86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



closely study causes and effects, discern principles of action, and 

 thereupon formulate truths. Forthwith these truths must be util- 

 ized to bolster up preconceived notions which have no foundation 

 in fact. Thus valuable time is wasted, and the progress of scien- 

 tific research is retarded as well. No scientist should start out 

 in search of nothing. He must have an object in view, and that 

 object must in a measure be defined. Science has no business to 

 halt by the wayside and inquire whether or not the truths found 

 in the book of Nature will horrify those who are nursing some 

 creed or dogma. Truth is truth, and an apology for its existence 

 received from any quarter is quite superfluous. If the truths of 

 science have terrors for a man's religion there must be something 

 wrong and untrue in connection with his religion. If his religion 

 be based uj^on knowledge, love, justice, and mercy, he will en- 

 counter no terrors in the realm of science ; if his religion means a 

 desire to know the why and wherefore of existences about him 

 and the determination to add his mite of power in helping to 

 ameliorate human conditions, the truths of science will serve as 

 his handmaiden. 



The assumed cleverness and wisdom attributed, in the pro- 

 fessor's article, to certain thinkers may apply in some instances, 

 but no one realizes more fully than the student of Nature himself 

 the fact that he knows but little and can never know a great deal. 

 But he finds in this reflection no reason why he should quit his 

 labors or even turn aside to ingeniously weave an apologetic yarn, 

 lest his conclusions unmixed with sophistry might possibly hor- 

 rify some prejudiced minds. 







AN ARGUMENT FOR VERTICAL HANDWRITING. 



Br JOSEPH v. WITHERBEE. 



WHY is it that the business men of to-day find so much fault 

 with the chirography of the boys who are seeking, or have 

 obtained employment ? They assert with great positiveness that 

 the average boy of thirteen or fourteen years does not write legi- 

 bly ; that his labored copy-book hand, with its pale and sight- 

 destroying hair-lines, is not at all adapted for business purjjoses. 

 Their cry is for a style of penmanship that is practical, that a 

 boy or girl can write rapidly, and that will not injure their eyes 

 when forced to read it for any length of time. 



It is the purpose of this article to show that there is such a 

 style of penmanship, that it is easier to teach, that it is easier 

 to read, that it is more rapid, and that, from a hygienic point of 

 view, it is incomparably superior to the present slanting writing. 



