135 
The publication of these twenty errors, and of thirty-five 
more six months later, were his only reply to the scurrilous 
attack of Mr. Blunt. True science received its proper re- 
ward. The boastful and stupid editor of the Almanac was 
compelled by public opinion to employ a competent person 
to recalculate the Almanac for 1819, and advertised the en- 
largement of his own ideas by prefacing in the new edition 
these more modest words: “It will afford much satisfac- 
tion and promote commercial advantages, if, on discovery of 
an error in any nautical work, publicity should immediately 
be given.” No allusion, however, to “one Edward Hitch- 
cock,” — merely a presentation copy, in which thirty-five new 
errors were immediately discoyered, announced, and acknowl- 
edged humbly by the editor. There is no estimating the 
value of such a bit of scientific history. When the young 
mountain poet of Israel encountered the giant Goliath of 
Gath, a slip of that young foot upon the rock, a quiver of 
the eyelid, would have changed the stream of history through 
all ages, and postponed the coming of Christ to save the 
world. But to the young poet himself, the prosperous issue 
_ of the adventure was more than the salvation of a world; 
for it made him the right arm of Israel, and the tongue of 
Christendom. The same law of the mutual intersubordina- 
tion of the whole to the part, and of the part to the whole, 
however denied by the school of Buckle, holds good under 
all the disguises of modern socialisms. The young Hitch- 
cock, in a moment of idle fancy, with the daring of a fresh 
observer who had never yet been punished for making a 
mistake, attacked one of the established institutions of the 
world, and, by his courage, clear sight, patience and good 
‘ nature, introduced a practical reform which was felt on every 
ocean round the world, and, at the same time, lifted himself 
to the platform occupied by recognized and experienced men 
