1897. CORRESPONDENCE. 359 



" the coelomic corpuscles are red" (p. 305) — words which are certainly taken to 

 mean all corpuscles. As to the gonoducts of the same suborder (not of " other genera " 

 only, as Mr. Goodrich has it), it is said, p. 305, " special genital funnels exist in more 

 or fewer of the anterior segments of the hind body." The passage, p. 331, relates to 

 Capitella capitala alone, a smentioned before. The Reviewer has always regarded 

 incomplete statements of fact, however they may arise, as very dangerous, and in 

 nine cases out of ten as erroneous, especially if they appear to be complete or are 

 certain to be taken as complete ; and experience proves that they are a most fruitful 

 source of error to others. He is well aware that Hatschek's observations on the 

 larval Po/)'^of(fms have not been confirmed, nor yet disproved, a position in which stand 

 many most important and much-used facts. He is sorry to read the last paragraph 

 of the letter. The writer has assuredly forgotten in particular the opening remarks 

 of ample praise in the review. They were applied to the contents of the whole 

 volume, and therefore to Polychscta ; and they have at least sufficiently gratified the 

 publishers of the Natural History to be quoted in a recent advertisement of the 

 work.] 



Mr. Berthelot on Science and Morality. 



There are one or two points brought forward in Mr. Berthelofs recent work 

 " Science et Morale " that ought to be carefully considered, and are especially 

 interesting and important as bearing on the attitude of certain eminent men in this 

 country towards science and culture. The first point relates to the ultimate pre- 

 dominance of science in all human affairs. " Science," says Mr. Berthelot, 

 "dominates all things, it alone is of any definite utility. No man, no institution shall 

 henceforth have an enduring authority if they do not conform themselves to its 

 precepts." Now, it may be remarked that, although in a mundane sense science 

 actually does dominate everything, it is scarcely correct to hold, as Mr. Berthelot 

 does, that morality has no other basis than that which science furnishes. The true 

 basis of morality, humanly speaking, is humanity, i.e. it is the emotions, not the 

 intellect — it is the native-born appetency of the heart, which, however, being a mere 

 blind force and not a guiding law, will inevitably lead to ruin unless it be authorita- 

 tively dominated by the highest intelligence, i.e. by science. Hence, moreover, it is 

 just this misconception involved in the attributing everything to science, or rather 

 in not confining it strictly within its own functional limits, that is the true cause of 

 the enmity exhibited towards the ecclesiastical spirit by Berthelot, Huxley, and 

 other eminent men. The ecclesiastical spirit is, like everything else, as these 

 castigators would admit if they could only see it, " dominated by science " ; and 

 where this influence fails, it degenerates into a form of selfishness, which certainly 

 merits all the vituperation shed on it by clever platform rhetoricians. Mr. Berthelot, 

 like Huxley, is a good hater of " false pretence and unscientific method," but it is 

 not very creditable to these men that they should seek to fasten these characteristics 

 on the ecclesiastical spirit properly so-called, or on its sound-headed impersonators. 

 In fact, it is exactly this sort of thing that has inflicted on science in our country 

 the most deterrent and retrograde blow that it has perhaps ever received at any 

 epoch. Why cannot our fashionable orators and writers of lay sermons understand 

 this much, viz., that the kind and quality of intelligence and ideas that lead to the 

 correct and proper study of science lead also to correct and proper ideas anent 

 religion and morals. 



If the foregoing views be correct, it will be tolerably easy for anyone to under- 

 stand how it is that so much of Mr. Berthelofs powers and talents have been 

 diverted from the channel of pure chemistry and veritable science to that of 

 mechanics. In point of fact, it would seem, according to his later works at all 

 events, that his reaX forte is that of a mechanical engineer, i.e., the skilful, accurate, 

 and definite application of science to industry. If this be so, then we can further 

 understand most of " the rest of it." For instance, his hostility to the divine origin 

 of moral laws, his failure to see that no amount of what he calls " le mecanisme de 

 la preparation " for admission into the higher schools can seriously and permanently 

 affect the health of an originally sound mind or sound body. It may be averred 

 with considerable assurance that the strain inflicted on youthful candidates, save 



