Oct. 24, 1884.] 



♦ KNOV^LEDGE ♦ 



345 



furtherance of our motto, " Let knowledge grow from 

 more to more," in thus making widely known the induce- 

 ments — nay, let us rather say enticements — oflered to 

 youths by the Polytechnic Institute to enable them to 

 qualify as valued members of society. Those of our 

 readers, on the other hand, who may desire further parti- 

 culars, should read, if they have not already done so, the 

 article on the subject which appeared in No. 153 of 

 Knowledge, or make application to the secretary of the 

 Institute, Mr. Mitchell, who will gladly enrol candidates 

 for admission into the ranks of " Our Boys," as the 

 members are felicitously designated by those who have 

 their welfare at heart. 



We cannot, in conclusion, refrain from again insisting 

 on the undoubted advantages offered to young men by Mr. 

 Quintin Hogg and those who assist him in carrying on 

 this great work. No more fruitful or attractive enjoy- 

 ment can be found for a youth's leisure time than is 

 to be obtained under their auspices ; and if, he cannot 

 derive tangible advancement from becoming a member of 

 the Polytechnic Institute, where he can obtain for a trifling 

 fee the best possible instruction, technical as well as theo- 

 retical, in many departments of study, combined with the 

 comfort to be found in really sociable surroundings, then 

 all we can say is, " Jack " must be a very " dull boy " 

 indeed. 



(editorial (gosi£(ip. 



I HAVE seen with regret that Dr. Kinns, author of a 

 work entitled " Moses and Geology," (which I have not 

 read) has been troubled by remarks which the acting 

 editor made, in all good faith I am well assured, on his 

 lucubrations. In rejecting, however, as utterly inadmis- 

 sible, the line of reasoning followed by Dr. Kinns, I am 

 quite at one with my friend the acting editor. Dr. Kinns 

 submitted to me, when Knowledge was as yet very young, 

 the outline of his reasoning, and a most stupendous mis- 

 calculation of the probabilities in favour of his particular 

 interpretation of the real meaning of the account of the 

 creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Those who are 

 curious in the matter can find (I cannot) my reply to Dr. 

 Kinns in some of the earlier columns of "Answers to 

 Correspondents." Suffice it that I did not give insertion 

 to reasoning which seemed to me most obviously illogical, 

 and that — probably — the glimpse of his idea which Dr. 

 Kinns then gave me prevented me from even thinking of 

 reading the work which he subsequently brought forth. — 

 R. P. 



I CAN hardly imagine a more serious attack on the ac- 

 count in Genesis, than that which Dr. Kinns has in efiect 

 made while seeming to defend it. To suppose the account 

 erroneous in several important respects implies only that, 

 whether inspired or not in matters relating to religion, the 

 writer of the book of Genesis was not inspired in regard to 

 scientific matters ; but to suppose the account can really 

 be interpreted as Dr. Kinns suggests, is to suppose that a 

 person (not Moses, whoever he was) inspired with know- 

 ledge of all the fixcts, was so unskilful as a writer that every 

 single reader had misunderstood him till Dr. Kinns came 

 along with his help to clear up the meaning of a divinely- 

 inspiied penman. This, of course, is monstrous on the face 

 of it.— R. P. 



But while I am thoroughly at one with the gentleman 

 who has kindly acted as editor for me during my absence 



from England, in rejecting unhesitatingly the argument 

 which runs through Dr. Kinns' work (as I understand), 

 I saw with regret a charge of ignorance brought against 

 Dr. Kinns, and with pleasure its ultimate withdrawal. For 

 my own part, I should feel loth to accuse any one of 

 ignorance, being so thoroughly ignorant myself — in multi- 

 tudes of special departments of science. Every man living, 

 however well informed he may be in some subjects, is 

 grossly ignorant in a much greater number. I do not even 

 know an astronomer who is not ignorant in some depart- 

 ments of his own subject, nor any chemist, geologist, 

 botanist, entomologist, or other specialist who — if really 

 a master- — will not admit that there are departments of his 

 special subject about which he knows very little. How 

 much more ignorant must he be of subjects outside the few 

 he can have made his own. — R. P. 



The only ignorance which is really contemptible is that 

 crass ignorance which can see no knowledge worth having 

 outi^ide the petty domain which any one man can conquer. It 

 was such folly, not mere ignorance about thi^ or that sub- 

 ject, to which Moliere referred in the well-known lines : — 



J'ai cru juaques ic! que c'etait Tignorance 

 Qni faisait les grands sots, et non pas la science — 

 Vons avez cru fort mal ; et je vous suis garant 

 Qu'un sot savant est sot plus qu'un sot ignorant. 



— K. P. 



I HAVE found that even my " Easy Star Lessons " and 

 " The Stars in their Seasons " require to be supplemented 

 by a simpler guide to a knowledge of the heavens. My 

 " Half-Hours with the Stars," originally prepared for my 

 friend Mr. Hardwicke, as a simpler version of my " Con- 

 stellation Seasons," is rather rough, and not quite simple 

 enough. It was never intended as more than a test of 

 the young student's requirements in that direction. I 

 propose now to bring out fortnightly (or rather twice a 

 month) a series of still simpler star-maps, showing the posi- 

 tion of all stars of the first three magnitudes, over the 

 whole heavens for every night in the year. With 24 such 

 maps for the year, the student can always find a map 

 showing the stars as they are actually situate, within lest.- 

 than half-an hour of the moment of observation. These 

 maps will thus form a series which might be very correctly 

 called " Half-Hours with the Stars," seeing that if the 

 observer continues his survey on any night in the year 

 for half-an-hour, he will be able to select a map showing 

 the stars precisely as they are at some part or other of that 

 half-hour. The series will be called, however, " First Star- 

 Lessons." The maps will be drawn for the latitude of 

 mid-Britain. They will commence in November, so that if 

 any alterations of plan suggest themselves, the complete 

 series on such improved plan may begin next January. 

 — R. P. 



I HAVE by no means forgotten my promise respecting 

 maps showing the stars with constellation figures. But 

 all things cannot be done at once. I have an immense 

 amount of astronomical mapping to get through before I 

 have completed my proposed work in that direction ; but 

 those who follow the progress of Knowledge patiently wiU 

 find all done — if I live — in due course. — R. P. 



Errata. — In the " Face of the Sky," on p. 303, the times of 

 rising of Saturn are erroneously given. They should really be 8h. 

 10m. p.m., on October 10. and 7h. 15m. p.m. on the 24th. — Letter 

 1457, last paragraph, " Whether science will ever directly," read 

 " indirectly." 



