EDITOR'S TABLE. 



413 



able doctrines of the past are in a fair 

 way to recover their former prestige 

 and influence. It is needless to say 

 that we do not accept this view of the 

 situation. In cosmic and in human 

 affairs there is certainly a law of 

 rhythm, as Mr. Spencer has so copi- 

 ously proved in a celebrated chapter ; 

 but rhythm is one thing and reversal 

 of a main movement is another. 

 There will come times when men will 

 in a measure tire of speculation, and 

 seek rather to rest in a partial conclu- 

 sion than to pursue further voyages 

 of discovery into the uniinown ; and 

 such a time may be expected after a 

 period of active and rapid theoretical 

 advance. At such a moment of lull 

 it is not surprising if the Philistines 

 of the intellectual world, who had 

 been more or less in hiding while the 

 forward movement was at its greatest 

 intensity, should venture from their 

 fastnesses and indulge in a few songs 

 of triumph ; but this need not dis- 

 turb the serenity of the army of prog- 

 ress. In due time the order to 

 march will be given, and then the 

 Philistines will keep out of the way. 

 Such, we think, is the situation at 

 the present time. The third quarter of 

 the century ^as a period of almost if 

 not of quite unparalleled scientific ac- 

 tivity. It gave birth to the most im- 

 portant work of Spencer, Darwin, and 

 the rest of the evolutionist school. 

 It brought important discoveries in 

 chemistry and biology, and rendered 

 a great deal of so-called orthodox 

 opinion in many departments of 

 knowledge forever obsolete. The im- 

 petus of this great movement last- 

 ed undiminished for several years 

 longer, and, if it has now slackened 

 in any degree, it is that the specific 

 need of the present day is rather a 

 careful survey and classification of 

 the results already obtained than a 

 further development of theory. We 

 want to know just where we are be- 

 fore we start again. To say that no 



opinions which were held with a good 

 deal of confidence ten or twenty 

 years ago have undergone any modi- 

 fication would be foolish. That is 

 not the way in which science ad- 

 vances ; it advances through constant 

 rectification of its observations and 

 adjustments of its point of view. A 

 change of opinion may involve loss, 

 perhaps fatal loss, to a system of 

 thought founded on authority, but 

 it means no loss to science, whose 

 vitality can never be impaired by ad- 

 ditional knowledge. As Mr. Spen- 

 cer has lately found occasion to say, 

 there may be much difi^erence of 

 opinion as to how species originate, 

 but this does uot in the least invali- 

 date the great law of evolution, 

 which finds illustrations on exery 

 page of the book of Nature. The 

 heritage of Darwin may be divided, 

 but at least no part of it is in posses- 

 sion of an antiscientific or antinatu- 

 ralistic school. All who to-day grap- 

 ple with the question of the origin 

 of species do so on a basis of purely 

 scientific observation and reasoning; 

 and even if the problem had to be 

 given up as too obscure and it is 

 quite possible that we do not even 

 yet know how obscure it is it would 

 still remain a problem of science, 

 not a problem of theology or meta- 

 physics. 



One most important characteristic 

 of science is that it can never really 

 be idle. If it is not doing one thing, 

 it is doing another; and its humbler 

 work or what seems so may be 

 not less useful, may indeed be more 

 useful, than its more ambitious ef- 

 forts. There is no department of 

 natui'al knowledge that is not day 

 by day receiving accretions which 

 all go to better in some way the 

 position of man upon the earth. It 

 will do no harm if for a time there 

 is less vague talk in regard to the 

 theoretical conquests of science: but 

 there need be no abatement of the 



