Vll 



In more than one of his Lay sermons, he rushes 

 headlong into the most p/onounced assertions in re- 

 spect to the nature of matter and of spirit. The elo- 

 quent Tyndall, in No. 5, expounds at length The 

 Methods and Tendencies of Physical Investigation and 

 discourses eloquently, if occasionally somewhat po- 

 etically, of Tlie Scientific use of tJie Imagination. But 

 Messrs. Huxley and Tyndall are eminent examples 

 of scientists who are severely and successfully 

 devoted respectively to physiology and the higher 

 physics. No one will contend that they have not 

 faithfully cultivated their appropriate fields of in- 

 quiry. The fact that neither can be content to con- 

 fine himself within his special field, forcibly illus- 

 trates the tendency of every modern science to 

 concern itself with its relations to its neighbors, 

 and the unresistible necessity which forces the most 

 rigid physicist to become a metaphysician in spite of 

 himself. So much for the appellation " Scientists'.' 



"Half Hours" suggests the very natural inquiry 

 What can a scientist communicate in half an 

 hour, especially to a reader who may be ignorant 

 of the elements of the science which he would ex- 

 pound ? Does not the phrase Half Hours with 

 Modern Scientists stultify itself and suggest the 

 folly of any attempt to treat of science with effect 

 in a series of essays ? In reply we would ask the 

 attention of the reader to the following considera- 

 tions. 



The tendency is universal among the scientific 

 men of all nations, to present the principles of 

 science in such brief summaries or statements as 

 may bring them within the reach of common readers. 



