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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



its. If, therefore, the Duke of Argyll 

 does not wish us to frame large hypothe- 

 ses, he must prohibit and prevent our 

 forming small ones. He must break us 

 into seeing miracle everywhere. There 

 is really no tenable middle ground be- 

 tween the reign of superstition, with all 

 its blindness and terrors, and the reign 

 of science, with its calm, undismayed 

 survey of realities. The Duke of Argyll 

 and other assailants of evolution may 

 find many flatterers among the timid 

 and the reactionary, but they will not 

 persuade the world to return to the 

 standpoint of the middle ages, nor will 

 they ever succeed in appreciably retard- 

 ing the march of science or the growth 

 of a scientific philosophy. 



PETITIONS FOR RAIN. 



The vicissitudes of the seasons give 

 rise every year to more or less contro- 

 versy as to the propriety and efiicacy 

 of petitions for changes in the weather; 

 and we notice discussions of this char- 

 acter now in progress in different quar- 

 ters. It is ill arguing against sentiments 

 that have almost the force of instincts ; 

 and we have no wish to say or do any- 

 thing calculated to check the exercise 

 of a religious spirit. The number, how- 

 ever, is probably increasing from year to 

 year of those who are disposed to regard 

 the question referred to mainly as one 

 of evidence, and in the few remarks we 

 have now to make, it is this class exclu- 

 sively that we have in view. 



Among the things we know on this 

 subject is the fact that, in all ages, the 

 weather has been a frequent cause of 

 anxiety to mankind, particularly to 

 those immediately depending on the 

 soil for the reward of their labor. In 

 all ages there have been seasons of 

 hurtful drought and seasons of exces- 

 sive rain, seasons of deficient heat and 

 seasons of undue heat, and men have 

 been compelled to adapt themselves to 

 these varying conditions as best they 

 could. Occasionally the abnormities 



of the weather have been such as to 

 produce famine on a wide scale ; and it 

 is to be remarked that the intensity of 

 these visitations has been proportioned 

 to the ignorance and general backward- 

 ness of the communities upon which 

 they have fallen. In all ages prayer has 

 been resorted to as a means of obtain- 

 ing propitious seasons, and often it has 

 been re-enforced by sacrifices, human or 

 other; but history furnishes no evidence 

 whatever that the weather has at any 

 period, or under any religious dispen- 

 sation, been governed or modified by 

 such expedients. What has been the 

 case in the past holds good to-day. We 

 have, like the ancient Romans, Greeks, 

 Indians, and Chinese, our favorable sea- 

 sons and our unfavorable ones. The 

 farmer has his battles to fight just as of 

 old ; and there is, perhaps, reason to 

 believe that his more highly developed, 

 or, at least, specialized strains of fruits, 

 vegetables, and grains are more liable to 

 the attacks of parasites, and more sensi- 

 tive to atmospheric conditions, than were 

 those of ancient times. On the other 

 hand, the civilized farmer of our cent- 

 ury has a greater command of scientific 

 knowledge wherewith to combat his 

 foes than was possessed by the agricult- 

 urist of two thousand or even of one 

 hundred years ago, while the commu- 

 nity as a whole possesses resources of 

 capital and facilities both of communi- 

 cation and of transportation such as to 

 put famine on a large scale almost out 

 of the question. We may thus claim to 

 have positive and conclusive evidence 

 that the security of human life depends 

 in the most direct manner on knowl- 

 edge and social organization, while we 

 are compelled to recognize a complete 

 lack of evidence that it depends directly 

 or indirectly on anything else. What is 

 true of the vicissitudes of the seasons is 

 true also of diseases and pestilences. 

 Prayer has always been resorted to to 

 ward them off ; but history tells us that, 

 in ages of ignorance, they were vastly 

 more severe aud destructive than they 



