202 



. KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[April 6, 1883. 



iUelf to the mind of man, to thn direct teaching of the 

 Supremo B.'ing. Yet, probably, the idea that there is any 

 outrage either to common sense or decency in this docs not 



present itself to we can scarcely say to his mind, but 



to — what serves with him by way of a mind. 



To those who ask why any attention whatever should be 

 fiven to foolish paradoxes, we give the answer which De 

 Slorgan gave many years ago. Hundreds do not know by 

 what light tenure they hold their beliefs in matters 

 scieiititic, till some paradox comes to disturb their faith. 

 We may add a reason of our own. It is most interesting 

 to observe how limited may be the reasoning capacity, or 

 ratlier how utter the incapacity of beings belonging, so far 

 as outward features arc concerned, to the human race. 



Mr. HA.MPDEN (see our Paradox Column this week) 

 illustrates also the special truth that violence is near 

 neighbour to the extremity of weakness. When he wrote 

 to the wife of one of our most eminent living naturalists 

 that her husband should •' be brought home to her with 

 his brain mashed to a pulp," it was simply his way of 

 showing the condition of his own. 



It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Hampden has 

 had his last chance, and his name has appeared for the 

 last time in the columns of Knowledge. 



The Globe notes that a recent examination of elementary 

 teachers (!) in Cape Colony brought out some singular 

 statistics as to the distribution of population. _" The 

 candidates varied in their estimates of the population of 

 London from 300,000,000 down to 3,000 ; Manchester has 

 200,000,000 against Leeds with 300 ; and Wolverhampton 

 — there is nothing like accuracy — with 569, while 10,000, 

 according to one candidate, is the number for Holland and 

 Belgium together. Equally scientific accuracy was evi- 

 dently the forte of the elementary teacher who considers 

 that ' electricity and lightning are of the same nature, the 

 only diflerence being that lightning is often several miles in 

 length, while electricity is only a few inches,' and of 

 another who defines electricity as ' the orbit described by 

 the sun round the earth, but in reality the earth round the 

 sun.' We learn also that ' a sailing vessel is propelled by 

 means of a magnetic needle,' that it is ' propelled through 

 the water by a steam-engine,' and ' by a certain kind of 

 string.' " 



Ix the April number of the A'inelcenfh Cenluri/, 'Mr. 

 Matthew Arnold in the course of an interesting article on 

 " Isaiah of Jerusalem," calls attention to the point on 

 which wo touched, to the disgust of the Ile\-. Urban 

 Smith, in much such terms as we should use. " There 

 is danger," he says, " of forgetting how short man's time 

 is, how easily he is distracted, and diverted from his real 

 aim, liow easily tired. How many boys learning Greek 

 never get beyond that philological vestibule in which we 

 are kept so assiduously ; never arrive at Greek literature 

 at all. There is the danger of our losing ourselves in 

 preliminaries, and of our being brought, by the pursuit 

 of an impossible perfection, to miss our main design." 

 This from such a lover of purely literary culture as Mr. 

 Matthew Arnold, and said of those who can give a large 

 part of their time to such culture, means a great deal. 



In the same article Mr. Arnold seems to advocate the 

 strange idea that it is more important to have an impres- 

 sive than a strictly accurate version of Isaiah and the Old 

 Testament generally — a question of some interest to those 

 who are anxiously awaiting (as we are ourselves) the 

 publication of the revised Old Testament. He takes the 

 following instance. In one of the " Lessons " for Christmas 

 Day there occur these word : " For every Itattle of the 

 warrior is vnth confused noise, and garments rolled in 

 blood ; but this shall be with burning and full of fire." 

 " Hardly any one," he says, very truly, " can understand 

 these words ; indeed, as they now are they cannot be 

 understood clearly — but they have a magnificent flow and 

 movement." Surely, this feeling of Mr. Arnold's is akin to 

 that with which the old lady heard " that sweet word, 

 INIesopotamia." Mr. Gilbert, in his splendidly-absurd song 

 of Prince Agib, says : — 



" His gentle spirit rolls 

 In the melody of souls, 

 Which is pretty, but I don't know what it means." 

 And this seems to be Mr. Arnold's feeling about a passage 

 which, correctly translated, means simply, " For each shoe 

 of him who tramples noisily, and his cloak rolled in blood, 

 are for burning, [to be] fuel for fire." It seems better to 

 have the real meaning than a sentence without any meaning 

 at all. The grandeur of the poetry of Isaiah needs no 

 tawdry trappings such as charm the readers of Robert 

 Montgomery or Mr. M. F. Tupper. 



The two waves which struck the Channel steamer 

 Aquila (the captain says a third would have swamped 

 her), in an otherwise still sea, are noteworthy phenomena. 

 Possibly they were, in some degree, associated with the 

 occurrence of subterranean disturbance in the volcanic dis- 

 trict of Southern Europe. 



The attendance at the second of Mr. Proctor's Lectures 

 on Astronomy was even better than at the first. The 

 lecture struck us (the lecturer) as being a little too long. 

 Nearly sixty photographic views (instead of the promised 

 forty), were exhibited, and, as in the first lecture, Mr. 

 Field, the optician, was very successful with the work of 

 illumination. As we write, the lecture on the moon has 

 still to be given before this number of Knowledge appears. 

 On Saturday, the subject wUl be " The Planets and their 

 Families," with special consideration of the development of 

 the solar system. 



We propose to begin next week a series of interesting 

 papers by F.R.A.S., on the Moon. They would have com- 

 menced earlier, but for ditiiculties in the preparation of 

 an adequate reference map. 



After the course of lectures at St James's HaU is 

 completed, Mr. Proctor goes to Ireland, where he is to 

 deliver two lectures in the theatre of the Royal Society, 

 Dublin, two lectures in Belfast, and other lectures. Several 

 new series of lectures are announced for places in England 

 on Mr. Proctor's return from Ireland. 



The Telephone. — Accordiug to recent statistics, the telephone 

 is now employed in 303 cities by 78,808 subscribers, of which 

 SO.OiJlJ are European and 47,185 American. Knirland is first, with 

 7,28" subscribers ; Italy next, with 5,507 subscribers ; France 

 follows with 4,437 subscribers ; and Germany last, with 3,G13 sub- 

 scribers. In France and Germany the telephones are worked by 

 (Jovernment. The number of London subscribers on Fob. 28, IfSl, 

 was only 845 ; at the same day this year it had advanced to 2,541. 



