EDITOR'S TABLE. 



841 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE INSOLENCE OF OFFICE. 



SHAKESPEAKE, who knew a good 

 deal, in enumerating some of the 

 ills of life, coupled with "the insolence of 

 office," " the spurns that patient merit of 

 the unworthy takes." For a present-day 

 commentary on these familiar texts we 

 refer our readers to the article by Dr. 

 E. "W. Claypole, which appears in this 

 number, under the title of Prof. G. F. 

 "Wright and his Critics. Prof. "Wright 

 is a man who has for many years past 

 been devoting so much of his time as 

 he could spare from other duties to the 

 study of a certain class of geological 

 phenomena — those connected with the 

 so-called Glacial period. Not being 

 aware that there was any apostolical 

 succession in science, but thinking rather 

 that it was a field which any one might 

 enter and cultivate to the best of his 

 ability, Prof. Wright did not seek any 

 official consecration for his labors, but 

 simply went ahead, read all he could 

 read, saw all he could see, worked over 

 his materials as carefully as he knew 

 how, and after some time produced a 

 book which had the good fortune to be 

 favorably received both in this country 

 and in Europe. This book was guarded 

 in statement, modest in tone, and scien- 

 tific in method and spirit. The learned 

 world found a good deal in it that was 

 of value, and general readers must have 

 deemed it interesting, for, though only 

 four years old, it has already passed 

 into a third edition. There was nothing 

 in this, one would suppose, to provoke 

 the wrath or jealousy of other scientific 

 workers. Nevertheless, in a certain 

 quarter, wrath was stored up for the 

 author; the storm center was at the na- 

 tional capital, and its core, if we may 

 use the expression, was in the Geological 

 Survey. Of all arrogant things in the 

 world official science is perhaps the most 



arrogant, and of all obstructive things 

 official science is perhaps the most ob- 

 structive. The gentlemen of the Survey, 

 or a number of them at least, were out- 

 raged to think that, while they were pot- 

 tering in the leisurely fashion natural to 

 Government officials over the questions 

 in which they deigned to interest them- 

 selves, a man like Prof. "Wright, who de- 

 voted only a portion of his time to geol- 

 ogy, should have the audacity to come 

 forward and express his views on one 

 of those questions. They did not at 

 first attack his book on The Ice Age 

 in North America, but they apparently 

 determined to watch the subsequent 

 movements of this dangerous man, and, 

 if occasion offered, to empty on him the 

 vials of their official displeasure. The oc- 

 casion was given by the publication ot 

 his book on Man and the Glacial Period ; 

 and tlien, all along the line, began a 

 withering — or what was meant to be a 

 withering — fire of criticisms on the pro- 

 fessor and his work as a geologist. His 

 one unpardonable sin would seem to 

 have been that he had taken the word 

 of scientific prophecy out of the mouths 

 of the priestly caste at "Washington. 

 Had he only kept silence, they would, 

 in their own good time, have told the 

 world as much as it was good for it 

 to know about the Glacial epoch and 

 the antiquity of the human race. But, 

 by his untimely publications, he had 

 disturbed their sacred broodings over 

 these momentous problems, and made 

 it necessary for them to raise a warn- 

 ing cackle — like the sacred geese of 

 Rome — to save the citadel of scientific 

 truth from sack and pillage. Is it any 

 wonder that the cackle was noisy and 

 harsh and unamiable ? Under circum- 

 stances so distressful how could it be 

 otherwise ? Some samples of it are 

 given in Dr. Claypole's article, which 



