_Discovery of Motives, No II._--Now, Professor Tyndall’s object was to preach about germs, and he proceeded to accomplish it in somewhat the following manner. He first set forth that it was a wholesome use of the imagination to apply our knowledge of aërial sound-waves to the solution of the question--what is the cause of the phenomena of light? And he then proceeded to draw one of those charming word-pictures for which he is so famous, showing the rippling of the ethereal light-waves against molecules in the atmosphere, the greater proportionate reflection of the shorter wave of blue, and the consequent preponderance of blue rays in the light reflected to us from the sky, and of red and yellow rays in the light coming unreflected from the sun.... Now, the aim of all this was to seek and show that the air is filled by an infinite multitude of suspended particles, so minute that they do not produce darkness, and that these particles may be germs. Professor Tyndall does not say that they are germs, but, by the aid of a special disclaimer, he prevented his audience from forgetting that they might be. We should be very loth to accuse him of disingenuousness, but we are unable entirely to acquit him of special pleading. We feel that his lecture was a very skilful attempt to familiarise the public mind with the existence of atmospheric particles, and to lead up to and encourage, without absolutely expressing the idea that germs are particles, and that particles may be germs. _To the Editor of the_ RECORD. SIR,--It is a grave error on your part to represent me as calling Mr. Darwin ‘one of the weaker brethren.’ Were I asked to name the highest representative of the stronger ones, I should probably name him. But in your article you link my name with that of a writer whom I do rank among the weaker brethren; weak through a defect common to him and his antagonists--the incompetence, namely, to look round a great question and see its bearings on all sides. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, JOHN TYNDALL. ATHENÆUM CLUB, October 4. _From the_ PALL MALL GAZETTE, _September_ 20, 1870. Why does Professor Tyndall attribute to Goethe the ‘notion,’ as he calls it, that matter is ‘the living garment of God’? We are not aware that it is to be found in his works. In ‘Faust’ Goethe introduces the spirit of the earth, who describes his own operations as consisting in weaving into one vast fabric the ‘tumults of human life, the storm of actions,’ births and deaths, and the affairs of us mortals, and working thereout ‘a living garment for the Divinity.’ Whether the phrase be a piece of cant, or a piece of sublimity, it has no semblance of the meaning which the Professor attributes to it. _From the_ SPECTATOR, _September_ 24, 1870.