KNO\VLEDGE ♦ 



[Jl-lt 24, 1885. 



proximity to the earth, a supposition which gives ns the "chip of 

 the old block" theory. If the moon's advent in our system were 

 as recent an occnrrence as " Hallyards " considers possible, the 

 geological formations would give unmistakable record of the fact, 

 and even sufEcient evidence to form an approximate date. The 

 solar tides are of comparatively little importance, and could never 

 be confounded with the lunar tides. 



With reference to tho colour of air, I cannot conceive a reason 

 why aqueous vapour should lose colour by being condensed, or why 

 the particular formation of the particles of water in aqueous vapour 

 should " show the colour." 



By admitting " Hallyards' " statement, that " A Scotch or Irish 

 landscape looks much bluer than a French one," his idea (that the 

 colour of the air is due to the water it contains) would lose its chief 

 support, for the warmer the climate the more water will its atmo- 

 sphere hold in suspension, which would give ns the maximum of 

 colour to the minimnm of water, and vicerersd. It is only fair to 

 add, however, that this is not the case ; as we proceed south the 

 colour of the sky is intensified, and consequently the colour of the 

 landscape. 



It was the fine blue of eastern skies which gave birth to the 

 " Waters above the earth " theory. 



That the air of Mars may be all oxygen, and therefore more life- 

 supporting than our own, is impossible. 



In the first place, life is maintained by the utilisation of that 

 property of oxygen, of readily combining with other elements to 

 its own contamination ; and, secondly, an atmosphere of pure 

 oxygen could never exist in the presence of many other elements 

 essential to life ; chemical action would ensue and destroy it. 

 _ The particular composition of our atmosphere must not be con- 

 sidered as the work of haphazard chance, but rather aa the result 

 of circumstances and causes which in all probability would be also 

 active in the planet Mars. "Hallyards" has entirely misnnder- 

 stood me in supposing I vr.iJa plained of his "m«y 6e's" ; he is at 

 liberty to draw an inference 'if he can give sufficient reason for 

 doing so ; it was the because I could not allow, the reason he gave 

 why oxygen might be red, was directly opposed to a fundamental 

 rule of chemistry, which makes the properties of a chemical 

 compound independent of the properties of its elements, whereas, 

 " Hallyards " seems to ignore the existence of such a force as 

 affinity, and argnes as though the properties of a compound were 

 the sum total of its ingredients : and the same mistake also occurs 

 in the following:— "oxygen may well be blue, since water contains 

 nine-tenths oxygen." From a chemical standpoint, oxygen and 

 nitrogen cannot be " frozen " or vapourised (hydrogen was never 

 mentioned); but, taken in a broader sense, "Hallyards" is no 

 doubt correct in assuming that all matter may be either gaseous, 

 liquid, or solid. Alex. Mackie. 



THE DIKECTION OF LIGHTNING. 



[1832] — Several years ago, late in summer, and in the dusk of 

 evening, I was on an open vehicle on a very exposed road, when a 

 hailstorm came on, to protect myself from which I put up my 

 umbrella, and as the wind was at my back some of its ribs neces- 

 sarily pointed upwards, whereupon they immediately became tipped 

 with the most beautiful pencils (not stars, mind yon) of electric 

 light I ever saw, affording thereby conclusive proof of the direction 

 of the current. Which being so, it now rests with those who deny 

 that lightning ever strikes upwards to show, if they can, how it 

 happens that what is possible under a weak electrical tension is 

 "impossible" under a strong one. — Yours faithfully, 



Wm. Allman. 



N.B. — In the great thunderstorm of June, 1846, which heralded 

 the potato failure in Ireland, the direction of the flashes of light- 

 ning was, mostly, neither up nor down, but horizontal. 



[The phenomenon witnessed by Mr. Allman was the ordinary 

 " brush discharge," familiar to all users of a frictional electrical 

 machine. What I understood the Conductor of Knowledge to 

 deny was, not that lightning strikes upwards, but that it is impos- 

 sible for the observer to see this. — Ed.] 



GEORGE ELIOT. 

 [1833]— This journal is specially interesting to me as being (I 

 think) of a unique type, "conducted" by one, "edited" by 

 another. "So far as we can make out" (said the Saturday, in 

 1874) " Lord Hartington is to act the part of a highly-respectable 

 man, content to be outshone whenever it pleases Mr. Gladstone to 

 throw the full solar splendour of his mind on any subject." You, 

 Mr. Editor, inserted the views of " Commentator" on the late Mrs. 

 Cross, and shortly after, on the same subject, gave us a note of 

 your own condemning public approval of concubinage. Now, these 

 pronouncements — " C.'s " explicitly, your own implicitly — have 

 given "intense pain" to our eminent conductor. "Something 



rotten in the state of Denmark" — or, let us take Japan. Tho 

 Mikado resumes the reins of power, displacing the Shogun. 



