NATURE 

[Fuly 24, 1871 

238 
the end, there are in all thirteen articles. These con- 
sist of two classes of a totally distinct nature. Thelarger 
number constitute considerably the greater bulk of the 
volume, deal entirely with scientific subjects, and are of a 
special scientific nature. The remainder deal either di- 
rectly or indirectly with the question of the opposition or 
concordance of science and religion, To this question, 
Prof. Tyndall brings that same remarkable clearness and 
definiteness of statement which characterises his writings 
on purely scientific subjects. It is a highly desirable 
thing for all parties that it should be distinctly stated what 
are the issues, in their ultimate form, to which our various 
hypotheses may lead. Prof. Tyndall, from the scientific 
side, makes this statement clearly and distinctly. He 
views an hypothesis, so to speak, in its widest generalisa- 
tion, and does not shrink from it or its consequences. If, 
he would say, you hold these or those views, then this is 
what they szs¢ imply, and what, if these views be true, 
you 7zust come to; and so you need not be afraid, and if 
you hide it from yourself you only cloak the truth in the 
one case, or hinder the exposure of error in the other. 
As an example, let us take the-statement of the Natural 
Evolution hypothesis in the lecture on “ The Scientific 
Use of the Imagination” (page 163 of the present volume). 
Speaking of the evolution of the present world from a 
nebulous mass he says :— 
“ For what are the core and essence of this hypothesis ? 
Stripit naked, and you stand face to face with thenotionthat 
not alone the more ignoble forms of animalcular or animal 
life, not alone the nobler forms of the horse and lion, not 
alone the exquisite and wonderful mechanism of the human 
body, but the human mind itself—emotion, intellect, will, 
and all their phenomena— were once latent in a hery cloud. 
But the hypothesis will probably go even further than this. 
Many who held it would probably assent to the position 
that at the present moment ali our philosophy, all our 
poetry, all our science, all our art—Plato, Shakspeare, 
Newion, Raphael—are potential in the fires of the sun. 
We long to learn something of our origin. If the Evolution 
hypothesis be correct, even this unsatisfied yearning must 
have come to us across the ages which separate the un- 
conscious primeval mist from the consciousness of to-day. 
I do not think that any holder of the Evolution hypothesis 
would say that I overstate it or overstrain it in any way. 
I merely strip it of all vagueness, and bring before you, 
unclothed and unvarnished, the notions by which it must 
stand or fall.” 
“Fear not the Evolution hypothesis,” he says further 
on, “steady yourselves in its presence in the ulti- 
mate triumph of that truth which was expressed by old 
Gamaliel when he said, ‘If it be of God ye cannot 
overthrow it; if it be of man it will come to nought.’” 
This is the true scientific spirit; and the beautiful 
daring with which Prof. Tyndall launches upon an un- 
known sea trusting to this guiding principle, is an instance 
of that noble faith which has lived through all phases of 
the human mind alike in scientific and unscientific ages. 
To have a faith in something seems to be the ultimate 
necessity of all humanity. Let all of us beware how we 
call that faith, as it exists variously in each of us, false. 
Prof, Tyndall always writes in a beautiful, clear, and 
pointed style. Not the least excellent part of it, and that 
which probably as much as anything else constitutes him 
the great scientific teacher he is, is his unbounded power 
of apt illustration. He carries this into every subject 
with which he deals, Asan example, take the following 

from page 58 of the article on “ Miracles and Special 
Providences :”— 
“ The mind is, as it were, a photographic plate, which 
is gradually cleansed by the effort to think rightly, and 
which when so cleansed, and not before, receives impres- 
sions from the light of truth.” 
Again, at page 101 we find the following : 
“We live upon a ball of matter 8,cco miles in diameter, 
swathed by an atmosphere of unknown height. This 
ball has been molten by heat, chilled to a solid, and 
sculptured by water.” 
There is the touch of a master’s hand in the way in 
which these few words “ fling us the picture of the fight,” 
and enable us vividly to realise that which they would 
have us realise. 
Prof. Tyndall, however, has evidently given less atten- 
tion to spiritual than to natural questions. Indeed, it is 
not to be wondered at that a man now-a-days should not 
have time to pay attention to everything. It is some- 
times, however, to be lamented, though perhaps hardly to 
be wondered at, that a man should write about too much. 
The articles of a purely scientific character consist of two 
on ‘‘ Radiative and Radiant Heat,” one on “ The Light of 
the Sky,” and one on “ Dust and Disease.” 
The articles on the “ Life and Letters of Faraday ” will 
well repay the perusal of those who have not already read 
them in the Academy, and will even well merit a re-perusal, 
as everything does which gives us any insight into the 
character of that great and child-like man. 
The last of the series is a lecture on Magnetism, ad- 
dressed to the teachers of primary schools, at the South 
Kensington Museum. Prof, Tyndall tells us, in a short 
introduction to it, that he had at first some doubts as to 
the propriety of its insertion. “ But, on reading it,” he 
says, “it seemed so likely to be helpful that my scruples 
disappeared.” Weare exceedingly glad that it has been 
so. The lecture is a beautiful example of true teaching, 
and of that excellent union of logic and experiment which 
is the true education which ,physical science is so well 
calculated to supply. JAMES STUART 

DALL’S BRACHIOPODA OF THE UNITED 
STATES COAST SURVEY 
Report on the Brachiopoda obtained by the United States 
Coast Survey £xpedition, in charge of L. F. de Pour- 
tales, with a Revision of the Craniude and Discinide, 
By W. H. Dall. (Bulletin of the Museum of Compara- 
tive Zoology, at Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass.) 
With two plates. (Cambridge, U.S., 1871, 8vo.) 
i Pose is another important instalment of the published 
results of the deep-water dredgings made by our 
Transatlantic cousins and friends in the Gulf of Mexico. 
The first was issued in 1869, and consisted of a Pre- 
liminary Report on the Echini and Starfishes, by Prof. 
Alexander Agassiz. A report by Dr. Stimpson on the 
Crustacea procured in the same expedition is announced 
as nearly ready ; and that distinguished zoologist has also 
undertaken the still greater charge of a report on 
the Mollusca. It is impossible to over-rate the 
impulse which will be every where given by such 
explorations to the study of marine Natural History, 
