49^ 



NA TURE 



[September 20, 1900 



The belittling process, though unjustifiable, was understand- 

 able enough in those old days of controversy. To-day it seems 

 raher uncharitable. C. Simmonds. 



Thurlow Hill, West Dulwich, September 17. 



A Large Tasmanian Crab. 

 I AM sending you a photograph of a large crab {Psilocramum 

 ^gas), caught in the Tasmanian waters during the present 

 month. The crab weighed 30 lbs. It is one of the largest that 

 has been caught in these waters. We have several specimens 

 in the Tasmanian Museum weighing from 16 to 22 lbs. They 



are generally caught by the fishermen in very deep water, from 

 fifteen to thirty fathoms, while fishing for the fish known as the 

 Tasmanian Trumpeter {Latris hecateia). 



I shall be glad to know whether readers of Nature have 

 ever known of a larger Psilocraiiium gigas having been caught. 



Alex. Morton. 



Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, July 30. 



Large Puff Balls. 



Having seen in some papers lately notices of large pufif balls, 

 it may probably be of interest to record the measurements of one 

 far exceeding in size any I ever heard of. 



It was found by my daughter, Mrs. Pole-Carew, in a small 

 park belonging to me near this place, where she is residing. I 

 took careful measurements of it at the time it was found, of 

 which I send you a copy. 



It differed in no respect except size, either inside or out, from 

 the ordinary smooth puff ball. 



Measurements of a large Puff Ball found in Chipley Park, near \ 

 Wellington, Somerset, /une 12, 1900. j 



Horizontal circumference 

 Vertical ditto, greatest 

 ,, ,, smallest 



Height 



Greatest width 

 Smallest ,, 

 Weight 



57 inches 



51 



46 „ 



14 



i8i „ 



17 



14 lb. 10 oz. 



W. A. Sanford. 

 Nynehead Court, Wellington, Somerset, September 11. 



"A Tour through Great Britain in 1727." 

 Is not the "Tour" queried by your reviewer (p. 417, 

 column 2) that of Defoe, which has frequently been reprinted? 

 and yet the first edition {1724-27) is still the best, in spite of 

 re-editors and its extension from three vols, to four. 



Ulverston. S. L. Petty. 



NO. l6l2, VOL. 



6.] 



PROF. HENRY SIDGWICK. 

 T^HE death of Henry Sidgwick entails the removal of 

 *- one of the most potent influences that have been 

 felt in Cambridge for the last forty years. Only a brief 

 allusion can be made here to the time and energy which 

 he devoted to University afifairs, and to the constant and 

 generous aid given by him to departments handicapped 

 by poverty. As one of the strongest leaders in Univer- 

 sity policy, his power depended on a practical insight and 

 decision of view for which those who know him only 

 through his writings would be unlikely to credit him. 



He was born in 1838. His father, the Rev. William 

 Sidgwick, was headmaster of the Skipton Grammar 

 School. Having been at Rugby under Dr. Goulburn, he 

 entered Trinity College in October 1855. In 1859 he 

 took his degree as Senior Classic and 33rd Wrangler, 

 was elected to a Trinity Fellowship, and soon afterwards 

 appointed Lecturer in Classics and Assistant Tutor. His 

 interest in literary criticism and in problems of practical 

 ethics was indicated, at this early stage, by various minor 

 writings, of which we may specially mention an article 

 on "The Prophet of Culture" {Macmillan's Magazine, 

 1867), in which he made a very characteristic examination 

 of Matthew Arnold's closing lecture at Oxford. In 1868 

 was founded a Society, called "The Free Christian 

 Union," of which Sidgwick was vice-president. His 

 famous essay on " The Ethics of Conformity and Sub- 

 scription" (1870) was written at the Society's request. 

 This period of his life culminated in 1869 in the deter- 

 mination to give up his Trinity Fellowship on the ground 

 that he no longer believed in the explicit creed to which the 

 holders of Fellowships were required to subscribe under 

 the old system of "tests." This action of Sidgwick's and 

 the similar acts of some of his friends and contemporaries 

 were undoubtedly important forces in the promotion of 

 the abolition of the tests. Not long after, Sidgwick was 

 made Lecturer and Examiner in the Moral Sciences, and 

 later, Praslector in Moral and Political Philosophy at 

 Trinity. In 1881 he was elected to an Honorary Fellow- 

 ship there, and in 1883 he succeeded Birks in the 

 Knightbridge Professorship of Moral Philosophy, which 

 he resigned at the beginning of his illness last June. 



As a teacher, Sidgwick exerted a profound and en- 

 during influence, largely due to the extraordinary patience 

 and quick perception with which he recognised and criti- 

 cised the efforts of his pupils at independent thought. 

 He presented to them an ideal of conscientious thorough- 

 ness in the pursuit of speculative truth, which has 

 impressed and inspired even those who have developed 

 their thought in directions far removed from his own. 



Sidgwick's most important work, "The Methods of 

 Ethics," was published in 1874 (2nd ed., 1877 : 3rd, 

 1884 ; 4th, 1890; 5th, 1893). Its purpose is unlike that 

 of most other modern works in philosophy. Not aiming 

 directly at the construction of an ethical system, it 

 adopts rather the Socratic method of stimulating the 

 plain man to examine his own principles, and by self- 

 criticism to free them from vagueness, obscurity and in- 

 consistency. By many readers the unimpassioned, elabor- 

 ately reasoned, judiciously balanced criticism is found 

 unprofitable. But its penetrating subtlety and breadth 

 of view are characteristics which have been recognised 

 by all who have come under its influence, and have won 

 for it a place amongst the philosophical classics. In 

 general spirit it carries on the tradition of English 

 common-sense empiricism ; and, while to Sidgwick all 

 forms of transcendentalism were repellent, yet unUke 

 many of his predecessors in English philosophy, his 

 criticism of opposed schools of thought was always keen 

 and thoroughly scholarly. A different side of Sidgwick's 

 intellectual character is shown in his work on " Practical 

 Ethics," a collection of essays and addresses (1898), in 

 which his speculations are applied to the very definite 

 solution of actual problems of conduct in modern life. 



