274 



KNOWLEDGE 



[s 



. 25, 1885. 



system whicli are so obstinately maintained. Under a 

 strong and manly liead-master, -with a -well-cliosen staff, 

 a public scbool even wbere the fagging system is in full 

 swing, becomes a place where bullying must be done in 

 secret and where meanness hides its head ashamed. But 

 unfortunately not all head-masters are strong and resolute. 



I PEEL bound, iu justice to Mr. Mattieu Williams, to 

 state that he has ox{)lained to me his idea that I had 

 adopted, or acctjited, his doctrine of the heated condition 

 of the giant planets [without one word of acknowledg- 

 ment]. He had not seen any earlier reference to that 

 view in my books than in an essay of mine published in 

 1872, whereas the first edition of his " Fuel of the Sun " 

 .■ippeared in ISTO. I have explained to him, in turn, 

 that the theory is maintained in the first edition of my 

 " Other Worlds," written in 1869, and published early in 

 1870. This was preceded by my lectures at the Royal 

 Institution, Manchester, in November and December, 

 1869, wherein the same views were presented. I have 

 no doubt that the Syllabus of the series is still obtainable. 

 In saying this, I am not at all anxious about priority 

 being assigned to me. The general idea was Buffon's, 

 as I have always been careful to explain. What I 

 objected to was being pointed to as one who could be 

 guilty of the meanness of presenting another man's 

 theory as his own, and by omitting all reference to the 

 real author. I should not care to deserve such contempt 

 as I feel for any one capable of doing this. 



What an odd mistake that experte credo of mine, for 

 < .cperto crede was ! It was not so far from my meaning 

 — after all — though a sheer accident (whether of printers' 

 or of mine own I know not). 



Hebe is a rather odd coincidence. In Truth, for Aug. 

 27th, the following little paragraph (intended, I make no 

 doubt, for truth, but there is little truth, in truth, in this 

 paragraph in Truth) appeared : — 



Since t)ie Deluge, life "nas not been long enough for long whist, 

 except for maiden ladies wintering in watering-places. I'.ut now 

 short whist is threatened, since in Mr. Proctor's hands it has become 

 so painfully scientific as to be no longer a pastime. Mr. Proctor 

 could only find one decent player in America, nor is ho confident 

 ;ibout that one. This speaks well for the comfort of life in the 

 t^tates ; for there is but one individual who is more intolerable than 

 the bad player, and that is the man who plays well and criticises 



On the self-same day, the following paragraph from 

 my pen appeared in Knowledge : — 



" Cavendish " and hi.s school seem determined to prove that those 

 are mistaken who have said of Whirt, " Age cannot wither nor 

 custom stale its infinite variety " ; for they try to substitute a series 

 •and-dried Cavendish rules for that beautiful variety which is 

 lie charm of the game. If Whist developments as developed in this 

 lOok are adopted by Wliist players generally, then Whist will no 

 inger be a game, it may be a mental exercise, just as walking 

 long a pavement is bodily exercise; but there will be no game 



of 



can be no doubt it is so. "Cavendish" says, "It is 

 seldom good plaj^," which certainly means that to do it 

 systematically is bad play. But a man who has this bad 

 habit may be a fine player, all the same. 



I AM at any rate free from one of the faults condemned 

 — very justly — in Truth. I do not have enough practice 

 to play well, or at any rate to my own satisfaction ; but, 

 whether or no, I never criticise a partner, or express an 

 opinion on the jjlay unless asked to. I think I may 

 truthfully say that I have never at the whist table said 

 one word at which any player present has even been 

 disposed to take exception. 



TuE logic of the last sentence fjuoted from Tndh is 

 rather odd. Truth sremin-ly .-ays that if all players, 

 except in America, are liail, life in .\iiiii'iea must be very 

 comfortable; for there i- M-ar, . ly ::iiy ene (only in fact 

 just one person) more iutoleraLle than the Lad whist- 

 player. 



A CORRESPONDENT asks whether the reviewer was not 

 mistaken who said recently in these columns that Mr. 

 Mivart was a believer in evolution : had not Mr. Mivart 

 opposed Darwin's theory ? Both statements are right. 

 Mr. Mivart has opposed the theory of natural selec- 

 tion ; and Mr. Mivart is a believer in the doctrine of 

 evolution. 



Another correspondent calls my attention to the 

 perfectly preposterous article about the "New Star" 

 which recently appeared in the Daily Telegraph,— hx 

 which the idea that the new star is a new world is dealt 

 with as the true scientific teaching. It is absurd — but 

 did not Prof. Pritchard write in Good Words of the new 

 star in Corona, in 1866, as a " World in Flames"? I 

 should say that for one person who knows that no star is 

 a world — let it be what else it may — there are ten who 

 think the stars are all worlds. Let not any one be so 

 evil-disposed as to suggest here that probably ever star is 

 a whirled body. 



The following remarks appear in the London cor- 

 respondence of several county papers :— 



The a; 



t tlie " 



Of course, I hive never said I could only find one 

 «lecent player in America. On the contrary, I said in 

 the New York Tribune, that, in the only sitting I ever had 

 in New York I had met with several excellent players. 

 That these players showed severally a fault or two of style 

 <lid not prevent their being good players. I mentioned 

 (in the Neiv York Tribune also) that the best of them 

 liad the habit of holding up his Ace when King was led 

 by an opponent from King, Queen, and others. It may 

 seem, to those who do not know the game, very " painfully 

 scientific " to point out that this is bad play ; but there 



I. !.:;', I I :i- I ii;ii ^-'i - ;i' I it made its appearance 

 two or three wf. : , jmcess as " now going 



on," forgetful uf i!. .- > tlie light of the " new 



star" must liave tala.a iIimi- iin- '>: \i n - ii reach us. This theory 

 is propounded in every book on astroiioiiix . Have Jlr. Proctor and 

 the other astronomers furgotteu it, or can it be that they reject the 

 orthodox notion that the changes in the new star are not taking 

 place now, but took place a few thousand years ago .' A correspond- 

 ent has already raised this interesting point, but so far no answer is 

 forthcoming. 



It is hardly necessary for me to remind readers of Know- 

 ledge that in my article about this star (Sept. 11) I dealt 

 with the time question. Probably a hundred years ago 

 would be nearer the mark though than thousands of 

 years ago. 



The following is from my "Popular Science Column " 

 in the Keivcastle Weekly Chronicle :—" My friend and 

 near kinsman, Mr. Thomas Foster, wrote a paper making 

 fun of the modern fashion of finding nature myths in 

 every ancient story, from the story of Adam and Eve 

 down to that of Cinderella and the glass shoe. In this 

 paper Mr. Foster suggested that the poem beginning, 

 'Hey diddle diddle, "the cat and the fiddle, the cow 

 jumped over the moon,' related in all probability to a 

 long since forgotten nature myth. He connected the 



