500 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pations, and opinions, disposed to unite for 

 the mutual pursuit of history, science, and 

 the arts ; and that they will engage in it, 

 not in a spirit of exclusiveness, hut of be- 

 nevolence, aiming to develop a love for the 

 most elevated and accurate forms of knowl- 

 edge. It should be easy, in a multitude of 

 places, for associations formed with these 

 blended purposes to sustain twice a month, 

 or even weekly, during a large part of the 

 year, meetings for the purpose of listening 

 to papers, original or compiled, from mem- 

 bers or invited speakers, or for the discus- 

 sion of any topic introduced. By some such 

 method as this, local societies would be- 

 come schools of thought and learning for 

 the active members of the community in 

 hundreds of our towns and cities. There 

 might naturally follow a union of the socie- 

 ties of a State under a general society, for 

 the publication of such papers as might be 

 deemed suitable. 



" The extensive formation of such socie- 

 ties throughout the land seems so full of 

 promise and so potent for good as to justify 

 the establishment of a national society for 

 the organization of associations for the pur- 

 suit of knowledge. Such a society might 

 initiate efforts which would have the cordial 

 support of co-workers in every State of the 

 Union. The original name of our oldest 

 learned society, the American Philosophi- 

 cal, of which Franklin was the first presi^ 

 dent, was 4 The American Society for Pro- 

 moting and Propagating Useful Knowl- 

 edge.' The title is an indication of the ex- 

 panded and benevolent designs of its found- 

 ers. This society had, also, its standing 

 committee on history and commerce. If the 

 Smithsonian Institution, founded ' for the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge among 

 men,' should be able to incorporate, with 

 its present benefactions to science, the sup- 

 port of an agency for encouraging such so- 

 cieties as have been described, it might be 

 hoped it would not be a departure from the 

 spirit of its founder. It would be an agen- 

 cy, by whatever association it should be 

 controlled, for introducing and promoting a 

 plan for enlisting tens of thousands in the 

 direct study of science, art, and history. 

 Such societies would be the means of edu- 

 cating many communities to a loving appre- 

 ciation of scientific investigations, and of 

 correct views of human history. They 

 would contribute incalculably to the prog- 

 ress of American society and to the hap- 

 piness of millions." 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Elements of Physics, or Natural Philos- 

 ophy. By Neil Arnott, M. D., LL. D., 

 F. R. S. Seventh edition, edited by Alex- 

 ander Bain, LL. D., and Alfred Swaine 

 Taylor, M. D., F. R. S. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. Pp. 873. Price, $3. 



We are glad to see this sterling and fa- 

 vorite work brought up to date, as it is in 

 the edition now issued. A generation ago 

 Arnott's "Physics" was the leading text- 

 book on natural philosophy both in Eng- 

 land and this country, and we much ques- 

 tion if for educational purposes anything 

 equal to it has appeared since. We have 

 physical text-books with finer pictures, but 

 we have gone to an excess in this direction, 

 and greatly overdone the pictorial element. 

 It is an objection to large, elaborate, and 

 profuse illustrations, that they are costly, 

 that they trench upon the text, and often 

 give prominence to trivialities, simply be- 

 cause they afford an opportunity for a 

 showy engraving. The illustrations of a 

 high-grade scientific book should be simple, 

 and severely subordinated to the ideas they 

 exemplify. The cuts in Dr. Arnott's book, 

 while having no merit as mere pictures, are 

 perfectly sufficient for their purpose of illus- 

 tration. 



There is another objection to our recent 

 text-books of physics in the want of balance 

 or proportion in treating of subjects. The 

 rage for the new, and what is called keep- 

 ing up with the times, has led to undue 

 prominence in representing the last results 

 of science, and to a corresponding neglect 

 of those established facts and principles 

 which have lost their novelty because they 

 are old and well-settled. A book filled with 

 the recent wonders of research may be ex- 

 citing, and full of interesting information, 

 but these qualities cannot commend it to 

 students whose object is to acquire the body 

 of principles that constitute a science. In 

 this respect, and in physics especially, the 

 value of the old greatly preponderates over 

 that of the new. No doubt such works 

 should be up to date, and represent " the 

 present state of science," but facts discov- 

 ered a great while ago, and long-determined 

 laws, are quite as much parts of the present 

 state of science as the last results of in- 



