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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



specialists. Antagonizing established 

 political opinion and cherished religious 

 beliefs, it provoked the wrath of all 

 who rest contented in tradition. Ap- 

 pearing in successive parts and volumes 

 for twenty-five years, it was constantly 

 before the public, and has been aU that 

 time subject to a degree of abuse, ridi- 

 cule, and detraction, which is quite with- 

 out parallel in the past history of such 

 enterprises. 



And yet during all that time Spen- 

 cer's system of thought has increased 

 in recognition, appreciation, and power 

 over the mind of the age. Its doc- 

 trines permeate our serious literature, 

 as is widely shown by the periodicals ; 

 many books are written for and against 

 them ; and their author stands to-day 

 the representative man of the most in- 

 fluential and growing school of thought 

 in modern times. This view is further 

 verified by the increasing public de- 

 mand for his works, more of the solid 

 volumes of the " Synthetic Philosophy " 

 having been called for during the last 

 twelvemonth than in any former year. 

 The inexorable critical resistance Spen- 

 cer's works have met with has no 

 doubt hindered their spread, but it has 

 failed to arrest them, and has only 

 served to test and demonstrate the in- 

 herent strength of his systematic work. 



And now the sluggish old "Edin- 

 burgh Keview " has at last awakened, 

 girded itself up, and entered the lists 

 against Mr. Spencer. The current num- 

 ber contains an article entitled " The 

 Spencerian Philosophy," to which we 

 here call attention, not because it has 

 the slightest value as a contribution to 

 the subject, but because we may gather 

 from it an instructive lesson regarding 

 the decline of the influence of vindic- 

 tive criticism. It happens that the 

 " Edinburgh Review " has a history in 

 this matter. This is not the first time 

 it has practiced its bludgeon upon the 

 representatives of advancing knowledge. 

 Let us, therefore, first notice its early 

 record in relation to one of the most 



important steps in the progress of mod- 

 ern science — the establishment of " the 

 undulatory theory of light " by Dr. 

 Thomas Young. We give the "Re- 

 view " full credit for consistency in an 

 unprincipled course ; the instinctive 

 meanness of its infancy, long since exe- 

 crated by the world, is not in the least 

 abated in its senile dotage. 



The " Novum Organon Renovatum " 

 of Dr. William Whewell is an able work 

 devoted to the philosophy of the induc- 

 tive sciences, of which the same au- 

 thor is also the eminent historian. Dr. 

 Whewell has selected the two most 

 conspicuous examples of comprehen- 

 sive and valid induction afforded by 

 physical science, and by means of 

 charts he has illustrated in a very strik- 

 ing way the extent of the observed and 

 experimental facts, and the minor in- 

 ductions, that are brought into unity 

 by all-embracing theories. The first 

 chart is an "Inductive Table of As- 

 tronomy," and it shows in a very inter- 

 esting manner how completely astro- 

 nomical phenomena are explained and 

 brought into harmony by "the theory 

 of universal gravitation." The second 

 chart is "An Inductive Table of Optics," 

 and in a corresponding way it exem- 

 plifies the elucidation of luminous phe- 

 nomena, and the explication of general 

 optical effects which result from " the 

 undulatory theory of light." What- 

 ever may be the imperfection of these 

 theories, they have fulfilled the pur- 

 poses of giving rational interpretation 

 to wide ranges of natural phenomena, 

 and of guiding the human mind in the 

 pathway of new discovery by the pow- 

 er of prediction that they have con- 

 ferred, and the two theories stand to- 

 gether as eminent triumphs of physical 

 reasoning. The name of Newton will 

 be forever associated with the law of 

 universal gravitation, and in the same 

 way Dr. Thomas Young will be im- 

 mortal as the man whose genius estab- 

 lished the undulatory theory of light, 

 and who has hence been very appro- 



