Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, September, 1878Various
Science
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, September, 1878
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Should we demur to these eccentricities of an enthusiastic savant, he
would perhaps point us to similar excesses in some of the acknowledged
lights of intellectual progress, and cite as a recent instance of the
madness of too much learning the ascription, by the brilliant yet
matter-of-fact and practical Tyndall, of almighty "potency" to matter.
Of course we should reply that Tyndall was a sincere and earnest
student, and not a charlatan or a fanatic; whereto our author might
respond, and respond justly, in sharp disclaimer of the latter brace of
characters. He seems to be sincere: he can read and think, and does
both, as the first part of his book, and much of the rest of it, show.
He would have escaped the imputation we have suggested as not unapt to
be cast upon him, secured a full hearing in a more respectable quarter,
and gained higher aid in the development of his ideas, had he been less
hasty in forming and stating some of his ultimate conclusions and the
practical application of them. Many very able men who have preceded him
in scientific labor, and who do not believe that "the bowels will be
aroused into animation" by the exhibition of "a small strip of yellow
glass three inches in depth, bordered by its affinitive violet," to the
umbilical region, or that "Major Buckley developed one hundred and
forty-eight persons so that they could read sentences shut up in boxes
or nuts," would listen attentively to what he has to say on the anatomy
of an atom, metachronism and "chromatic attraction."
Around the World in the Yacht Sunbeam. By Mrs. Brassey. New York: Henry
Holt & Co.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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