59 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion of Israel. "These words tbat I command thee this day shall be 

 upon thine heart : and thou [not the minister or the Sunday-school 

 teacher] shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk 

 of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by 

 the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest up." How 

 little this is done in Christian families to-day may be gathered from 

 President Seelye's recent article in " The Forum," where he uro-es the 

 utter insufficiency of the domestic teaching of morality and religion 

 as a reason why the State should take the matter in hand. If, there- 

 fore, ex-President Porter and President Seelye, and all the other great 

 educators of our time, want to render a signal service to the State, let 

 them unite in earnest and continued efforts to revive the domestic 

 teaching of morality. Let them strive to persuade Christian parents 

 that it is more important for their sons to be honest than to be rich ; 

 more important for their daughters to be pure-minded, rational, and 

 womanly than to be fashionable ; and there will soon be a wonderful 

 change in the moral tone of society. But so long as men like these 

 stand apart, thundering against the methods of modern science, and 

 representing moral authority as inseparable from supernatural creeds 

 that are daily becoming more difficult of acceptance, so long will a 

 very hurtful degree of uncertainty as to all moral law prevail in the 

 community. The only escape from a situation that really threatens 

 moral anarchy lies in the recognition of the fact that the Universe, as 

 related to man, has lessons to teach ; and that these, revealed as truths 

 of reason to the mind and conscience, are not less authoritative than 

 if thundered on affrighted ears from the cloud-wrapped summit of 

 Sinai. 



-<++- 



GENIUS AND PEECOCITY. 



By JAMES SULLY. 



II. 



Men of Science. Instances of astounding precocity do not fail us 

 when we leave the more romantic walks of art and letters for 

 the austere region of science. Mathematical genius and original power 

 iu physical research have alike been frequently heralded by exceptional 

 boyish endowment. 



Among the greatest discoverers we have instances of juvenile dis- 

 tinction. Galileo showed remarkable aptitude from earliest childhood. 

 His favorite pastime was the construction of toy machines. A passion 

 for music did not seduce him from his supreme devotion to mathemat- 

 ics, and by nineteen he was making important discoveries. Tycho 

 Brahe illustrates the same early bent in a slightly different way. His 

 devotion to astronomy had to contend, not with his own, but with 