Treve de plaisantcric. I thought faith and morals* were to be 

 kept out of A". ; but, since it is not so, I implore Mr. Proctor to 

 state explicitly whether he really teaches that it is right and 

 laudable for any individual to dispense, for his own convenience, 

 with any particular precept, civil or religious, which may chance to 

 hamper him for the moment. 



If so, then there is no more law of any kind for anybody. As thus. 

 The sole standard of conduct for individuals has always been tho 

 rule settled by the society of which they form part. It is erroneous 

 to suppose that Christianity is the basis of our European code. 

 Horace derived stricter principles from his father than any younff 

 Italian of our day from his. I doubt whether any man ever waa 

 put to death for unchastity ; but vestals were, when Rome had as 

 much dominion over Italy as we now have over the Soudan. No 

 Christian child is ever guarded so strictly as were the young 

 Pagans — " Odisti claves, et grata sigilla pudico." Yet this very 

 same people gave a father the option of destroying his new-born 

 child ! In Lydia, the " whole duty of woman " when young, consisted 

 in earning her dowry by prostitution. In Assyria, every woman was 

 obliged, as a religious duty, to submit to prostitution once in her 

 life — (cunning fellows, those priests of Myrtilla — Herodotus says 

 no amount of money would induce an Assyrian woman to sell 

 herself afterwards) — Now, were these acts sinful ? No, says the 

 Catholic Church ; they violate no natural law, and so " heathens. 



t Chris 





3 the b 



doubt, that, for this reason Polynesian girls 

 are as fair morally as they are physically. But as regards 

 Europeans, the uniform result of my experience is that a woman 

 who disregards the standard of her society is morally hideous, 

 and falls behind in every respect. The heta?ra» of Athens were 

 not degraded by cruelty, rapacity, theft, and drink as are ours. 



Eenan remarks that vi'ryfeu- have the right to reject Christianity. 

 I do not beheve Miss Evans was one of these few, for the simple 

 reason of her sex. Women admit themselves they do not reason, 

 hut feel. Moreover, a woman who decides that all religious belief is 

 false commits an act of extreme arrogance which does not prepos- 

 sess. The pictures of George Eliot and Mr. Lewes are, both of 

 them, perfectly repulsive to me. 



In 1858 (and later) it was the custom at Brighton (and else- 

 where in England) for men to bathe from machines perfectly 

 naked. In 1868, any man so doing would have been not only fined, 

 but thought immoral. So true is it that public opinion for the 

 time being is the only law we may not violate. 



The sanction accorded by society to George Eliot is merely 

 another instance of the idolatry of success, which makes one blusb 

 for one's species. Without, it Lord Tennyson would not have taken 

 Miss Evans as a housemaid. With it, he adorned her drawing-room. 

 But why stop at her ? Go on to George Sand. Her liaisons were 

 legion. Why should she be fettered ? 



I conclude by a, few comments on some of Mr. Proctor's words 

 (which I run no risk of imagining, since I have them before me) : — 



"Of tho relations between G. E. and G. L. it becomes none to 

 judge, unless it can be shown that any one was personally wronged 

 in the matter." How about the popular phrase " the injured 

 wife ? " And, without that, are there no acts which do no harm 

 to anyone, but which society justly abhors and persecutes ? " Even 

 then, judgment by an outsider would be improper." Nay : Mr. 

 Proctor forced us to judge, by giving us ex cathedril Miss E.'s 

 views on Immortality — of which she could know no more than any 

 one of us. " To all intents and purposes, save as regards the 

 letter of the law, G. E. was G. L.'s wife." I imagine Mr. Proctor 

 minus his purse, and the taker saving the above, mutatis mutandis. 

 Then 7 would say " Quis tulerit Gracchos?" 



" Had the legal ceremony been performed." The Catholic 

 church teaches that "in the sacrament of matrimony, the minister 

 is the sponses themselves." The essence is the consent of the 

 parties, t//ree. But one of the parties here was not free. "They 

 were united by a tie which was to them perfectly sacred." So is 

 the burglar to his spoil. 



Mr. Proctor has apparently every reason to be content with the 

 institution of matrimony, I am in exactly the contrary position ; 

 yet I have never desired to be free, or contemplated a " privately- 

 sacred" arrangement, believing that it is for the benefit of society 

 on the whole that marriage should be dissoluble only by death. 



Mr. Proctor's doctrine seems to be that anyone may give him- 

 self a private dispensation from the settled rule. How much more 



* Questions of faith, as pertaining to theology pure and simple, 

 are, and must be, rigidly kept out of these columns; but ethics 

 admit of treatment at once from a psychological and a sociological 

 point of view, and hence are perfectly in place in a journal devoted 



