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THE POPULAR SCIBiVCE MONTHLY. 



made a lower through rate from San Fran- 

 cisco to Omaha tlian to Denver or Lincoln, 

 Nebraska, cx])rcssl_v to compete with their 

 Canadian rival, and complaints a;;ainst thcra 

 for this very tiling arc on file before the In- 

 terstate Commission. In their decision upon 

 this short-haul question in the Louisville 

 and Nashville case, the commission recog- 

 nize three reasons for disobeying the gen- 

 eral principle: (1) water competition, (2) 

 foreign competition, and (3) such a position 

 of railroads as would destroy competition if 

 condemned. In regard to this latter excuse 

 there arc also illustrations in our tariffs. 

 The Erie Railway makes the same or lower 

 rate from New York to Pittsburg via Youngs- 

 town, Ohio, than from New York to Youngs- 

 town. The Michigan Central quotes a rate 

 of thirty-nine cents from Buffalo to Goshen, 



Indiana, through Detroit, while charging 

 forty-one cents per hundred to lliles, Michi- 

 gan, a town thirty miles nearer. This comes 

 through competition with the Lake Shore 

 road, which is the short line from Buffalo 

 to Goshen, while the Pennsylvania Railroad 

 is the short line between Pittsburg and New 

 York. 



Into the general question of such a law I 

 do not now enter ; but are not the facts which 

 I have given, and which could be multiplied, 

 sufficient to show that the injurious effects 

 of the short-haul prohibition are greatly ex- 

 aggerated in the article referred to ? And 

 is it unfair to ask that something more 

 definite be stated before accepting so sweep- 

 ing a condemnation ? 



Thomas L. Greens. 

 New Toek, January, 1SS8. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



DARWIN'S EDUCATION. 



""VTO part of Darwin's biography is 

 J- 1 more interesting than the pages 

 which tell how liis powers first manifest- 

 ed themselves, and how they were edu- 

 cated. He shared the opinion of his 

 cousin, Francis Galton, that talent is 

 due to Nature rather than nurture, to 

 innate ability more than to education. 

 Crediting then to Nature Darwin's won- 

 derful aptitude for observation and for 

 protracted pondering over observed 

 facts until they became digested into 

 Iflws, it is instructive to note how badly 

 liis formal education was adapted to 

 draw out and develop his powers. For- 

 mal education, wo say, for what is stat- 

 edly taught is fortunately but a small 

 part of what is really learned. Dar- 

 win's teaching and training w'ere the 

 best current in his boyhood and youth, 

 the best which a wealthy and most in- 

 telligent father could provide him, and 

 this is his comment on his first school : 

 "Nothing could have been worse for 

 the develojiment of my mind than Dr. 

 Butler's school, as it was strictly classi- 

 cal, nothing else being taught, except a 

 little ancient geography and history. 

 The school as a means of education to 

 mo was simply a blank. During my 

 whole life I have been singularly in- 



capable of mastering any language. 

 Especial attention was paid to verse- 

 making, and this I could never do well." 

 At Edinburgh University, where he 

 spent two years, the instruction was 

 wholly by lectures; these he found in- 

 tolerably dull, with the exception of 

 those on chemistry. "When he went 

 to Cambridge, the recollection of the 

 Edinburgh lectures was so strong upon 

 him that he did not attend Sedgwick's 

 course. This he afterward much re- 

 gretted, as it seriously belated his study 

 of geology. He, however, derived great 

 advantage from Professor Ilenslow's 

 lectures on botany ; these he much ad- 

 mired for their extreme clearness and 

 fine illustrations. Otherwise, his inca- 

 pacity for mathematics and languages 

 made his Cambridge studies unprofit- 

 able. When a boy, Darwin was a col- 

 lector of shells, seals, coins, and miner- 

 als ; at Cambridge his passion for col- 

 lecting began to be purjjoseful, and he 

 confined himself to gathering insects. 

 While his formal education was so 

 meager, his real education was pro- 

 ceeding apace, mainly through friendly 

 intercourse with eminent teachers and 

 promising students of the university, 

 attracted by his charms of mind and 

 manner. 



