July G, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE - 



11 



deviation. For, if we substitute in the above formula his 

 correctly stated values for I and h, we get westerly de- 

 viation for a missOe projected vertically with a velocity of 

 1,000 ft. per second 



16 X 3000000 X 6000 XTT 

 ~3x 193x193x24x60x60 

 IOOOOOOt: 



:93-62 ft. (about). 



(193)2x9 



It may interest inquirers into problems of this sort to 

 find out why Mr. Bray's apparently correct reasoning leads 

 to a result twice as great as it should be. If I can find 

 time and space, I will give, shortly, in the mathematical 

 column, an analytical solution of the problem. 



GOD'S WILL.* 



SPEAKING of the Sunderland accident, the Sjiectator 

 makes the following pregnant remarks : — 

 " The moment the calamity was known, every one seems 

 have behaved admirably, and the tone of the town since 

 has been the true one, that of sad but helpful resignation 

 to an ine.Yplicable Will. For it is an inexplicable Will, 

 especially to those who believe, as we do, that God governs, 

 as well as reigns. What should we say of a man who, 

 merely by putting a thought into Mr. Fay's head, the 

 thought to stand at the gallery-door and see the children out 

 in batches, could have presented that ghastly massacre, and 

 did not put it? Yet that mu.st be true of the Almighty, if 

 any one of our ideas about his attributes is true, if he fore- 

 sees, if he is all-powerful, if he has free-will. Apart from 

 the sufl'ering — suffering often to the good, for it was pro 

 bably the kindest parents who sent their children to the 

 show — why does lie allow all that monstrous waste of life 

 among the innocent, that destruction of potential useful- 

 ness 1 The only answer is the simjile and unsatisfying one 

 that we know nothing about the matter, and never shall 

 know all, though we may know much more than we do 

 now. Man cannot know the policy of God, which is not 

 shown as changed, but as always the same, in these great 

 catastrophes. Thsy do but concentrate a process which 

 never stops. Taking Asia and Europe together, the half 

 of all children born die before they are two. It is certain 

 that more children died in London in the week of the 

 catastrophe, unnoticed, than died in Sunderland to the 

 horror and pity of the world. It is quite probable, 

 though there are no statistics, that more children died 

 in the United Kingdom still-born on Saturday than died 

 in that staircase shambles. Vast, unending, inexplicable 

 waste of life, never utilised even for a little while, is 

 the law of the planet, the will of its Creator, as little 

 to be made intelligible by thought as the endless mystery 

 of non-educative pain. Theology gives us no more light on 

 the subject than Science does, and though it is best, or at 

 least most comforting, to think that tlie children are the 

 happit-r for escaping this life and its miseries, there is no 

 proof of that — rather evidence from analogy that they lose 

 an opportunity which would have been to their profit. 

 Why not, if the world, and life in the world, are, as wo all 

 suppo.se, of any use at all ? Men are not the better for 

 escaping, but for fulfilling, duties. There is no explana- 

 tion whatever to be found, nor is there any need of one. 

 If man acknowledges God at all, he must acknowledge a 

 Being whose wisdom must be so far above his own that 

 failure to perceive it is failure in the creature, not in the 

 Creator. It may not be an absurdity, though it seems one 

 to us, to recognise God, and yet think that he can err ; but 



• From the Spectator. 



it is certainly a folly to think that we can detect error in 

 Him. The theologian, like every other man, is studying 

 the Infinite, and when he has thought himself out, he can 

 only acknowledge that he is always at last face to face with 

 a mystery past his solution. Thought sometimes only 

 helps us to pile up more figures on the recurrent decimal. 



€UUoriaI (goeisiip. 



One cannot but be amused at the tone of jeering supe- 

 riority with which the psychical problems involved in such 

 questions as thought-reading and thought-finding are dis- 

 missed by folk who are only not stupidly credulous because 

 they are stupidly incredulous. With such persons there is 

 no middle path ; they either refuse to consider evidence at 

 all, or they swallow everything they are told. In either 

 case it is the same defect in the unscientific mind which 

 does the mischief. A man of this class believes or dis- 

 believes — he does not inquire. Take such a subject as 

 mesmerism, for example : — " Mesmerism ! my good sir," 

 he will say ; " mesmerism is utter humbug ; nothing in it 

 but lies and trickery ; " or, it may be (just according to the 

 way in which he has taken up the matter), he will talk 

 equal nonsense on the other side, and tell you that mes- 

 merism is the most marvellous power in existence. 



Many years have passed since I made my first acquaint- 

 ance with these two classes of persons — or rather with these 

 two forms of the same class. A man named Zamoiski 

 came to Cambridge, who professed to possess marvellous 

 mesmeric powers. He really had a very fair amount of 

 that particular mind-influencing power which we may con- 

 veniently call mesmerism (as a name not suggesting any 

 theory as to the nature of the power). But he promised 

 all manner of performances, far outside of anything he or 

 any man could do without the aid of confederates. He 

 appeared on the platform, went through a number of per- 

 formances, some interesting and curious, but by no means 

 miraculous, on college men of various standing, others 

 which would have been marvellous indeed if they had been 

 genuine. But they were performed on certain boys who 

 were no doubt paid for their parts in the display. 



I FOUND after the performance that those who had seen 

 it could be divided into three classes, two nearly equal in 

 numbers and one much less than the others. There were 

 a number who supposed the whole series to be humbug, 

 the collegians being in the trick like the rest ; a number 

 more accepted the whole series as genuine because they 

 kneiv that the collegians were not in it. The few, more 

 scientifically minded, recognised tlie evidence for what it 

 was worth. A certain phenomenon, partly mental, partly 

 physical, had been observed, strange enough to explain why 

 weak- minded persons supposed there was something 

 uncanny in it, but not at all outside what is natural. 

 This phenomenon, though rejected by the weak-mmded of 

 another sort as sheer trickery, seemed yet well worth 

 inquiring into in a scientific way, — that is, under the test 

 of observation and experiment. 



I SUPPOSE I had begun, even at that time, to have scien- 

 tific tastes — though my friends and the worthy Fellows 

 who had dealings with me failed to recognise this charac- 

 teristic. Any how, I determined to test Zamoiski's powers 

 by enabling him to give a less public entertainment. My 

 largest sitting-room (I occupied rooms intended for a 

 Fellow) could accommodate more than forty. So I and a 



