440 EDITORIAL 



by a reversal of the old-time attitude of philosophy and science 

 toward each other. The philosophical factor must be put into 

 service as the active handmaid of scientific determination rather 

 than as its guide and_ leader. It may indeed go before as scout 

 to roughly reconnoiter the way, and it may come after to 

 assemble and interpret the results, but it must ever be tentative 

 and dependent on rigorous scientific determination. Deduction, 

 inference, interpretation, theory, hypothesis, and the other phil- 

 osophical factors must be merely initial steps and sequential 

 steps attendant on rigorous science as the end. None the less, 

 the philosophical factors and the philosophical point of view are 

 indispensable if the science is to make its most wholesome 

 progress, and we owe to Le Contc and to those he typifies an 

 immeasurable debt, for they have kept us in fresh touch with 

 the generalizations and the philosophy of the science, and have 

 inspired us with their own contributions to the broader concep- 

 tions of geology and of its relations to kindred sciences. The 

 writings of Le Conte are graced by the fruits of wide learning, 

 a lucid style, a genial attitude, and a candor that has called 

 forth universal love and admiration. T. C. C. 



The progress of opinion in regard to the origin of the solar 

 system, and incidentally of the earth, is indicated by the follow- 

 ing recent utterances of astronomers of high rank : 



This simple hypothesis (Laplace's nebular hypothesis) has recently been 

 severely attacked, and it is doubtful whether it will survive the blow. Indeed, 

 we may be compelled to seek the origin of stellar systems in the spiral 

 nebulae, which Keeler's photographic survey made just before his death 

 showed to represent a true type form. It is evident that much remains to 

 be done before the mystery which surrounds the genesis of stars can be 

 cleared away.— Professor George E. Hale, Director Yerkes Observatory, 

 in address to Visiting Committee, University Record, June 28, 1901, p. 141. 



Though, without doubt, the system was evolved in some way from a 

 primitive nebula, we may say with certainty that it did not follow the orderly 

 course marked out for it by Laplace. — Professor C. L. Doolittle, of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, in annual address delivered before the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania chapters of the Society of Sigma Xi, June 13, 1901, 

 printed in Science, July 5, igoi.pp. 11-12. 



