544 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



so ignorant in most things, came, it was said, from their sincerity ; 

 they believed in the part they were playing, while the actor knows 

 he is an actor. Our inquiry among the world of comedians has 

 not confirmed these theoretical views. In the first place, we are 

 not convinced that an actor of genius would be so inferior to a 

 poor hysteric on whom the same part had been imposed by sug- 

 gestion ; and then this question of sincerity seems to us now 

 susceptible of a very large number of gradations. We can not 

 affirm that an actor plays without believing ; it is true that when 

 he has returned to his dressing room and has put away his bur- 

 den and become himself again, he no longer believes in the per- 

 sonality of his character, although he may still retain a part of 

 it ; but in the scene, in the heat of the action, he may be moved 

 on account of this artificial personage. The artistic emotion of 

 the actor exists, it is not an invention; it is lacking in some, 

 while in others it rises to paroxysm. Now, is not emotion an 

 essential element of sincerity ? In short, we believe there is no 

 radical difference, only a shade, between the actor and the subject 

 of suggestion. Translated and condensed for the Popular Science 

 Monthly from L'Annee Psychologique, vol. Hi (G. E. Stechert, 

 New York). 



SKETCH OF JAMES CROLL. 



IN awarding the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society of 

 England to Mr. James Croll in 1872, President Prestwich 

 spoke of the additional value Mr. Croll's labors had in the esti- 

 mation of the society from the difficulties under which they had 

 been pursued, and the limited time and opportunities he had had 

 at his command. Prof. A. C. Ramsay, accepting the medal for 

 Mr. Croll, said that he was all the more deserving of the honor 

 from the circumstance that he had risen to the place he had among 

 men of science without any of the recognized advantages of sci- 

 entific training, having won his position by his own unassisted 

 exertions. Mr. Croll indeed pursued the work which he carried 

 to an achievement that marked an era in geology under disabili- 

 ties and in the face of difficulties that would have deterred and 

 disqualified any but a man of the highest ability and most vigor- 

 ous energy. 



JAMES CROLL was born, the second of a family of four sons, at 

 Little Whitefield, parish of Cargill, Scotland, January 2, 1821, and 

 died in Perth, December 15, 1890. His father was a stone mason, 

 " mild, thoughtful, and meditative, and possessed of strong reli- 

 gious and moral sentiments " ; his mother was firm, shrewd, and 

 observing, and gifted with a considerable amount of "com- 



