August 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNOW^LKDGE ♦ 



235 



(So sfsffp^ 



By Richard A. Proctor. 

 The sensational announcement that the Star of Bethlehem 

 had been seen near the zenith in Cassiopeia was doubtless, 

 as I stated in last month's Knowledge, based on a mistaken 

 idea on the part of the ingenious discoverer that, since Tycho 

 Brahe had seen the new star of 1572 in the zenith, there the 

 star would be seen again. But, finding that Maj' is not the 

 time for seeing Cassiopeia at night in the zenith, the faithful 

 (and seemingly truthful) belie-, er in the star of 1572 as the 

 Star of the Nativity now announces thi-oughout America, 

 with much abuse of myself on 5?«as/-theological grounds, 

 that it was in the day-time he saw the star, using a method 

 which the fogeydom of the professed students of astronomy 

 would not allow them to think of. This wonderful method 

 consists in the use of smoked glasses, to protect the eye 

 from the glare of the sky, and also, in a manner not 

 explained, in the use of reflecting mirrors attached to the 

 telescope. Of course, says the discoverer of the Star of 

 Bethlehem, " I did not expect to see Cassiopeia when below 

 the horizon ; but by means of these arrangements I have 

 been able to see the constellation with the ' new star ' in its 

 midst, while still above the horizon in the day-time." 

 * * * 

 The only trouble is that, in correcting one error, the 

 ingenious Professor Klein — such is the name and assumed 

 title of the man — has ftxllen into another. Reminded that 

 the constellations revolve annually as well as dail}' round 

 the polar axis of the star sphere, and perceiving that, that 

 being so, Cassiopeia, seen near the zenith in November, can- 

 not be near the zenith in May or June, he has too hastily 

 concluded, in his utter ignorance, that the constellation 

 would be opposite the zenith, or £;\r below the horizon, at 

 midnight in the summer months. Were this so, he could of 

 course safely pretend to have seen the new star by some 

 novel device in the day-time ; should the star be wanting 

 when Cassiopeia came again into view at night, he could 

 easUy account for that by saying that in the meantime the 

 star had died out. It has been, I expect, .an unpleasing 

 revelation to this worthy, that Cassiopeia does not pass 

 below the horizon at night in the latitude whence he has so 

 ingeniously observed the constellation in the day-time. So 

 that, to save his credit for veracity, we must believe that the 

 star shines for him brightly enough to be seen in the day- 

 time, and goes out of view (for astronomers) so as not even 

 to show the brightness of an eighth magnitude star at night 1 

 This seems to some degree improbable. 



* * * 

 Mr. Haggard is to be congratulated on the resumption, 

 in " Allan Quatermain's Story," of the style of writing in 

 which he obtained a well-deserved success in "King 

 Solomon's Jklines." Both stories are capital books for boys, 

 books, too, which men need not be ashamed to enjoy as 

 thoroughly as the young folk. In such books a few 

 mistakes in matters of detail count for little. We need not 

 be troubled that the sun and moon do not usually behave 

 as Mr. Haggard makes them behave in " King Solomon's 

 Mines," or that a battle against forces numerically superior 

 and equal in quality could not possibly be successful if con 

 ducted as Sir Henry Curtis conducts his battle with the forces 

 of Queen Sorais and Nasta, in the later story. Both books re- 

 main exceedingly interesting even for those who recognise in 

 them some such trifling absurdities ; and though both are in 

 places rather of the " blood and thunder " type, that, again, 

 does not detract from, but rather enhances, their value as 

 books for boys — aye, and for girls, too, and many grown folk 

 also. 



But an intelligent community must not allow too friendly 

 reviewers to persuade them that " She " is other than false 

 in taste and feeble in method (where it passes outside the 

 book-for-boys style). " She " bears the same relation to 

 what it was meant for that " Nana " bears to a healthy 

 love story. It would have been well for Mr. Haggard if 

 he could have explained that the work was the production 

 of his bayish days when he was unable to distinguish good 

 from bad in such productions as " The E|3icurean " and its 

 kindred. Unfortunately, and somewhat startlingly, he has 

 to admit that he had never read ^Moore's two fanciful works 

 (which one had thought every literary man must know well). 

 It now appears that even the familiar " Peter Williams " has 

 been newly discovered by Mr. Haggard since "Allan Quater- 

 main " was written, 



"Jess," "Dawn," and "The Witch's Head" indicate 

 with tolerable clearness Mr. Haggard's limits. 



* * * 



Mr. Haggard himself tells us that he cannot write 

 poetry, and so little thought anyone would suspect him of 

 such weakness that he did not consider it necessary to men- 

 tion that certain poetry in "Jess " — amazingly ill-placed, by 

 the way — was written by another, even though that other 

 was a woman and dead. He graciously acknowledges such 

 matter in " Allan Quatermain," but only as "put into 

 rhyme for him " — by his sister ! 



Three or four times during the last two years I have 

 come across paragraphs in American newspapers, re- 

 sembling the following from a New Orleans newspaper, but 

 I have always supposed that the story told of mock 

 modesty, really implying almost inconceivable impurity of 

 mind, must be sheer invention : — 



A pitiful case of mock modesty occurred right here at home last 

 week. One afternoon a party of young ladies and gentlemen went 

 out sailing on the lake. A squall came up, and as they were 

 hastening in to shore they were hailed by some gentlemen whose 

 boat had capsized, and who, in danger of drowning, were clinging for 

 life to its slippery sides. It seems that these young men had been 

 out for a deep-sea bath, and were consequently nude. Owing to the 

 storm they had been in the water for a long while, and one of the 

 number was seized with cramps, and his alarmed companions 

 thought he would die before help came. Xow, any ten-year-old 

 child who has ever tucked up its pantalets and gone wading in a 

 creek knows that a person being in the water and seized with 

 cramps will probably die if not rescued. As the yacht came up to 

 the distressed bathers they explained the situation to those on her, 

 and begged that the sick man might be taken aboard and a boat 

 sent from West End to their own relief. But the mock-modest 

 young ladies giggled and blushed, and I daresay peeped between 

 the slicks of their fans, while vowing and declaring that they 

 couldn'tthinkof such a thing. They giggled again, bat did not think 

 to look the other way, and expressed themselves as horrified at the 

 bare idea of rescuing a nude man from death. They had no thought 

 for the suffering of the groaning young fellow down in the water 

 being upheld by his anxious, dismayed, and exhausted companions. 

 They were too busy giggling and commenting on the awfully 

 embarrassing fact that the gentleman who desired to come on board 

 hadn't his wardrobe with him. No, they would rather he died than 

 be saved by them in his nude condition, .and finally the yacht 

 freighted with enough sham sentiment and mock modesty to sink it 

 to the very bottom in a mile deep of ocean water, sailed off, com- 

 promising between the proprieties and a common humanity by 

 promising to send help from the West End. 



It -was not the fault of those young women whoever they were, 

 whatever they are, that the man they abandoned did not die before 

 help came, but it is their fault if some honest men and modest 

 women had a lesson in sham purity and pretended innocence and a 

 disgusted affectation of superior refinement and virtue that they 

 will not soon forget. 



* * * 



But close by St. Joseph, where I live, an event of this 

 kind, only with a more tragic ending, has taken place within 



