490 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 5, 1885. 



iection to my position would hare been far stronger than it is if 

 " I. B. C." had been able to produce any monster having a head at 

 the end of its tail, yet belonging to a recognised class, as do Sirens 

 and Centaurs, and" duly vouched for by Virgil or Orid, as repre- 

 sentatives of large constituencies of readers. 



A chief source of the difficulty in investigating questions of taste 

 seems to lie in the confusion of these separate elements in the 

 question: I. Sensual physical excitement; II. Immediate intel- 

 lectual satisfaction ; III. Associations with past satisfactions of all 

 sorts, also with ]u-esent social feelings. To examine to the bottom 

 one of these elements, one should temporarily ignore the others. 

 In my explanation of Hogarth's "Line of Beauty" (Knowledge 

 No. 180, p. 313), I treated the matter as an intellectual one, 

 excepting so far as introducing incidentally physical fatigue to 

 the eye. Intellectual and physical pleasure and labour may 

 attend an astronomer's proceedings as he watches a transit of 

 Tenus. AVhat a conglomeration of affections will ensua if, just 

 at the most critical moment, a messenger rushes in to toll him 

 that at his distant home a child has been born to him; and, 

 moreover, that a remote relative, dying, has bequeathed him a 

 million of money. Fine art deals with such conglomerations of 

 intellect, affection, and the varied interests that stir mankind. 



Ax Old Dk.^ugiitsman. 



LETTERS KECEIVED AND SHORT ANSWERS. 



C. Le.m. Correction made elsewhere. Thanks. — C. E. Cl.\ek. 

 It begins verse seven of the exordium to " In Memoriam," by 

 Tennyson. See printed notice, in capital letters, which concludes 

 those heading the correspondence column. — H. R. B. — " Action at 

 a distance " is rather (in the present state of our knowledge) in- 

 conceivable than unbelievable. Clerk-Maxwell, following Faraday, 

 was disposed to refer all such seeming action, as in the cases of 

 magnetism, gravity, A'C, to the vibrations of an intervening medi^Im ; 

 but my own difficulty has always been this, that any kind of 

 undulation or vibration whatever must take time to be propagated, 

 whereas — certainly in the solar system — the action of gravity is 

 absolutely instantaneous. I am quite with you in your expressed 

 belief that " Gravitation is the profoundest of mysteries," and 

 think that a considerable advance must bo made in our existing 

 acquaintance with cosmical physics ere it can be removed from 

 that category. — W. " Holmdale " wanted to draw a meridian line 

 in a house, before the roof was covered in. You may give me credit 

 for the possession of a sufficient knowledge of rudimentary astro- 

 nomy to justify me in asking you to believe that I could have given 

 that querist more than one way of rigidly determining the meridian 

 had he on^y possessed the proper instruments. You greatly exag- 

 gerate the difficulties in the way of obtaining a very fair approxi- 

 mation indeed to it by the method of equal altitudes, which is of 

 very great antitjuity. If " Holmdale " did get the meridian within 

 1°, it would be amply accurate for his i)urpose ; and I gravely doubt 

 if he would obtain it any nearer by the method you gave. Of 

 course, if a man has a rigidly accurate chronometer, if he knows his 

 longitude tlioroughly well, and if Greenwich time is accurately 

 flashed (which it but too r.arely is) to a Post-office close to him, 

 then the shadow of a long plumb-line at apparent noon will give him 

 abetter meridian still. Y'ou will be quite prepared to hear that I 

 am sitting limp and helpless at the editorial desk after 

 your withering sarcasm ! — JonN Hampden. Well, I suppose 

 that one reason why the ChnUenger did not discover the 

 South Pole was that she was despatched for a totally 

 different purpose, and without the very slightest intention of 

 proceeding thither. Moreover, the former experience of Captain 

 Ross and others, and the familiar fact that ice in the Antarctic 

 Ocean extends 10^ nearer to the Equator than it does in the northern 

 hemisphere, forbids the hope that the actual Southern Pole itself 

 will be reached. The reason for the delay in the appearance of the 

 Challenrier reports in their entirety is, that each separate section of 

 them has been committed to men whose ample knowledge of the 

 subjects respectively treated of by them ensured their being worth 

 reading. It is surprising how much more valuable a man's opinion 

 becomes, and how much more readily he is listened to, when he 

 possesses some acqtiaintance with the subject on which he dog- 

 matises. Would you consider me very rude if I offered this hint 

 for your personal consideration ? — .1. O. Callaohan points out, in 

 connection with a paragraph in the " Editorial Gossip," on p. 4-10, 

 that the " Hamburg Lotteries " there denounced are advertised in 

 English provincial papers. How far the proprietors of these papers 

 render themselves " accessories," perhaps some common informer 

 will endeavour to discover. The gravest charge, though, is against 

 our paternal Government, which actually gives through its Postal 

 Department every facility for, and enticement to, the commission 

 of a highly penal offence. — Faciebat says (in connection with a 



reply to Mr. Jarman, on p. 44G) that Green mentions fan (like) 

 structure in his " Physical Geology," and that Jukes (somewhere 

 or other) talks of "fan-shaped," though without mentioning 

 structure. No. I have written "ccelo" for more years than I 

 care to count, and shall not now alter it to " cajlo," any more than 

 I intend to use "Kikero" for "Cicero." I regret that I do not 

 know the address. Mr. Caldicott's letter, with a jiilc of others, 

 was torn up straightway when dealt with. — JAS. Guekham. Handed 

 to the writer of the article. — M. T. H. Nothing hinges on the 

 method of describing specular reflection. " In a looking-glass " is 

 merely /aro?( tie parley ; everybody is agreed as to the nature of the 

 phenomenon. T}ie question is, is anything reflected if there be no 

 percipient eye in the line of the reflected ray : all else is surplusage. 

