spark. There are business people who ascribetheir .successful deals to flashes of inspiration. How-ever, the ideas would not have occurred to them ifthey had not studied to stock their minds with usableknowledge. An idea finds no perch upon which toalight in an empty mind.

When you take up your pen to write a letter or anarticle or a learned paper, you have already piled upmany little things to help you. You have read theavailable details, studied what has been done of asimilar nature, collected facts and checked theiraccuracy, searched your memory for pertinent ex-amples and experiences, and researched the books andpapers dealing with your subject, and you havethrown all these into manageable notes.

Research is not an aimless digging into the unknownat random in the hope that you will come upon some-thing interesting or useful. It is a state of mind, anorganized way of finding the components of an idea,deciding whether it is worth working at, projectingwhat it might develop into, and then tackling thedetails with patience and persistence. Bacon’s con-tribution to science was great because it was a revoltagainst second-hand information. His manner wasto dig for facts.

Keep it simple

Sir Ernest Rutherford (whose tomb is in West-minster Abbey) proved by experiment in the laboratoryand on the campus of McGill University that thepenetrating radiation in the atmosphere did not comefrom the earth’s surface: he had revealed cosmicrays. He made the first successful experiments withnuclear fission. In 1908 he was nominated for boththe physics and chemistry Nobel Prizes. In thisidea-getting and experimentation Rutherford workedwith apparatus so simple that it was commentedupon. In reporting the award to him of the chemistryprize the author of Nobel the Man and His Prizeswrote: "His arrangements were very simple." GeorgeGamow said in One Two Three Infinity: "The appa-ratus used by Rutherford in his first experiments innuclear transformations is the acme of simplicity."

A little idea, unimportant in itself, like that ofrubbing amber so that it picks up straws, grows andexpands until it changes the face of the earth and thehabits of its people. Thales of Miletus, one of theSeven Sages of Greece, discovered the amber phe-nomenon, and study of it through many varieties ofexperiment led to television 2,523 years later.

The big obstacle between having an idea and doingsomething about it is mental inertia. Great thoughtsare reared out of little thoughts not by people whoare indolent, dull and indifferent, but by people whoare busy and inquisitive and in earnest.

David Fife had the idea of developing wheat thatwould ripen in the short western growing season. Heobtained a small bag of wheat from Europe andplanted it in his farm outside Peterborough, Ontario.Only three grains sprouted, and a cow ate one. Theremaining two ripened ten days earlier than any otherwheat he had ever sown. By the third year he had abushel, which he shipped West. It ripened early, andFile’s big idea and his patient work opened up theWest to agriculture.

Inventing things

Few people begin their careers as inventors. Aperson does not just walk out of school clutching adiploma and start turning out new antibiotics,pollution-free automobile engines, or spacecraft.Every one of these was first a small idea seized uponin the mind of someone who had acquired the dis-cernment to see it, the knowledge to understand it andthe gumption to develop it.

Ideas may lie around for a long time waiting for"some snapper-up of unconsidered trifles" to see thepossibilities in them. Even the most intelligent peopleare likely to overlook little events that have the germof greatness in them.

When Adam Smith published his classic Wealthof Nations in 1775 he wrote only a short paragraphabout the cotton industry, although Sir RichardArkwright had opened his revolutionary factory sixyears earlier. John Evelyn entered in his Diary onApril 12, 1682, that he had dined on a supper all ofwhich had been cooked in Monsieur Papin’s Digestors,but it was only in this century that the pressurecooker came into widespread household use.

Invention consists in producing something unique.It may be entirely new, or a better way of doingsomething, or the correct and logical rearrangement ofparts so as to use the full potential of a device.

In the first steam engines a boy was employed toopen and shut the communication between the boilerand the cylinder. One of the boys observed that bytying a string from the handle of the valve whichcontrolled this communication to another part ofthe machine the valve would open and shut withouthis assistance.

Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine,attained success because he put the eye and the pointat the same end of the needle and devised the lock-stitch.

Little wastes add up

Elimination of waste is one of the functions ofmanagement, whether of a factory or of a kitchen.A leak does not have to be very big in order to causemeasurable waste. A one per cent waste in a com-modity costing $100 will require one hundred salesto make it up.

Intelligent people must declare war on waste. Tosave a little time here, a little effort there, and a littlematerial in the workshop or in the home, will add upto measurable economies.

It takes thought to uncover the petty prodigalitiesthat eat into our incomes. A report of the UnitedStates Food Service says that people in that countrythrow away more than $20 million yearly in left-overfoods.

