642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



series of the most remarkable men of the present century. He is not 

 only a distinguished laborer in the line of original research, but also 

 one of the best living expounders of scientific principles. His books 

 are everywhere read in this country with avidity, and have done more 

 to give precise and definite knowledge of the principles of the sciences 

 of which they treat than any other series of works ever published. 

 Indeed, it is only a master in science who is capable of preparing ele- 

 mentary scientific works. "With a modesty or, perhaps, self-respect 

 which constitutes a distinguishing trait of the man of true science ? 

 Professor Tyndall omitted to mention the fact that many of the phe- 

 nomena which he presented in his lectures were his own discoveries. 

 In the proposition which he has announced of giving the proceeds of 

 his lectures to advance the cause of abstract science in this country, 

 he has evinced another characteristic of the higher type of the scien- 

 tist namely, a paramount regard for his mission and a generous sym- 

 pathy with humanity, as expressed in an aphorism of the founder of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, that " the man of science is of no coun- 

 try ; the world is his country, and mankind his countrymen." 



In an age and country which boasts of its intelligence it might 

 seem superfluous to say a word in regard to the importance of the 

 cultivation of science, or, in other words, of a knowledge of the laws 

 of the phenomena of the universe of which we form a part, yet it is 

 lamentably the case that few comparatively, especially among states- 

 men and politicians, and even among those devoted to literature and 

 the fine arts, properly appreciate the influence of abstract science on 

 the present condition of the civilization of the world. Living in the 

 present, enjoying its innumerable comforts and facilities of life, they 

 do not realize the conditions of the past, or, if they imperfectly realize 

 them, the changes are attributed to fortuitous circumstances really 

 exercising a subordinate influence, or to apparent proximate causes 

 such as the immediate practical application of science to art. 



It is only of late years that the investigations of the tendencies 

 and changes of the human family have been systematically studied 

 under the general denomination of anthropology, and its subdivisions 

 of ethnology and archaeology. From these studies we may infer that 

 man is a being capable of indefinite moral and intellectual develop- 

 ment ; not that he is a progressive being from the result of a law of 

 necessary development, but, as it were, providentially so under the 

 influence of certain essential conditions, among which are, first, free- 

 dom of intercourse of different peoples, and the ready interchange of 

 thought ; second, a prevailing religion which shall enjoin purity, love, 

 justice, and truth ; and, third, an ever-increasing knowledge of the 

 laws, or principles, of the changes of the phenomena of Nature which 

 constitute abstract science. That man is not necessarily a progressive 

 being is shown by the fact that large portions of the inhabitants of 

 the world are still in a condition of barbarism, from which they show 



