200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



no American was competent to undertake wliat lie lias success- 

 fully accomplislied ; and, later, dwells at length upon his improve- 

 ments in dynamo construction in the matter of revolving fields. 

 The importance of the device of rotating the fields instead of the 

 armature in the situation he was dealing with was great, but, as 

 that was the form of the first alternating dynamo ever constructed 

 (in 1833), the novelty of the mere principle, which is what he 

 refers to, is not greatly in evidence, nor, we may add, is the in- 

 ventive faculty. 



In leaving the non-inventive-humorous proposition he says : 

 "Invention and humor require a gift of imagination, the same 

 gift that shows itself in poetry and letters, in music, painting, 

 and sculpture; and in no one of these directions has this gift 

 of imagination been found to predominate among Americans." 

 Letting the last sentence pass, we may observe that it would be 

 as pertinent to deny to the ancient Greeks the possession of any 

 one of the qualities last named because (what will probably be 

 admitted) the inventive talent did not predominate among them. 



" They like giving big names to things in America," says our 

 scientist. " A pond is a lake, and a hill is a mountain ; they never 

 speak of the sea, it must be called the ocean ; a meeting is a con- 

 vention, a dictionary is a ' speller and a definer,' a town is a city, 

 a chairman is a president, and so on." If I am not mistaken. Max 

 O'Rell has told us much the same thing, and we ought therefore 

 to take it to heart. O'Rell has wonderful insight and an unfail- 

 ing impartiality, which Prof. Forbes lacks. Take, for instance, 

 the cases the latter cites in support of his proposition. How false 

 some of them are, and how purely local most of the rest ! Then, 

 to take one of his instances, it would seem as though Americans 

 were not exceeding their rights in using the word " city " in the 

 nationally defined technical sense of a place of over such and 

 such a population. The method possesses indisputable advan- 

 tages over the British plan, by which, we understand, no place 

 without a cathedral can be called a city. The latter system of 

 nomenclature has much to recommend it on the ground of mediae- 

 val simplicity, but results in the omission of several places of 

 great size and importance from the list of English cities. 



We are informed that in this country " the average man is not 

 a good specimen. He is apt to be a most awful ' bounder,' has no 

 taste, and does not know the meaning of the word ' repose.' " We 

 must waive comment on the first accusation on the ground of in- 

 sufficient information as to what a bounder is. As to the rest, we 

 might suggest to Prof. Forbes that one may possess all the repose 

 that ever marked the caste of Vere de Vere, when experimenting 

 with hons mots on railway conductors, and yet be sadly wanting, 

 both in that quality and in the good taste he refers to, in his liter- 



