96 A Century of Science 



without seeming churlish. He therefore accepted 

 it, and applied it to extending his researches in 

 descriptive sociology. 



Of the many visits which Youmans made to 

 England, now and then extending them to the 

 Continent, one of the most important was in 1871, 

 for the purpose of establishing the International 

 Scientific Series. This was a favourite scheme of 

 Foumans. He realized that popular scientific 

 books, adapted to the general reader, are apt to 

 be written by third-rate men who do not well un- 

 derstand their subject ; they are apt to be dry or 

 superficial, or both. No one can write so good a 

 popular book as the master of a subject, if he only 

 has a fair gift of expressing himself and keeps in 

 mind the public for which he is writing. The 

 master knows what to tell and what to omit, 

 and can thus tell much in a short compass and 

 still make it interesting ; moreover, he avoids the 

 inaccuracies which are sure to occur in second- 

 hand work. Masters of subjects are apt, however, 

 to be too much occupied with original research to 

 write popular books. It was Youmans' plan to 

 induce the leading men of science in Europe 

 and America to contribute small volumes on their 

 special subjects to a series to be published si- 

 multaneously in several countries and languages. 



