846 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wortliy persons having been drawn into 

 the pursuit of science, it apparently as- 

 sumes that they would display sufficient 

 ability in this field to make them very 

 dangerous. Our bogy-hunter says : 



As a rule, science turns itself away frona 

 producing what is not useful but injurious, 

 and concentrates its attention on what is likely 

 to benefit mankind. It helps, of course, to 

 make war inventions more effective, but no sci- 

 entific man has yet persistently searched for 

 means of destroying non-combatants whole- 

 sale, or for sterilizing vast tracts of country as 

 a lava-flood sterilizes them. If once, however, 

 tlie tone of scientific feeling is lowered, there 

 is no knowing how far the maleficent side of 

 science may be developed. . . . The results 

 of scientific discoveries intended to be bene- 

 ficial ai'e often, as it is, turned to very ill uses. 

 "What would be the result if we had hundi-eds 

 of active brains consciously attempting to 

 shape Nature's actions to evil ends? 



There is probably no career that is 

 less likely to hold any unworthy persons 

 who might be attracted to it than the 

 pursuit of science. A sufficient com- 

 mand of chemistry, for instance, to en- 

 able a man " actuated by worldly mo- 

 tives " to produce " an air-poison so po- 

 tent as to act instantaneously over a very 

 wide area " can not be acquired except 

 through an amount of patient research 

 that no such person would endure. The 

 Spectator had better sound its warnings 

 where they are more needed. Take the 

 field of literature, for example. Poets 

 receive and have long received a vast 

 deal more of adulation than has yet 

 fallen to the lot of men of science. We 

 like to think of poets as persons who can 

 utter none but fine and noble thoughts. 

 Is there not great danger that the ambi- 

 tious youth may say of poetry what The 

 Spectator imagines him saying of sci- 

 ence, " Here is a field in which I can ex- 

 change my brains and my assiduity 

 against popularity and worldly position 

 with great advantage?" Would it not 

 be better to withhold all marks of public 

 esteem from poets than to risk having 

 the craft adulterated with "persons pri- 

 marily actuated by worldly motives"? 

 Nor is this all. It is well known that 



poetry exerts a vast influence over the 

 passions of men. The oft-quoted saying, 

 " I care not who makes the laws of a 

 people if I may make their songs," terse- 

 ly attests this. What dreadful deeds a 

 populace might be incited to " if half the 

 [poets] were primarily anxious to sell 

 their powei-s [of song] to the highest bid- 

 der ! " Here, indeed, is a bogy by which 

 The Spectator might well be terrified. 



LITEEARY NOTICES. 



Africa and America. By Alex. Crfmmell. 

 Springfield, Mass.: Willey & Co. Pp. 

 466. 



It is difficult to finish this volume of ad- 

 dresses without renewed interest in the con- 

 dition and future of the African people. 

 The author has not only studied the needs 

 of the freedman in America, but through a 

 residence of twenty years on the western 

 coast of Africa has made himself acquainted 

 with the Liberian colonists and many native 

 negro tribes, and can differentiate the natu- 

 ral characteristics of his race from those 

 acquired in years of bondage. He allows 

 no rancor against those who have been its 

 oppressors to obscure his judgment, and 

 writes of slaveholders that they, " like all 

 other sorts of men, were divided into two 

 classes — the good and the bad." 



Far worse than any present political in- 

 justice is the terrible inheritance of two 

 hundred years of moral and intellectual deg- 

 radation. To counteract this, an uplifting 

 of character and industrial training are 

 needed. The educational and material prog- 

 ress since emancipation disproves any idea^ 

 of retrogression. According to the census 

 of 1880, the colored population was assessed 

 for over $91,000,000 of taxable property, 

 and nearly 16,000 school-teachers were 

 credited to them. 



The race problem can not be settled by 

 amalgamation nor by absorption. It is not 

 a social question, but one of civil and politi- 

 cal equality. Unless this is conferred upon 

 the negro, the democratic idea is a failure. 

 The trend of national affairs, however, is to- 

 ward a fuller realization of justice, and the 

 dwelling together of various races in amity. 



Several papers treat of the condition of 



