846 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



more to revolutionize life than even the 

 discovery of Galvani as developed iu the 

 electric telegraph. 



In the fourth place, science, instead of 

 repressing, as some erroneously believe, 

 tends to develop the imagination. Our 

 autlior puts the case well : " All great 

 scientists have, in a certain sense, been 

 great artists; the man with no imagina- 

 tion may collect facts, but he can not 

 make great discoveries. If I were com- 

 pelled to name the Englishmen who 

 during our generation have had the 

 widest imaginations and exercised them 

 most beneficially, I think I should put 

 the novelists and poets on one side, and 

 say Michael Faraday and Charles Dar- 

 win." When facts have been accumu- 

 lated and classified and their relations 

 have been carefully traced, the next 

 step is the discovery of some compre- 

 hensive formula which, conceived as a 

 law or principle in nature, will sum up 

 and explain the totality of the phe- 

 nomena. This, as Prof. Pearson states, 

 "is the work not of the mere cataloguer 

 but of the man endowed with creative 

 imagination." 



Finally, science not only stimulates 

 but disciplines the imagination and, with 

 it, the aesthetic faculty. " "With the 

 growth of scientific knowledge," it is 

 well remarked, "the basis of the aes- 

 thetic judgment is changing and must 

 change. Many things in poetry and art 

 which pleased our grandfathers, or even 

 our fathers, are becoming to us, from 

 our changed point of view, insipid and 

 foolish. Many expressions that were 

 part of the recognized stock in trade of 

 poetry are losing, if they have not al- 

 ready lost, all their value for aesthetic 

 purposes. It is not that our generation 

 is growing less susceptible to beauty, 

 but that, it can not recognize as beaut y 

 that which is not felt to repose on the 

 true." In the conclusion of his introduc- 

 tory chapter Prof. Pearson states that 

 science endeavors to provide a mental 

 resume of the universe ; and, though 

 this great synthesis is not complete, and 



probably never will be, "it is better to 

 be content with the fraction of a right 

 solution than to beguile ourselves with 

 the whole of a wrong solution " words 

 which we heartily echo. We do not 

 think there is a point in this truly valu- 

 able chapter the introduction to what 

 is on the whole a most valuable book 

 on which we have not ourselves insisted 

 at one time or another ; but, as stated 

 above, we rejoice at the appearance in 

 the field of every new prophet of sci- 

 entific truth. Prof. Pearson is not a 

 new writer entirely, but in this work 

 he appeals to a new circle of readers, to 

 many of whom we have no doubt he 

 will bring home a new and salutary con- 

 ception of the place and function of sci- 

 ence in the modern world. The battle 

 of science seems to be nearly won, but 

 overconfidence is always dangerous, and, 

 as our author himself remarks, we see 

 in our time " the highest intellectual 

 power accompanied by the strangest re- 

 crudescence of superstition." Let the 

 guardians and champions of truth be, 

 therefore, unremitting in their vigilance 

 and ceaseless in their efforts, till science 

 has become to all mankind the symbol 

 of blessing and of hope. 



TEE ROCHESTER MEETING OE THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



Under the dignified and tactful presi- 

 dency of Prof. Joseph Le Oonte, of the 

 University of California, the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence held a pleasant and profitable meet- 

 ing at Kochester, August 17th to 23d. 

 The University of Eochester placed its 

 commodious buildings at the disposal of 

 the Association ; within a few paces 

 stood open the doors of the Ward Natu- 

 ral Science Establishment; the nurser- 

 ies, for which the city is famous, were 

 of easy access; and in its Silurian out- 

 croppings and glacial drift the vicinity 

 had much to attract the geologist. In 

 his address as retiring president, Prof. 

 A. B. Prescott, of the University of 



