1875.] Science, her Claims, Position, and Duties. 75 
4 SCIENCE, HER CLAIMS, POSITION, AND 
DUTIES.* 
ip ROBABLY no literary production of the day has occa- 
¥ sioned so much excitement as the world-famed 
Address of Dr. Tyndall. Although bringing forward 
no new facts, no novel generalisations, it has—in virtue of 
the occasion, and of the high standing and official position 
of its author—called forth a deluge of criticism, as unique 
in quantity as (we would fain hope at least) in quality. In 
clubs and in taverns, in public conveyances and at tea- 
tables, in pulpits and on platforms, Dr. Tyndall has been 
the denounced of all denouncers. From Cardinal Cullen to 
Dr. Cumming, from Professor Blackie to Dean Cowie, 
clericals of all creeds, ‘‘ friars white, black, and grey,” are 
leagued against the bold speaker. Dr. Magee has treated 
the world to a ‘‘ Tale told by a bishop, full of sound and 
fury.” M.VAbbé Moigno has scarcely room left in his re- 
doubtable “‘ tete bretonne”’ for the great pyramid, and, not to 
speak of stray controversial paragraphs, has reprinted the 
speech with Ultramontane annotations, and addressed to 
Dr. Tyndall a serious and impertinent letter of remonstrance. 
As for the lighter attacks,—the cavils penned by fast 
litterateurs, or uttered by the self-styled “ respectable and 
intelligent classes,’-—they are absolutely beyond enumera- 
tion. Nothing more is wanting in this candid and appreci- 
ative style of criticism save that the ‘‘ Address” should be 
solemnly burned at Oxford, and formally condemned by his 
Holiness the Pope. If, as it has been suggested, one at least 
of Dr. Tyndall’s motives was to learn, by actual experience, 
how such a speech would be received, his curiosity has been 
fully gratified. There can be no doubt that, had the power 
been equal to the wish, he would, before this date, have 
shared the fate of Protagoras and Anaxagoras and Hypatia, 
of Roger Bacon and Virgilius of Salzburg, of Giordano 
Bruno and Vanini, of Telesio and Campanella, and many 
more who by some strange accident are wot mentioned in 
Sir D. Brewster’s ‘‘ Martyrs of Science.” 
If, as we hold, there is much in the ‘‘ Address” on which 
issue may fairly be joined, much that is incapable of demon- 
stration, and more, perhaps, that is inopportune, not the less 
do we feel bound to protest against the bulk of its critics. 
* Address Delivered before the British Association assembled at Belfast, 
with Additions, by JoHN TYNDALL, F.R.S., President. London: Longmans, 
Green, and Co. 