Time is as important as things. It is made up ofseconds, which, although very small indeed, add upto 8,760 hours in a year. After working, sleeping,

eating, and doing the chores we have some 2,400 hoursleft to use as we wish. Yet, says Robert R. Updegraffin his book All the Time You Need: "Nearly all of uswaste more valuable time alibiing ourselves with ’nothaving time’ than with any other excuse for our lackof accomplishment and progress."

We need to shake the tiny time-wasters out of ourlives. If we waste five minutes every day looking formisplaced articles we will in a year throw awaythirty hours.

To make the best use of time so as to have theopportunity to seek, find and develop ideas does notrequire us to make a rigid schedule. All we need to dois find out where those little periods of time aredisappearing, and then fill the space with somethingsignificant.

If there is much to be said in favour of beingcareful to make the most of little things there is alsosomething to be said against spending time and energyon trifles. Those who make it a habit to find anddevelop ideas are too busy with gratifying work toengage in trifling things. They discriminate betweenwhat warrants thinking about and what should bedismissed as inconsequential.

History’s small hinges

Small things have swayed the course of history.Edmund Burke said: "A common soldier, a child,a girl at the door of an inn, have changed the face offortune, and almost of Nature."

Speaking of Clio, the Muse of History, John Buchan(later Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor General ofCanada) said: "I can picture her most easily with thepuzzled and curious face of a child, staring at thekaleidoscope of the centuries and laughing--yes,laughing--at an inconsequence that defies logic,and whimsicalities too fantastic for art."

The things that make big headlines attract attentionbecause they are on the surface of the stream of life.They distract our attention from the smaller move-ments that work below the surface.

History is full of momentous little things: theaccident which preserves in life some figure of destiny;the weather on some critical battlefield; the severewinter of 1788 which produced the famine of 1789,and thereby perhaps the French Revolution; a suddenidea which produces some potent invention.

A commentator on a television programme in 1972said that if it had not rained on the day of the openingof Parliament in 1936 King Edward VIII might nothave abdicated. The King hoped, said the com-mentator, for a great crowd of supporters lining theroute of the royal procession, which would havechanged the government’s mind, allowing him tomarry Mrs. Simpson, but only a few persons bravedthe storm.

A capsized canoe lost Louis Jolliet the publiccredit for exploring the Mississippi River. He waswithin sight of Montreal on his return journey when

ALSO AVAILABLE IN FRENCH AND IN BRAILLE

his canoe upset at the foot of the Lachine Rapids andhis records of the expedition were lost.

Getting on in life

Every person is groping toward an understandingof life and is seeking to make the best of his place in it.This endeavour requires that he pay attention tolittle things.

Life is a succession of challenges to our sense ofvalues, our judgment of what is important and whatis unimportant, and our perception of what is bigand what is little. In order to live, man must act;in order to act he must make choices; in order tomake choices he must consider values; and values aredetermined by little things.

How you look at values depends on what sort ofperson you are. Think of our Canadian way of life.It is made up of a multitude of little things, none ofwhich may be taken away without destroying theunity of the mosaic. Viewed by some persons, theselittle things divide us by antagonisms; others see themas fragments of a whole that is beautiful. Both fear,hatred and envy on the one hand, and confidence,love and sharing on the other hand, are made up oflittle things.

Tact, one of the qualities vital to success in businessand social life, is made up of little things. It is theproduct of brains and sensitivity. It is a keen con-sciousness of the things that are appropriate, tasteful,or aesthetically pleasing.

A little act of courtesy raises you above the crowd,as does a trifle of perceptive kindness. A small com-pliment or a salt-spoon of praise creates goodwilland adds happiness to the lives of both the giver andthe receiver. We recall the Christmas song about theLittle Drummer Boy who had no other present togive than a "rub-a-dub-dub" on his drum--but itwas received with a smile.

It will have occurred to many persons to wonderhow men and women who occupy eminent positionsin business, the professions, the arts, politics andsociety got there. In the vast majority of cases it wasby recognizing little opportunities and showinginitiative in grasping them and displaying energy infollowing them through. All that is needed is thedesire to create, the ability to manipulate, and per-sistence.

Really effective people have learned the secret ofmaking the best use of little things: a little time, alittle idea, a little opportunity; and of making thatlittle go a long way.

We recall the poem Rupert Brooke wrote, called"The Great Lover". His loves were little, simple,things: white plates and cups, clean-gleaming, ringedwith blue lines; a strong crust of friendly bread; thecool kindliness of sheets; grainy wood; firm sands;new-peeled sticks, and a score of other simple littlethings.

"Little things," said Michelangelo, "make per-fection, and perfection is no trifle."

~ THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA 1973/PRINTED IN CANADA