J USE 5, 1S65.] 



• KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



489 



— prithee, where ?) which wouIJ be diflioult to suriiass ; which 

 makes us think of — 



" Fools rush in wlicre angels fear to treail." 



" Life is merely mechanism, after all. Undoubtedly ! " qnoth 

 she ! '■ Mystery is merely our i;;noraiice," quoth she ! Will she 

 then explain — e.g., the Mystery of Matter i-* Matter d/irui/s teas 

 and always fcill be. Is (^<i( mystery only our ignorance? How 

 would she explain the fact of apparitions after death ;•" She has no 

 more righi to call (with her precious prig of a partner) thought a 

 "secretion" than she has to call the telegraphic message a 

 secretion. Is it not conceivable that this fabric of nervous tissue 

 we are, may fade and perish ; but the message, the I, remain ? Then, 

 as for her hauptmotis, old age, (ioethe, for one, drew the exactly 

 opposite conclusion. Ue, like l-iladstone, Bismarck, Haydn, Wagner, 

 Hersehel, and a host of others, did jio( become a pitiable mockery 

 in old age, but was so intellectually young and vigorous that he 

 argued, '" I have scarcely yet begun to draw upon my resources : — 

 Natnre is bound to give me the opjxjrtunity to go on." 



// we are mere masks that crumble away, the Power whoso 

 manifestations wc are is eternal ; but that is not sufVicient philo- 

 sophy for man. His sense of personality (intense consciousness) 

 leads him to the corollary and conclusion that lie is irnuiortal — a 

 conclusion which is the Unest fruit of evolution. The dismal dis- 

 belief is a case of " retrogressive development," indeed ! 



CoMMKNT.\TOR. 



A NEW CHROXOMETER BALANCE. 



[1741] — Enclosed I send diagram of chronometer balance, 

 designed to correct the middle error temperature. The pin of the 

 clamp connecting the two rims is supposed to occupy the centre of 

 the straight bar screwed on the inside of the onter steel rim at the 

 middle temperature of GO or (J5 degrees. Should a straight bar bo 

 foand not accoratoly to eliminate the error, a slight curve either 

 way, according to the error, must be given it. I have tried 

 several different forms, but this is the best I have discovered. 



Messrs. Dent and Cri.'sp are the only two chronometer makers 

 who have seen a drawing of this form, but 1 should like some of 

 the others to pass their judgment upon it. Thomas Avees. 



P.S. — One side of the clamp is omitted in drawing to show the 

 oonnecting-pin. 



DE GUSTIBUS. 



[1742] — I have been nourishing an intention, with yoar per- 

 mission, of laying before your readers at some future time a tlieory 

 of the origin and rationale of the preferences in matters of taste, 

 which were the subject of my letter, Xo. 1G84, in Knowledge, No. 

 182, p. .355. As, however, to do so at present might seem like 

 bailding on a foundation which has been exploded with dynamite 

 by the letters 1708-9 in Knowledge, No. 185, pp. 421-2, I now ask 

 for a little space for repairing the cracks. 



With reference to picture-frames, which 1 said should preferably 

 be unlike Fig. 3, p. 355, let any frequenter of picture-galleries 

 reflect that, in the course of a few London seasons, not merely ten 

 or a dozen gilt frames have been passed before his eyes, but hun- 

 dreds, and perhaps thousands ; and that only a small percentage of 

 these have ever varied from symmetry in form. 



Further, that on analysing that small percentage, the variation, 

 as a rule, has been in conformity with one of my observations at 

 p. 356. " Variation displays itself in things at different levels, 

 between an elbow and a knee, »ic." Thus, for instance, there will 

 be found in the Xatinnal Gallery, the '' Vision of .St. Jerome," by 

 Parmegiano, of the shape of enclosed Fig. 9. (I continue the 

 numbers from the former letter.) But not once in ten years will 



occur a picture shaped as Fig. 10, with two sides unsymmetrical at 

 one level. 



.\gain, one may consult a looking-glass of the common form of 

 Fig. 11, and consider whether it is C(iually proper to lis it with the 

 symmetrical corners at one level and at dilTerent levels. Soo 

 Figs. 11 and 12. 





Fig. 10. 



Fig. 9. 



Fig. 11. 



" L B. C." objects to Fig. 4, for constructional reasons. I have 

 some experience in construction, and would submit tlio section, 

 Fig. 13, as showing a perfectly safe and pr.acticablo w.ay of build- 

 ing an unsymmetrical church. It would bo free from that vice ao 



Fig. 13. 



often seen in the vaulted aisles of cathedrals, where their thrust 

 tends to compress the walls of the nave. Thus Westminster Abbey 

 became disfigured with iron tie-rods, evidently to fence otV the evil 

 of such side thrusts. But tlie vicious v.aulted aisles are beautiful, 

 and the safe lop-sided nave would bo ugly until made respectable 

 by custom. 



With respect to the " Bird," Fig. 5, p. 350, I submit that the ob- 



