555 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Prevision 

 Problem 



over the whole world, and they have in 

 many ways modified the habits and even the 

 modes of speech of all civilized peoples. 

 WALLACE The Wonderful Century, ch. 1, p. 

 10. (D. M. & Co., 1899.) 



2732. PRINTING INVENTED IN 



CHINA Block-books. This [printing] was 

 a process simple enough in itself, and in- 

 deed well known from remote ages. Ever) 7 

 Egyptian or Babylonian who smeared some 

 black on his signet-ring or engraved cylin- 

 der, and took off a copy, had made the first 

 step towards printing. But easy as the 

 further application now seems to us, no one 

 in the Old World saw it. It appears to have 

 been the Chinese who invented the plan of 

 engraving a whole page of characters on a 

 wood-block and printing off many copies. 

 They may have begun as early as the sixth 

 century, and at any rate in the tenth cen- 

 tury they were busy printing books. The 

 Chinese writing, from its enormous diversity 

 of characters, is not well suited to printing 

 by movable types, but there is a record that 

 this plan was early devised among them, 

 having been carried on with separate terra- 

 cotta types in the eleventh century. Moslem 

 writers early in the fourteenth century de- 

 scribe Chinese printing, so that it was proba- 

 bly through them that the art found its 

 way to Europe, where not long afterwards 

 the so-called " block-books," printed from 

 whole-page wood-blocks after the Chinese 

 manner, make their appearance, followed 

 by books printed with movable types. Few 

 questions have been more debated by anti- 

 quaries than the claims of Gutenberg, Faust, 

 and the others to their share of honor as 

 the inventors of printing. Great as was the 

 service these worthies did to the world, it 

 is only fair to remember that what they did 

 was but to improve the practical application 

 of a Chinese invention. Since their time 

 progress has been made in cheapening types, 

 making paper by machinery, improving the 

 presses, and working them by steam-power, 

 but the idea remains the same. TYLOB An- 

 thropology, ch. 7, p. 180. (A., 1899.) 



. PRIORITY OF DISCOVERY, 

 SPURIOUS CLAIMS OF Everything Said 

 by Some One Somewhere Chance Utter- 

 ance Is Not Discovery. In the hundreds of 

 books and pamphlets which are every year 

 published about ether, the structure of 

 atoms, the theory of perception, as well as 

 on the nature of the asthenic fever and 

 carcinoma, all the most refined shades of 

 possible hypotheses are exhausted, and 

 among these there must necessarily be many 

 fragments of the correct theory. But who 

 knows how to find them ? I insist upon this 

 in order to make clear to you that all this 

 literature, of untried and unconfirmed hy- 

 potheses, has no value in the progress of 

 science. One who wants to publish some- 

 thing really new facts sees himself open 

 to the danger of countless claims of prior- 



ity, unless he is prepared to waste time 

 and power in reading beforehand a quantity 

 of absolutely useless books, and to destroy 

 his readers' patience by a multitude of use- 

 less quotations. HELMHOLTZ Popular Lec- 

 tures, lect. 5, p. 229. (L. G. & Co., 1898.) 



2734. Truth May Appear 



by Accident amid Any Flood of Error Dis- 

 covery Gives Reason and Proof of Truth. 

 To find superficial resemblances 'is easy; it 

 is amusing in society, and witty thoughts 

 soon procure for their author the name of 

 a clever man. Among the great number of 

 such ideas there must be some which are 

 ultimately found to be partially or wholly 

 correct; it would be a stroke of skill always 

 to guess falsely. In such a happy chance 

 a man can loudly claim his priority for the 

 discovery; if otherwise, a lucky oblivion 

 conceals the false conclusions. The adher- 

 ents of such a process are glad to certify 

 the value of a first thought. Conscientious 

 workers who are shy at bringing their 

 thoughts before the public before they have 

 tested them in all directions, solved all 

 doubts, and have firmly established the 

 proof, these are at a decided disadvantage. 

 HELMHOLTZ Popular Lectures, lect. 5, p. 228. 

 (L. G. & Co., 1898.) 



2735. PROBLEM OF LAW AND LIB- 

 ERTY #bw Much Control by Government ? 

 How Much Freedom, Even if Abused f As 

 the motives which determine individual con- 

 duct are not always reasonable motives, 

 so it is clear that what men naturally do 

 is no sure test either of what they ought to do 

 or of what they ought to be allowed to do. 

 It is their nature, under certain conditions, 

 to do all that is bad and injurious to them- 

 selves and others. Hence it is the most dif- 

 ficult of all problems In the science of gov- 

 ernment to determine when, where, and how 

 it is wise to interfere by the authority of 

 law with the motives which are usually 

 called the natural motives of men. The 

 question is no other than this: How far 

 the abuse of those motives can be checked 

 and resisted by that public authority whose 

 duty and function it is to place itself above 

 the influences which, in individual men, 

 overpower the voice of reason and of con- 

 science. ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 7, p. 

 199. (Burt.) 



2736. PROBLEM OF MORAL EVIL 



Why Is Righteousness Not Automatic? 

 The question then arises, as one of the 

 greatest of all mysteries, how it is and why 

 it is that the higher gifts of man's nature 

 should not have been associated with cor- 

 responding dispositions to lead as straight 

 and as unerringly to the crown and consum- 

 mation of his course as the dispositions 

 of other creatures do lead them to the 

 perfect development of their powers and the 

 perfect discharge of their functions in the 

 economy of Nature? ARGYLL Unity of Na- 

 ture, ch. 9, p. 219. (Burt.) 



