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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But he is a sorry physician who is con- 

 tent with a diagnosis of the disease, and 

 prescribes no preventive, or even remedy ; 

 and as in the corporeal body, so in the body 

 corporate the best remedy is that which 

 operates through natural forces : let us see if 

 such cannot be made available. Cannot this 

 drift cityward be checked, or even turned 

 backward, by rendering farm-life more at- 

 tractive to young men ? For example : 



Instead of isolated homesteads, often 

 miles asunder, why not dedicate a central 

 space for a good, old-fashioned Saxon 

 "common," which might hold the school, 

 the church, the park, and other amenities 

 of civilization, and be surrounded by the 

 dwellings of the settlement? And why 



cannot parents, instead of placing their 

 sons in dusty city offices, or behind ignoble 

 counters, enable these young men with 

 the aid of competent experts, where neces- 

 sary to establish such settlements ? Might 

 not education in such a community, by em- 

 bracing the study of natural objects, applied 

 science, and the practice of handicrafts, 

 convert material that now evolves into 

 boors, " hoodlums," or " counter-hoppers," 

 into interested (because intelligent) and oc- 

 cupied producers, for whom rural life and 

 scenes would possess attractions superior to 

 the vulgar dissipations of the faubourg and 

 the feverish competitions of trade? 



G. H. Kxight. 

 Cincinnati, August 10, 1STT. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



NARROWNESS AMONG MEN OF SCIENCE. 



r~T is a great mistake to suppose .that 

 -*- all the influences exerted on the 

 mind by scientific study are necessa- 

 rily of a widening or liberalizing char- 

 acter. There is an immense amount 

 of legitimate scientific work that does 

 not tend to produce any such effect, 

 but, on the contrary, has a narrowing 

 and cramping influence upon the intel- 

 lect. The intense and prolonged con- 

 centration of thought upon special in- 

 quiries, when it becomes a habit, ex- 

 cludes that breadth of view which can 

 only be attained by contemplating sub- 

 jects in their wide relations. Absorp- 

 tion in detail is inevitably unfavorable 

 to the grasp of principles, so that the 

 mere specialist is never a philosopher. 

 Of course, all strong scientific men 

 must be more or less specialists, must 

 limit themselves to restricted portions 

 of the scientific field ; but in such minds 

 the narrowing influences of particular 

 studies are counteracted by keeping up 

 an interest in various subjects, and the 

 comprehensive results of research. 

 There are many scientific workers, 

 however, who fail to do this, who lose 

 themselves in their own narrow de- 

 partments, and become, not only in- 

 appreciative of the grand connections 

 of scientific truth, but contemptuous of 



the higher work of scientific generali- 

 zation. They applaud observation and 

 experiment, and the accumulation of 

 isolated facts, and stigmatize as mere 

 theorizers those who labor to organize 

 these facts and observations into ra- 

 tional systems. It is not to be ex- 

 pected, nor is it desirable, that all sci- 

 entific workers should be philosophical 

 thinkers, but there is great need that 

 many of them should cultivate a more 

 liberal spirit in this respect, and recog- 

 nize that the systematic study of the 

 relations of the sciences is as much a 

 legitimate specialty as the working 

 out of their separate and disconnected 

 facts. 



There is another respect in which a 

 large class of scientific men exhibit a 

 narrowness of feeling that is far from 

 commendable. They cherish but little 

 sympathy with the work of diffusing 

 science, and take frequent occasion to 

 disparage the motives and character of 

 those of their brethren who devote 

 themselves to this kind of labor. We 

 are glad to notice that the Saturday 

 Review administers a just rebuke to 

 these illiberal and censorious gentle- 

 men. Commenting upon President 

 Thomson's address before the British 

 Association, that journal remarks: 



" It is a thankless office to have to re- 



