vii.] M.4KR1E1) LIFE. 191 



pigmies of the next. Homer, and Plato, and Shakespeare, 



and Bacon must dwindle into insignificance as the world 



grows older. These views Macaulay sought to establish 



by pointing to the fact, that any mechanic can now 



!i in a few d;,ys more about the celestial bodies from 



iiomy, than the astronomer of the Middle 



Ages could learn in a lifetime ; and Faraday taught the 



boys and girls in his Christmas-holiday lectures 



more chemistry than all the alchemists ever knew. 



These plausible sophistries were, of course, set off by 



brilliant rhetoric and by amusing illustrations which all 



-iaie. But they were too false in themselves, 



and too likely to find favour with the ignorant and the 



self-conceited, for Forbes to allow them to pass unchal- 



_ed. He therefore entered into a thorough and 



elaborate exposure of the falseness of Macaulay's whole 



t ion ; and, after delivering his views in two 



essive lectures to his class, he published them in 



the form of a small book, entitled ' The Danger of 



riicial Knowledge/ 



irbes 1" pin by showing, that the terms 'great* and 

 ' little ' are really unmeaning if used in relation either to 

 the whole amount of truth in itself, or to the whole of 

 what is knowable by man. It- is only in reference to the 

 mind that receives knowledge, and to its capacities of 

 . that knowledge can be called either great- 

 little. It is even repugnant to common sense to 

 ;itely of a little knowledge being a dangerous 

 tiling. If it be dangerous, it is dangerous to some- 

 thing sentient and capable of inquiry to the human 

 understanding which receives the knowledge ; anl thus 

 I may be expected t<> vary, not according to 

 absolute measure and amount of the knowledge, 

 according to the capacity, the habits of thought, and 

 the previous attainments of the mind to which it is 

 And the same ivlat iveiie.-s holds not only 

 individuals, but \\ith regard to the 

 ii in di. nd to dilleivnt nai 



in the 



