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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to the injury of female health. Our 

 correspondent says that there is little 

 question in regard to the facts, but 

 that " woman is unfairly weighted for 

 the race." Whether unfairly or not, 

 she certainly is so seriously weighted 

 that she cannot win in rivalry with her 

 less - weighted competitor. The real 

 question, then, is, whether this differ- 

 ence is accidental and removable, or 

 whether it is radical and permanent, 

 and belongs to the very constitution of 

 the sexes. Upon this point we hope 

 the Montiily will soon have something 

 further to say. 



"BACKING OUT." 



We are able to congratulate a num- 

 ber of our newspaper friends upon the 

 happy relief they have experienced 

 through the alleged "backing out" of 

 Prof. Tyndall from the positions taken 

 in his Belfast address. In the preface 

 to that address he said that he had his 

 moods of feeling like other people, but 

 that "the doctrine of material athe- 

 ism " did not commend itself to him in 

 his hours of clearness and strongest con- 

 viction. And in his recent lecture on 

 the " Crystalline and Molecular Forces," 

 a revised copy of which we received 

 from the author and have printed, he 

 says that "the profession of that athe- 

 ism with which I am sometimes so 

 lightly charged " would bo an impos- 

 sible answer to the question " whether 

 there is no power, being, or thing in the 

 universe whose knowledge of that of 

 which I am so ignorant is greater than 

 mine." That is, in a word, Prof. Tyn- 

 dall denies that he is an atheist, and 

 this is called "backing out."- "Back- 

 ing out" from what ? How can a man 

 back out unless he has first gone in? 

 When or where did Prof. Tyndall ever 

 avow himself an atheist ? Whether a 

 man is an atheist or not, he ought to 

 understand himself quite as well as his 

 neighbors. "Oh! but his doctrines im- 

 ply atheism! his science leads to mate- 



rialism ; " and so it turns out that Prof. 

 Tyndall's atheism is imputed and con- 

 structive, something existing in the im- 

 aginations of those who worry them- 

 selves about other people's religion. It 

 is curious to note how the tactics of 

 those who assume to take charge of the 

 religious concerns of others have been 

 quite reversed in these later times. 

 Formerly the manipulators of thumb- 

 screws aimed to extract from suspect- 

 ed doubters the concession of religious 

 belief to make them acknowledge 

 that they were Christians ; now the 

 policy seems to be to fasten upon them 

 the imputation of disbelief whether 

 they admit it or not. " No matter what 

 you say you are an atheist, and an 

 atheist you shall be ! " But it is said by 

 the newspaper editors, "Prof. Tyndall 

 declared solemnly before the British 

 Association that there are great poten- 

 cies in matter, and that he even discerns 

 in it ' the promise and potency of every 

 form of life,' which we hold to be the 

 same as abolishing Almighty God, and 

 we are not going to have that done." 

 It is curious how every step of scientific 

 advancement has been met in this way. 

 When the question was one of the sim- 

 plest physical actions in matter, that of 

 the attraction of its masses for each 

 other by a demonstrative mathematical 

 law, there was the same intense solici- 

 tude about what was to become of the 

 Deity. When Newton published the 

 " Principia," even the great Leibnitz 

 sounded the alarm, and affirmed that 

 the English philosopher "had robbed 

 the Deity of some of his most excellent 

 attributes, and bad sapped the founda- 

 tion of natural religion." There is no 

 trouble about that now. We can even 

 discern how the operation of this grand 

 and universal law, so far from being 

 derogatory to the Infinite Power by 

 which the universe is governed, must 

 greatly expand and exalt our conception 

 of the administration of Nature. And 

 is it not barely possible that, by enlarg- 

 ing and deepening our view of the po- 