 — John Abbott. What, in the name of fortune, do you send »!e four 

 and fourpence for ? ! You should have written tc lessrs. W. Bundy 

 & Co., whose address will be found appended to their advertisement, 

 and whither your letter will have now to be sent from the office. — 

 Dk. Lewin.^. Y'our reply to Mr. AVooton will appear, but your 

 other letter merely rciti rates, with slight and unimportant varia- 

 tions, arguments which have been before advanced in these columns. 

 Thanks for the " Mason's College Magazine." — B. T. Lo\yne. Yes ; 

 I am familiar with the discussion, and shall be very glad to insert 

 your exposition in extcnso. In the present crowded state of our 

 columns, however, I can only accept it as a voluntary contribution. 

 — WiLLLAM Boggett. It is always advisable to bo sure of your 

 facts before framing hypotheses. Electricity is not, as might be 

 assumed from your pamphlet, a substance, but a mode of motion. 

 Ice continues to conduct electricity, though imperfectly, until it- 

 is cooled down to — 13°Fah.. when it really becomes a non-con- 

 ductor. Read some modern work on the subject, like Professor 

 Thompson's, published by Maomillans. — Jno. R. Webb. " Faciebat," 

 as you will see above, refers to Green's book, as one in which the 

 wards " fan-shaped structure " are to be found. As for Geikie's 

 text-book, I had it at my elbow, so that I should have, per- 

 haps, modified my original statement had I opened it. All 

 the same, the practice does exist in the South Kensington 

 examinations of giving questions answerable only from the 

 cram-books compiled by people belonging to or dependent on the 

 " Department." — P. W. Rudler. Received with thanks. — Hall- 

 VAKDS. Y'our reply to Miss Ballin shall appear in due course; as 

 shall your article on certain corruptions of English. The other 

 two I return to you. To insert your table-turning letter would be 

 to open the door to a flood of "Spiritualistic" correspondence, 

 which I am thoroughly determined shall never discredit these 

 jiages. I have myself seen a table tilt and go round, have watched 

 the absolutely unconscious muscular action by which it was caused 

 to do so, and have stopped it at will by simple pressure in the 

 opposite direction. The difficulty of trusting to the evidence of 

 one's own senses in these matters is enormous. E^t nafura liomi- 

 num iiovitatis arida, and our appetite for the marvellous grows 

 with what it feeds upon. When I was engaged some years ago in 

 a thorough investigation of (so-called) " Spiritualism," I have seen 

 things almost with awe, which, on subsequently learning the secret 

 of their performance, I have cursed my own folly for not detecting 

 at once. If once the thin end of the wedge enters here I must be 

 impartial, and we shall have tables moving without contact, 

 followed by slate-writing, spirit hands, "materialisation," and the 

 rest of the contemptible impostm-es by which " Media" prey upon 

 the fatuous idiots who support them. Y'our second letter I cannot 

 insert, for reasons hinted at in my former reply. Its subject is 

 scientific, but, 1st Corinthians vi., 12 v., Knowledge has a very 

 varied clic7it,'Ie indeed, and is addressed pucrts I'irginihusque among 

 others. I am not concerned to deny that the article on which, as 

 you say, it is a corollary, is not, in one sense, improving reading ; 

 but I daresay it will astonish you not a little to know that that 

 article was one of a series written for a specific purpose, which 

 even I do not see until they are up in type. With regard to your 

 strictures on Mr. Browning's papers, you can scarcely be aware 

 that some subscribers take this journal for the sake of the tricycling 

 articles in it, and grumble because there aren't more of it ! The 

 I Fontenelle ones were started by the Conductor, as a contribution 

 towards the history of the growth of astronomical knowledge ; and, 

 once begun, can scarcely be cut suddenly short because they, un- 

 happily, fail to meet with your personal appiroval. Knowing some- 

 thing of editorial "drive," you will, I know, forgive me for not 

 entering into further det.ails here. — Oriental Association. 

 Received. —T. S. Usbocne. I am as sworn a foe to both as you can 

 possibly be ; but that paragraph gave no countenance to either. — 

 B. J. M. What yon really mean is that you wholly failed to find 

 out how tho trick was done. — A. C. Harris. The School of Sub- 

 marine Telegraphy and Elcctricnl Engineering, to which you refer, 

 has been in existence for several years, and two articles have ap- 

 peared in Knowlt!dgk concerning- it. Its address is 12, Princes- 

 . treet, Hanover-sqnaic. Lrndon, W. 



