Aug. 28, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



183 



roughly, about 116,000 miles (k'ss than I liad expected 

 to find this average). Being thus, on the average, about 

 355,000 miles from the moon, and on lines inclined nearly- 

 one degree to the direction of the earth's centre, it follows 

 that these foci lie on the average about 00,000 miles from 

 the line through the centres of the sun, earth, and moon, 

 at the time of central eclipse. 



,if sc-ii'H, 



ting his 



I TRUST the readers of Kn( >\\ i. 

 liveliness of the last piece cf ( 

 illustrate the way in whicli ;i 

 when he begins to chat witli 

 subject lightly, is apt to wander off into otln 

 gossipy matters. Let it stand, then. Better so than as 

 part of another article on the ruddy eclipsed moon. Let 

 me ],thank L. E. again for correcting my remarkable 

 mistake. 



" double 



1 do 



..Ily 



E. C. H. sends another letter on t 

 question. Let me put definitely my i 

 not defend such a plirasi as " 1 slinu!-! 

 seen him;" because tin y yduml liu'lly. 

 they are defensible. As 1 p..intc(l .'ut 

 who did not see it, of course—"! slimiM 1,,. vr' lik, d to 

 see him," even in reply to the stateincni thai ■Mr. ,So- 

 and-So called this morning," does not m rt -sai ilv hhmii, "I 

 should have liked to see him this morning « lien"lic railed." 

 It might be a convenient way of answering, in words, 

 with a real meaning very unlike that which the words 

 might be taken to bear — as for instance, " I should have 

 liked to see him (in former times, but I am mightily 

 glad to have escaped him this morning,") or " I should 

 have liked to see bini (if I did not know what an in- 

 tolerable bore he is — or rogue — or as the case may chance 

 to be.") Now there can be no doubt the second "have " 

 definitely points to the time or occasion which had just 

 been named. 



TH.4.T the objection to the "double haves" is merely 

 one against their sound may be shown bj^ sentences in 

 which the " haves " are doubled but euphonj- retained. 

 For example, " I am sorry I was not at home when A 

 called : to have had a chat with my dear old friend, 

 after so many years of separation, would have been a 

 great pleasure." Or again, the double " haves " come in 

 all -;.-(.* I'l. t1,.- fallowing answer, where the two forms of 

 ivi ' I • aishod :— " I amglad I was not at home : 



II .< (1 to see him when I loved and tru.sted 



him. lui lii ii i\(' seen him to-day, knowing him for 

 what he is, would have been most jiaiuful to me." 



"E. C. H." rightly remarks that Dr. llnd--s.,u's detci 

 tion of doubled "haves" in the wiiiinj-^ of Macanla 

 Ruskin, Landor, and other such iiia-;!., - I r i 

 neutralise (he might have said utt.i . ■ - : 

 previous condemnation. Authors a.^ ,i i.n- ,,i' mu 

 better judges in these matters than gra nnuamns, sei 

 tence-analysers, et id genus omne. Dr. Hodgson sittir 

 in judgment on Macaulay ! Pshaw ! the absurdity 

 too patent. Your language-dissector as a rule is a m;i 

 who ccmld not write ten pages of deserii'tinn w ex]ilan 

 tion (that any one could read with jileasiin' cr pii.lit) i 

 save his life. He always strikes me as tryin-- i<' liiul .n 

 why he can't write as well as Macaulay or any nthrr niai 



Mark Twain is an author ; but somewhat raw in style. 

 Albeit, I prefer not to use double "haves" in sentences 

 where they hurt the ear. It is easy to avoid them, 

 without I'lmf using the sense. 



I SEK from the Ikuly Niivi; of the 22nd that the 

 readers of the American Crilic have been extending to 

 this country the system of balloting, by which they 

 settled who among American worthies should form au 

 Academy of Forty, if one were established on the model 

 of the Academic Fran9aise. I have myself an intense 

 dislike to all such selections — a dislike based on the 

 •al princijile that ' 



^Xh 



V.M.lf t 



■ V" 



nd . 

 ong) i 



1 



that 1 



rhom I have thus 

 American Forty, for instanc( 

 ton, Prof. Young, Marion C 

 Joaquin Milh " 



thus as it w 

 thousands or 



I.. !■:_ 



' (as H 

 ralue of tl 



a that you cannot follow hii 



Prof. Youmans. Why should they be 

 told that in the opinion of certain 

 of thousands of their countrymen there 

 nun than (lity? Some of them may 

 i\ I'f tliini) tli.it the very quality and 

 vk I iit^ it aliiive the appreciation of 

 even to tell a 



Of the British list it is only necessary to remark that 

 it does not contain the names of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, 

 Sir George Airy, Dr. B. Richardson, and others as widely 

 known ; Lord Lytton is put in, I think, under the 

 mistaken impression that Bulwer Lytton is .still alive ; 

 and I imagine that for Sir H. Thompson, the eminent 

 physician, we should read Sir W. Thomson, whose name 

 on account of his connection with Atlantic cabling is 

 widely known in America. 



No I 



sense stops in his work to ask how his 

 work is valued. "What thy hand findeth to do, do it 

 with thy nuL^lit " is a sufficient rule; and it is only th-e 

 chihli.-h M' tlir senile who wonder whether they are 

 adennatily aj] i( . iated. The author who writes because 

 he has something to say, does not wait to be patted on 

 the back ; the speaker whose heart is in his words does 

 not wait to be applauded : why should the busy workers 

 be invited to notice that the world or a part of the 

 world is watching them and weighing their work, — or 

 omits to do so ? 



»ebietDSf* 



SOMK BOtJKS OX OUR TABLE. 



/'■ ' ■ ■ ■ \ '■/'••/; --. Bv Hexkt 



1'. . 1 , i, ': I- i; :: ■, . Tiiidal], A" 



r. \.) :^r. i I _ iM,.| laaN i -• ,....::;■. I ;; la ; , d ..n the pVO- 

 ductuin of a wurk \v iiieii, in haekneyed phrase, rcally 

 does "supply a want," and, we may add, supplies it 

 admirably into the bargain. Into ninety pages he has- 

 compressed t he names (generic and SI ecifio) . f every Brit ish 



tie la.H 



M-- I 





. at 



once. Thev 



be welcomed by niaii\ wh^^r kn>i\\ l,Mli:e ef the plants 

 themselves is often ,hvi.U-,ll\ in aa\anee ..f tlieir ideas of 

 how their names should he artieidaieJ. The .study of this 

 eajiital little book nuiv save well-meauin- people from- 



