Skpt. 25, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



273 



r had really grasped Mr. Spencer's meaning, and 

 liad been considering that meaning when correcting jjroof, 

 he could not have overlooked the mistake. But, I am as 

 sure as I. am of my own esis(t'uci', tlmt I did nut use 

 the words " gross carelessness " nr wnnls Id tli;it cll'rct, 

 knowing as I do that my reiiinrks on tljc nviiw were 

 written with a strong feeling of re^Trl tli:it :i, friend 

 whom I esteem and whose powers I admire, sliould so 

 misinterpret and undervalue the philosopher whose 

 doctrine has been worth more to me and to many others 

 than that of any teacher who has drawn the breath of 

 life. 



If my friend thinks that in describing my own 

 mistakes I intended to acquit myself of " carelessness," — 

 as he implies by using the word " yet " in the remarks 

 he imagines me making — he is quite mistaken. A 

 blunder is a blunder, explain it how one may : my 

 mistake in " Saturn " would not have been made if I 

 had kept my attention alive, and would have been cor- 

 rected if I had gone a second or third time over all my 

 marginal directions to the printers. So with the carious 

 blunder repeated page after page in my " Transits of 

 Venus " (First Edition). I ought to have detected and 

 corrected it. 



It has not been to acquit myself of careles.sness, but 

 to show how readily mistakes may be made, and how 

 abundantly precautions should be used in writing and 

 correcting what one has written, that I described my own 

 experience. I believe a man may derive useful lessons 

 from his mistakes. And if his experience happens to be 

 exceptional (as my experience in scientific writing has 

 been) he may do good service by communicating such 

 lessons to others. 



I BELIEVE, too, that it is useful to show by example, as 

 well as to inculcate by precept, the advantage of a little 

 frankness in admitting mistakes. Prof. Sylvester, the 

 mathematician, once laid down in Nature the principle, 

 as his in practice, that when any one has pointed out an 

 error or what he supposes to be an ei'ror in another's 

 writing or teaching, the passage so dealt with should 

 either be silently corrected or silently maintained. I 

 reject this principle as unworthy of the true student of 

 science. If any man, no matter what his standing or 

 position may be — were it even Mr. John Hampden — 

 points out an error in anything I have written, I mean 

 to acknowledge openly that he is right and that I have 

 blundered. Where any man points out what he deems 

 an error, but what I either know or believe to be right, I 

 do not undertake to maintain my position by argument 

 (for all men cannot understand reasoning), but I mean in 

 such cases to .state openly that in my judgment my original 

 statement was sound and just. 



The idea that there is dignity in silence in such cases, 

 I regard as absurd. There is no more dignity in such 

 silence than there is in the silent tenacity of the bull-dog, 

 or of the Tasmanian Devil. Thoiigh animal comparisons 

 arc not always satisfactory, one may in this case say that 

 the animal which remains silent till he sees his way to a 

 grip, is a less generous and a less dignified creature than 

 the animal who frankly announces his opinion, even 

 thougli it bo by a roar. Silence is fit company for 

 Treachery or for Dishonesty, not for Truth. 



It has been said that controversy is alirai/s degrading. 

 It always is where on either side, or on both sides, it is 



maintained with any other object but to get at the truth- 

 So also controver.sy is always idle, when one or other is 

 unable to understand his opponent. This applies even 

 where both are eminent and able. For example a con- 

 troversy between a Newton and a Shakespeare abi>nt 

 astronomy or about the drama would be idle, as \s ould a 

 controversy between a llundel an.l a Hu.xlev\.bout music 







!-■ 



Mr. .MiUtiMi Will,. 



much and i kiiuw little aLuiit those subjects ; and, iu like 

 manner, a controvery between him and me about geo- 

 metrical optics (as about the " Ruddy Eclipsed Moon") 

 could be but of little use. 



The controversy between Mes.srs. Herbert Spencer and 

 Frederick Harris.m about the Unknowable was another 

 case in point, for the latter never imderstood even what 

 it was about, — as he showed by his every argument and 

 his every suggestion. Yet controversy between men 

 who know their subject, and who wish to learn if pos- 

 sible the truth, is neither idle nor degrading, but very 

 much the reverse of both. 



In passing, I may note that, whatever my regard for 

 Mr. Spencer's philosophy may be, whatever the debt of 

 gratitude I personally owe to him for the meaning and 

 the value which his philosophy have given to my life, 

 it canuot be said that I have been blindly ready to accept 

 all he has taught. I l.ave n jeeled "as iiuVuuiid the 

 nebular hypothesis of ly.yl.rr, ul,!.|, Mr. Sii.-nrer 

 values; I have, iu tlie,-v enliuiui,-;, |ioliiii,l ,,ut the 

 objections which, in uiy opmiuii, iuViilidale the theory 

 that the minor planets are the fragments of an exploded 

 world — a theory which Mr. Spencer has advocated ; and 

 in the very discussion with my friend, the "Edin- 

 burgh Reviewer," I dv.elt stn.nuU- on a vie\v re.sp.cting 

 the Laws of :\Iol ion Nsl.irh.to x.vtlio k;,-t,is n..t il.at 

 maintained bv -Mr. SiHiicr. It is" tli, r, fo; , a~ no m. re 

 disciple, following ],in. in all l.e teaol.o>. tli;,t 1 l,::Ve 

 expressed my sense of tin- value of Lis ii'niloSd, l,v. of 

 this I might say, ue.-e nol ihe v.ord, likely to iJ. mis- 



religion. As a i.lulosoj.hy, "l hold it woi-tlm,- of the 

 dignity of reasoning man — at once clearer ;uid irofoinnler, 

 kinder and more considerate, braver in iii'hoklinj- riL'iit 

 and resisting injustice, and better calculatid if steadily 

 followed — to make men happier and better, tluiu any 

 which hitherto has been propovmded to the world. 



Or course I know that, as many correspondents point 

 out, our public schools have done excellent work — 

 despite, however, not because, of those absurdities of 



