84-2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE "LONG AND SHORT HAUL." 

 Editor Popular Science ifonthly : 



In the correspondence department of 

 your March number is a note from Mr. 

 Thomas L. Greene, in which he questions 

 the accuracy of some statements contained 

 in my article in the February " Monthly." I 

 admit that tlie ill eft'ects of the long and 

 short haul section are not apparent in cases 

 where its enforcement is suspended. My 

 criticism was written some six months since, 

 and before the policy of the commission of 

 granting "temporary relief" had become so 

 well delincd as has since been the case. At 

 that time the assumption seemed warranted 

 that that law (like all other laws) was to be 

 generally enforced. The exercise of " tem- 

 porary relief " (permission to violate), which 

 it is optional with the commission to apply or 

 withhold in specific cases, places a tremen- 

 dous power in its hands, and only the fact 

 that its present members are incorruptible 

 insures present safety. All law, theoreti- 

 cally, is general, impartial, and just in prin- 

 ciple, but when its enforcement or violation 

 is left optional with any tribunal, however 

 competent, there is danger ahead. It would 



be unique to include among the merits of a 

 law the easy facilities for its violation. 



IIenhy Wood. 

 Boston, March 2, 1SS8. 



"THE TIME OF FIGS." 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



In my letter, which you published in the 

 March number, my main object was to state 

 the fact that the fig-tree in southern Palestine 

 should have figs in some stages of develop- 

 ment on it at all seasons, though it is a fact 

 that, in some varieties of figs, the fruit is a 

 long time in ripening. The fruit of three 

 seasons is sometimes found on the tree at the 

 same time. It is true that one of the evan- 

 gelists states that "the time of figs was not 

 yet." That remark can only mean — as nearly 

 all commentators interpret it — that the time 

 of general harvest of tigs for preserving pur- 

 poses had not yet arrived ; consequently, it 

 was an additional reason for the condemna- 

 tion of the fruitless tree, instead of a reason 

 why it should not be condemned. 



J. W. HCNTOON, M. D. 

 Lowell, Mass., March 1, 1S88. 



EDITOR'S TABLE, 



SCIENTIFIC HABITS OF Til OUGHT. 



IT is a question well -worth consid- 

 ering, how scientific habits of 

 thought are best to be formed, main- 

 tained, and strengthened. Such is the 

 prestige of science in the present day, 

 so thoroughly is scientific reasoning rec- 

 ognized as tlie type of all true reason- 

 ing, that nobody with any pretensions 

 to intelligence would wish to be accused 

 of thinking unscientifically. At the 

 same time there is a vast amount of un- 

 scientific thinking being done on every 

 hand ; and men of almost every grade 

 of cidturo may be found, the tone of 

 whose minds is unscientific to the last 

 degree. Let us see if we can throw 

 into some kind of acceptable shape the 

 general principles to be observed by 

 whosoever would be saved from irra- 

 tionality and a spirit of opposition to 

 the trutli — whosoever would wish to 

 liavo scientific habits of thought in tlio 

 best sense. 



It is probably correct to say that 



science was first forced upon men's 

 minds by the repeated presentation of 

 the same phenomenon with an unvary- 

 ing accompaniment of antecedent and 

 consequent. "Without entering upon a 

 discussion of the nature of our concep- 

 tion of cause, we may say that science 

 is nothing else than a knowledge of the 

 permanent relations, whether causal or 

 other, of things to one another. Na- 

 ture, in the first place, forces us to 

 recognize certain uniformities : some 

 minds not only learn the particular les- 

 son so taught, but, entering into the 

 spirit of Nature's teaching, run on to 

 discover further uniformities for them- 

 selves. These, to whatever age they 

 belong, are the scientific spirits of their 

 time. Others there are who look upon 

 every such lesson as an infringement of 

 their natural liberty to think and be- 

 lieve without any reference to the 

 bounds of lart'. These learn only what 

 they must, and, beyond the region of 

 palpable and irresistible demonstration, 



