:mat 



1882.] 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



563 



'MAG^z.iini:.ufSi;;IENCE^ 

 1;^ PLAINLYlifQRDEB-EXACTLY^^^r-R'BED 



LONDON: FRIDAY, MAI ■>, ioo^. 



Contests of No. 2 



The InfinitiM Around U«. By 

 PMl<-ur 6C3 



l%e Future of Knowledge 5(a 



Tke Approaching Eclipse 563 



Dr. Siemens on 8ol«r Energy. By 

 the Editor 665 



The Antiquity of Man in Western 

 Europe. Br Ed. Clodd. Part II. .587 



The Amateur Electrician — Elec- 

 tric Generators {Continued) 668 



Fhotogniphv for Amateurs. By A. 

 BrwhiTS.F.R.A.S. Part V 569 



Uanlan and Trictett. By iu> Old 

 Club Captain 570 



The >'aTal and Submarine Exhibi- 



570 

 Charles Darwin 671 



raoi 



M. Pasteur 671 



Development in Foot'Bacing 671 



The Comet 572 



The Nebula in Orion 672 



Weather Diagram 673 



Saroolic Indulgences. By M.D. ... 673 



Seal "Fisheries" 67-1 



A Dog Goes Over >'iagara Falls 



AliTe 67* 



CoRBRSPONDBiTCB ; Population of 

 the Earth : A Curious Problem- 

 Cod Sounds and Scientific Privi- 

 lege, ic. . 575-676 



Answers to Correspondents 676 



Our Mathematical Column 677 



Our Whist Column 579 



I Our Chess ColnmB 680 



THE INFINITIES AROUND US. 



By Pasteur. 



""tTJ'IIAT is there beyond this starry vault? More 

 V\ starry skies. Well, and heyond that ? The 

 human mind, driven by an invincible force, will never 

 cease askuig, Wliat is there beyond 1 . . . . It is useless 

 to answer ' Beyond are unlimited spaces, times, or magni- 

 tudes.' Nobody understands these words. He who pro- 

 claims the existence of an Iniinite — and nobody can evade 

 it — asserts more of the supernatural in that affirmation 

 than exists in all the miracles of all religions ; for the 

 notion of the Infinite has the twofold character of being 

 irresistible and incomprehensible. When this notion seizes 

 on the mind, there is nothing left but to bend the knee. 

 In that anxious moment all the springs of intellectual life 

 threaten to snap, and one feels near being seized by 

 the sublime madness of Pascal. Positivism uncere- 

 moniously thrusts aside this positive and primordial 

 notion, with all its bearings on the life of human societies. 

 Everywhere I see the inevitable expression of the Infinite 

 in the world. By it the supernatural is seen in the 

 depths of every hearts The idea of God is a form of the 

 idea of the Infinite. As long as the mystery of the Infi- 

 nite weighs on the human mind, temples will be raised to 

 the worship of the Infinite, whether the God be called 

 Brahma, Allah, or Jehovah ; and on the floor of those 

 temples you will see kneeling men absorbed in the idea of 

 the Infinite. Metaphysics do but translate within us 

 the paramount notion of the Infinite. The faculty which 

 in the presence of beauty leads us to conceive of a superior 

 beauty — is not that, too, the conception of a never- 

 realised ideal 1 What are science and the passion for com- 

 prehending anything else, then, but the efiect of the 

 stimulus exercised upon our mind by the mystery of the 

 universe 1 Where is the real fountain of man's liberty 1 

 ■where the true source of woman's dignity, but in the 

 conception of the Infinite, in presence of which all men 

 are equal ?" 



THE FUTURE OF KNOWLEDGE. 



M PASTEUR has chosen the occasion of his rccep- 

 • tion in the Academy to speculation largely -.ipon 

 what is in the nature of the case undomonstrable. But 

 the truth is that the career of a great scientific discoveiir 

 suggests speculations as little demonstrable, perhaps, but ii' 

 a different kind from these. Ever since thought began, 

 mankind has wondered as to its own nature and its own 

 destiny. It will go on wondering to the end of time, 

 whatever new facts .science may bring to light, whatever 

 new worlds beyond the MUky Way or within the compass 

 of a speck of dust may be revealed by telescope or micro- 

 scope. It may bo allowed, however, in the presence of a 

 personality like that of M. Pasteur, or of the .still greater 

 discoverer whose loss the world is mourning, to look forward 

 upon the future of knowledge, to ask how far all these 

 new acquisitions will in the future modify our life, our 

 practice, our methods of study. M. Renan, to whom a 

 curious fortune gave the task of receiving !M. Pasteur, 

 has, in an interesting passage of his own autobiography, 

 given it as his belief, that a century hence mankind 

 will study very little else than physical science. The time, 

 he thinks, will come when the historical sciences will be 

 thrust into the background ; all that they have to teach 

 will be known, and men will feel comparatively little 

 interest in their own past. On the other hand, the more 

 they know of nature the more there wUl be to be known. 

 Chemistry and physiology offer inexhaustible fields for 

 research ; and the truths which they reveal will prove more 

 and more interesting to mankind. It is very diflicult to 

 say what men will think or do a hundred years hence ; but 

 it seems likely enough that this will be the tendency of 

 study. Certainly, even now, the men of science are be- 

 coming more antl more important factors in the life of all 

 of us. They are little by little winning the fight against 

 disease ; they are giving us facts, and enabling us to found 

 our beliefs on the sure ground of knowledge. Their in- 

 fluence must surely become greater and greater as time 

 goes on ; for humanity always reserves its highest honours 

 for those who teach it to know. — Times. 



THE APPROACHING ECLIPSE. 



Note. — Some readers of Knowledge have been perplexed by my 

 statement that the Editor of Knowledge had appointed Mr. Proctor 

 Special Correspondent in Egypt, but that it was not certain 

 whetlier he could go. I had no wish to mystify any of my readers- 

 Perhaps the following statement will make all clear : — 



Mr. P>. A. Proctor, student of science, has been obliged, after care- 

 ful consideration, to decline to accede to the earnest wish of Mr. 

 Proctor, Editor of Knowledge, that he should go to Egypt to view 

 the eclipse. It did not seem desirable that while Knowledge is 

 still so young it should be left to run alone so long. Certainly, not 

 less than sis weeks would have been required for the proposed 

 journey. 



rpHE path of the centre of the moon's shadow across 

 X Upper Egypt during the eclipse of May 1 7 is shown 

 in the accompanying map. The following table is given 

 by Mr. Hind, superintendent of the Xautical Ahnanac, a 

 Nature (Mr. Hind speaks of the eclip.sc of May 16, having 

 probably become so accustomed to astronomical time that, 

 in his mind, the morning hours of May 17, up to noon, 

 belong to ilay IG ; half- past eight in the morning of May 

 17, in common parlance, is with him half-past twenty. 



