30 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



stands the mtaniiv.'- of (Icoriro Eliot's life, can doubt that 

 they were unit, il liv ;i tie \vhich was to them perfectly 

 sacred. Whftlu r, tlic i,vi>i-ld beingf what it is, — most 

 easily offended ■vvlierc il clTemls most ri'iidilv — Ceni-nre 

 Eliot and Georf^e Luwcs should h.-.vr . -rvMr.-.l ihrn.M-h-L-s 

 rather than oftcud the worse niiiul.il (1 m.:!! nmst lite- 

 rally sacrifir, themselves, becuusr tl.ev «nul>l h^ve s;ieri- 

 ficed the l"»tt, !]:,,■' - f tin ir life \Nork, ..£ wli 



1 pi> 



the 



It 

 selves, thor 



.aldr 



might 



These i» a case i 

 I can. hardly touch i 

 to a few. In the ciii 

 is married, and has : 

 which 'the \v,aM'~ ^• 





li>n-ht; 



the ^ 





.r, (iiiaking no sacriliL'e.s itself 

 ,!■ elaimed from Georire Kiiut 

 made hv this w-oman;iiid the 

 man, who lov, -, ]m i a. l,i, life, and esteems her a,, the 

 bravest of lier sex. Thus have two lives been ei.ibutered. 

 Has the world's worse part understood — h<iy, ]<\n neitlier 

 name of these two can be mentioned, before all but a few 

 who know, and a few more who can under.itand goodness, 

 without the foule.^t abuse from those who only know and 

 onlyreallvundi r.^tund that they themselves are incapable 

 of seK-sacriliee in >v,eh matter.s— or even of self-sacrifice 

 in what, to persons of the class to which George Eliot 

 belonged, is wn held wortliv of a thought. 



That George Eliot "anonymously preached per 

 Dinah, while she utterly disbelieved Dinah's rhetoric," 

 is a roundabout and ill-worded saying scarce woith 

 answering. As a matter of fact, George Eliot pictured 

 a Methodist of the best type preaching as such a person 

 would. I apprehend, moreover, that with the essence 

 of what Dinah taught George Eliot was perfectly in 

 sympathy. George Eliot's life was beautiful, in its 

 tender kindliness, and her philosophy was as gracious 

 and loving as it wa.s wise. 



T. that 



seen lightning-flashes j^a,- 

 .storm-cloud. His words 



fessor Tait did, l"kno«-, a 

 lecture in which he was 



published in the 0.r,.'/;i' 

 not only on this ]>oiui. Im 

 electric flash, and s-iiie < 

 had presented some ratlu 

 larly .struck liy this be 

 criticised a work of mini 

 for which he first acquire 

 case. The point of tliis s 

 • mythine like direct 



friend the Edit, 



crs he has 

 tlf L-r. und to the 

 -i.-, I'r fessor Tait," 

 ike iq.ifMnL-^:' Pro- 

 i be impossible, in a 

 jh to reproduce my 

 I'h'ctric Lightine,' 



s I-,..- 



■V.) 



to quote a passage and exclaim, " These be thy Gods, O 

 Israel," or the like, leaving the reader to suppose-^in- 

 correctly — ^that there is something very wrong. 



With all respect for my friend the Editor's keenness of 

 observation, and (I need hardly say) the most perfect 

 reliance on his account as i.resenting"what he thought he 



.saw, I venture to say that no huiuaii l.eiu- can really 



ible fro,, 



3 de- 



M'e knol 



lifferent 



[.ii'-"iiali: y " in transit 

 mparing the work of 

 rvers that nu ob.^erver can be tru.sted to tell 

 V, ithiu tlie tentli <'f a Second, .<urthu the instant when a 

 -wire" (s^:. calkd) reaches a star," i.e., no one can tell 

 ^^hetller at the particular ii.siant v,ho„ the wire actnaUy 

 does reach llie .star, it has really roaehed it, or has 

 already ]ia.ssed it, or is short of it, by one-tenth of a 

 second's apparent motion of tliat star. Now let us see 

 what an observer really claims to do when he undertafces 

 to decide whether tlie earth end or the cloud end of a 

 flash appeared fir.^t. Sujipose the flash to be fifteen 

 miles long, which for a flash whose whole course is visible 

 is a -. .odlv allowance. Then it is known that the flash takes 

 K ~s than the 10,000th part of a second in traversing that 

 distance, whether it pa.sses from cloud to earth or from 

 earth to cloud or both ways simultaneously. Actual 

 timing of the duration of the light indicates a much 

 shorter time, usually, even tlian tiiis, (it is well known 

 that Talbot jihotographed fine printing on a rapidly 

 whirling wheel, illuminated by an electric flash, SO 

 minute was the change in the liosition of the wheel's 

 rim while the light lasted). In claiming, then, to know 

 which ^^ay an ordinary lightning-flash travelled, the 

 observer claims a keenness of perception more than a. 

 tJionmnd tiDirs jreater than that of our most experienced 

 astronomical observers. All that has really happened 

 when a lightning flash has been sctn to strike upwards, 

 has been that the observer has chanced to be looking 

 towards the earth when the flash ajipeared, so that he 

 has been fir.st conscious of the appearance of the earth- 

 end of the flash. 



I H.VVF not been content to let this be a mere theory, 



thoucrh T »"'-■■ '* *i e reasoning, rightly understood, is 

 convii ' ^ -Ted the matter repeatedly. Let 



severJ iiilv if tliem will do) watch the 



progr,- . : -torm. (In America, where I am 



now writing, il'^ i j j ormnities are almost too good, 

 thunderstorms beini;- verv fi'ri|ueiit, and in many of them 

 the lightning fl;i,.lii,iL.' " eoi.tinuously.) Let half the 

 observers direct tliiir ai:oMion to tlie storm-cloud or 

 clouds, the oth, r 1 :"' : . ■! I ■ ii . m It will be found 

 that the self-ssn ■ .' , ^-ni by one set 



to strike clou,, ' - i- half it will be 



as distinctly seen to siriLe ..].v, :.r.l. . In like manner the 

 self-same horizontal fla,sh will be distinctly seen to pass 

 from riirht to left, and as distinctly seen to pass from left 

 to right, according to the way in which the observer 

 chances to be looking at the instant. 



Col 



TtTlI.\! 



commenting at the Astronomical 

 heory tliat meteors and comets were 



whv. 



Mfty 



innocent reader imagining this last alternative to be im- | 

 possible or it would not be suggested. Another way is | 



1' !-:;■• 1...- tin,' l-..dL.i..s, inoyiug iLeielore « uh immense 

 rapidity — argued that the theorj- is contradicted by the 

 circumstance that the average velocity of meteors is 



