.AfARcn 2, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



125 



I^^^V^ AN (U,ii;&I«ATED >>i^ 



j >^ MAGi^ZtNE oTSqENCE^ 



PLAINLTVfORDED -EXACTLY "DESCRIBED 



LONDON: FRIDAY, MARCH 2. 1883. 



Contents op No. 70 



Science »nd Art Gossip 125 



The Ureal Comet of 1883.— I. By 



Professor C. A. Young. (/7/m- 



irattd) 127 



Tfca Chemist rv of Cookerj. By 



W. M«ttieu \Villiams 123 



TkeBirlh and Growth of Myth.— 



IV. By Ed>rard Clodd 129 



■icrrles and Tric.vcin in 1883. By 



The Libraries of BabyU 



Assyria.— II 



Logical Puzzle. By Richard A. 



131 



Proctor 132 



Kbvibw: Snakes 133 



The Face of the Skv 131 



Bread and Honey. " By Dr. Prevost 115 



CoBSBSPONDBNCB : Stays, &c 130 



Our Mathematical Column 138 



Our Whist Column 131) 



Our Chess Column 139 



;S'rifnrf anli art (gossfip. 



Professor Hu.vley has indicated at Liverpool his views 

 a.s to education. I fear that they are hardly more prac- 

 tical than those which have been derived from the monastic 

 times, when the student was, as a rule, a recluse. Huxley's 

 ideas of what a boy sliould be taught express well enough 

 what many of us who obtained instead what Rousseau spoke 

 of as "the trash called education," would much rather 

 have learned. Or rather we wish we had then learned 

 what would now be so much more useful than the nonsense 

 actually taught in tliose times — and perhaps still. 



For our own part, we believe tliat no one man — not even 

 a Spencer — can formulate a. system of education which 

 would be good even for the average boy, still less could a 

 system good for all be indicated. That much of the 

 rubbish forming part of our modern system of education 

 (the fault of which is that it is of mediaeval origin) might 

 incontinently be swept away with immense advantage, 

 erery one may admit. But a really good and effective 

 ffpliem of education must be the development of many 

 jears and of many minds. 



Of course, fogeydom is always ready with the argument 

 that our system of education must be good enough, since 

 we owe to it our statesmen, authors, men of science, and 

 30 forth. It would be truer to say that they have come 

 despite the system ; and indeed, it can scarcely be imagined 

 how any system could be bad enough to prevent men of 

 [lower and genius from making their way to the front. If 

 'lur boys were set in rivalry at chess and draughts instead 

 'if mathematics, and at bouts rimes instead of classics, the 

 I 'est would come to the front, and, manhood reached, would 

 forget their gambits and their verse tricks, and enter on 

 the work of life no better and no worse prepared than they 

 ;)re now. 



Maxy who have visited Mr. Whistler's collection of 

 ■■tchings (containing enough evidence 6f his real power to 

 convict him of wilful whimsicality) have been driven away 



by the wonderful colours of the furniture — a veritable 

 study in hyper-a-sthetic monomania. 



TuE Oxford ChronicU and Jiiicks and Berks dazelte con" 

 siders the few words we added to the paradox columns 

 (p. 92), showing that the illumination of tlie solar system is 

 equal at all distances from tlie sun, very shifty, very feeble, 

 and very spiteful (showing afresh our attinms against that 

 interesting tlieory). Our real fault was in remarking at 

 all on a such theory. It should have been clear that any- 

 thing like argument would be thrown away on any one 

 who could accept it. For our contemporary's benefit we 

 merely note that what the Oxford Chrouic'r dcscrilies as 

 the foolish perspective theory is the only true theory of 

 brightness — the illumination at any point of any surface 

 by the sun is precisely measured by the apparent 

 size and brightness of the sun as it would be seen 

 by an eye placed at that point We merely tell 

 our contemporary this, without in the slightest degree 

 expecting that he (Is a contemporary he, she, it, or 

 they !) will accept it. We may also state that the loss of 

 light by atmospheric absorption in a room of ordinary size 

 is inappreciable. It may be better worth to explain that 

 there is no physicist named Sir W. Thompson, that the 

 men of science named in the comments in our paradox 

 columns are not "politicians," and that, besides the three 

 or four astronomers and physicists whose views on 

 special points have been controverted or ijuestioned in 

 these columns, there are hundreds of astronomers 

 and physicists whose views have not ben controverted 

 here. To persons who know Sir W. Thomson as Sir 

 W. Thompson and Sir J. Hcrschel as Sir .1. llerschell, 

 the names of the astronomers and physicists of our time 

 are probably unfamiliar, so we will not waste our space in 

 naming any of them here. It may be worth adding that 

 even in those cases where we have pointed out what appear 

 to us as errors, we cannot be fairly described as attacking 

 persons. For example, we had occasion to assert, and 

 were able to prove, that there had been errors in Sir 

 George Airy's treatment, in 1837 and 18G8, of the late 

 transits of ^'enus ; yet we regard Sir George Airy as one 

 of the best official astronomers this century lias known. 

 He was so zealous in his work as Astronomer-Royal, that 

 few would have cared to hold the office after him. So of 

 others ; though, by the way, can our intelligent contempo- 

 rary indicate what particular views of Professor Stokes in 

 matters physical we have controverted or attempted to 

 controvert here t 



" In view of the long-continued wet weather, whereby 

 agricultural operations have been retarded," the President 

 of the '\^'esleyan Conference recommends united prayer, 

 " that God may be plea.sed to grant us a season of fine 

 weather, so that the seed may be committed to the soil." 

 The observer of nature who recognises no instances in 

 which the order of nature is departed from in response to 

 prayer, is commonly rebuked as irreligious ; but it may be 

 questioned whether there is anything nearly so irreligious 

 in patiently waiting till, in the cour.se of nature, a desired 

 change of weather is brought aVjout, as there is in venturing 

 to tell a Being worshipped as All-Knowing and All-Power- 

 ful, that ?(')!" the time is approaching when the seed ought 

 to be committed to the soil, and that the wet weather has 

 continued quite long enough. 



One might suggest as a useful subject for consideration 

 by well-minded persons the profanity of certain prayers — 



