29S 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[Skpt. 21), 



to attempt this. As priests wear garments which were 

 fashionable several generations ago, and as in fornirr times 

 llint implements were used in saored offices to do what for 

 ordinary purposes was done with instruments of steel or 

 iron, so now archaic forms of expression seem to be regarded 

 as essential in religious books. One wonders whether faith 

 has become so weak that the Bible would not bear transla- 

 tion into tlie language used by the prose writers of the 

 present day. 



The difficulties which the revisers thus created for them- 

 selves have naturally led to faults of e.xecution, and on such 

 faults Mr. Moon has pounced with characteristic delight. 

 Where the revisers have very carefully followed the text, 

 they scarcely write English, though thoy have adopted as a 

 principle that the idiom of our language should not be 

 violated by forms of expression which it cannot bear. But 

 Mr. Moon, in his anxiety to do battle, charges recklessly 

 on perfectly defensible positions. For instance, lie adopts 

 as a principle that a verb must be plural when it relates to 

 several substantives ; and he will not hear of any objections 

 to this principle, based on the practice of our best writers 

 and speakers. But, as a matter of fact, the question 

 whether the principle is sound or not depends entirely on 

 the practice of writers and speakers. The Greek language 

 is logical, so is ours, so is the French ; but in the Greek 

 Mr. Moon's principle has no existence, whereas in French 

 it rules absolutely. Whether it exists in English or not, 

 depends on the practice of our best writers in use, 



Quern jHiieg arhitrium est, et jus et norma loqiiendi. 

 (A line, which, by -the- way, illustrates the Latin practice). 

 Now, the English custom in this matter is more nearly 

 akin to the Greek than to the French. We can say either 

 "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory," or 

 "Thine are the kingdom, the power, and the glory." 

 We cannot say " Thine are the kingdom, and the power, 

 and the glory," for the simple reason that the first " and " 

 indicates the reiteration, in reference to the power, and then 

 to the glory, of that which has already been said about 

 " the kingdom." Mr. Moon, in dealing with this particular 

 example, seems quite unable to see how much stronger is 

 the form actually used for the doxology than that 

 which he would substitute. All good writers know that 

 by the use of the singular in such cases, the word 

 "and" acquires the force of "and also." Mr. Moon 

 would probably answer that in that case, " and 

 also " might with advantage be used instead of 

 " and ; " for he appears to have not the slightest con- 

 ception of the weakness, dulness, and heaviness result- 

 ing from the constant use of every word which may be 

 essential to the logical complet<!ness of a sentence. J lis 

 own writing it ponderous to a degree. He crowds incon- 

 gruous ideas together in long and involved sentences, the 

 meaning of which can seldom be seen at a first reading. 

 Like all criticasters, he aims at fine writing; but in his 

 attempt to combine glowing description with logical accu- 

 racy, he often succeeds only in affording "awful examples," 

 and he is not always even quite so accurate as he might be. 

 Here, for instance, is a sentence of his writing : — 



There ia K-ofx- in tlie varied themeB of the Word of God for the 

 grandect onf«n-nttemnce« of lanf^ua^e ; and these, bearing tlioxu 

 themca, *hoald peal through the mighty cathedral of the world, in 

 tonc« which cjuld not but thrill with renponsivo vibrations the 

 throbbing hearts of its many million HrorHhi|ipcrg. 



This is very fine writing. The " organ-utterances of lan- 

 guage" are good; and when youclearlyg<;ehowtheseand those 

 are related, you dimly recognise that " these, bearing those, 

 can peal," ic, but whether the many million worshippers 

 (it should Ije many millions of worshippers), worship the 

 cathedral or the world, or what they worship, i.s by no means 



clear. Can Mr. Moon possibly have been afraid to speak 

 of " the many million.'? who worship in it," becau.se there is 

 a rule which very much troubles weak writers (and a very 

 silly rule it is) that a sentence should not end with small 

 words, prepositions, or pronouns ? 



It would be well if one who can write I'^nglish well — 

 accurately yet without allcctation — would try tins ellect of 

 one of the gospels, or even a chapter of one, in the English 

 of our day. 



METACHROMATISM, OR COLOUR CHANGE. 

 By William Ackrovi>. 



IT is usuiil for people to regard colour as a Used quality — a 

 (liinlity which it would bo as diflicult for a substaiieo to alter 

 as for the Ethiopian to chniigo his skin, or tho leopard his sjiots. 

 This idea of the fixity of colour is, however, easily got rid of. Let 

 tlio render by an effort of imagination condense a year into a few 

 moments of time, and lot him follow with tho mind's oyo all tho 

 changes in fruit, llower, and foliage. Then will it appear to him 

 that the colour »f tho landscape is ever changing. 



On a very small scale tho san\o changeablonoss of colour may bo 

 shown in the laboratory without any appeal to the imagination. 

 Coloured substances may be made to change from tint to tint while 

 one is looking on. 



Take a small fragment of bichromo (potassic dichromato) and 

 put it on a piece of white porcelain ; heat it strongly over a S))irit 

 lamp, Hunscn burner, or any other clean source of heat, it will then 

 be seen that the bichrome changes its colour from rod to dark rod. 

 Upon cooling, it regains its original colour. Note well that tho 

 cold bichrome was red, and the liot, dark rod; in other words, the 

 expanded bichrome was dark rod, and tho contracted red simply. 

 These facts we may tabulate thus : — 



)!ll llItOMK 



When heated 

 or exiiaiidod 



, cooled 

 tractod. 



The arrows refer to the order of colour change — e.j., when one 

 heats the bichrome it changes in tho direction of tho left-hand 

 arrow, and when one allows it to cool it changes in the opposite 

 order, as shown by tlie right-hand arrow. 



Now, there are many substances which change their colour when 

 they are heated. Thus, oxide of zinc changes from white to yellow 

 and orange, and porcelain even will change from white to yellow. 

 Chromate of barium changes from yellow to orange; chromato of 

 lead from orange to brick-red and black red; mercuric oxide from 

 orange yellow to orange, red, and brown ; and suboxide of cojiper 

 glass from scarlet to blackish red and black. Colour changing 

 bodies regain their usual, colour, as a rule, when thoy have cooled 

 to their usual temperature, although sometimes tho exact shade ia 

 not regained, probably from the substance not having fully con- 

 tracted. We have here cases of inorganic adaptation to environ- 

 ment as striking in their way as those of animals acquiring white 

 coats under the influence of Arctic cold, or of white folks becoming 

 dark skinned under the induenco of equatorial heat. 



In running over tho few examples we have given, it will be per- 

 ceived that in these colour changes, when a body is being heated, 

 there is a certain order which is invariably followed j thus white 

 substances become yellow, but never rod or black, and a red siib- 

 stanco may become brown or black, but never white. It will bo 

 further noted that in one kind of coloured substances black is tho 

 extreme result of heating, and, on tho other hand, no amount of 

 cooling will carry a substance beyond whiteness; i.e., a hot orango- 

 colourod body may become yellow when cooled, or oven white, but 

 nothing else beyond. If wo, therefore, airango a series of colours 

 with white at one end and black at tho other, the intermediate 

 members of tho scale being placed in tho order in which colour 

 changes are observed to take place in various substancos, then we 

 obtain a metachromatic scale. Tho following is m;/ motachromatio 

 scale : — 



niack 

 Hro> 



Ileatmg or | „^,^^^^ 



,. i Yellow 



expanding. ^ q^^^.,^ 



reen 

 Illue 

 White or colourless. 



Cooling or 

 contracting. 



