456 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 35 



illogical order. In this regard, a curious and 

 not infrequent variety of this fault deserves 

 mention. According to the headings of the 

 chapters or sections, the division of topics is 

 perfect ; but under each head the matters are 

 tumbled together as if a clerk was contented 

 to stuff his papers in anyhow, if only he 

 crammed them into the right pigeon-hole. 



Speaking broadly, the German mind lacks 

 conspicuouslj' the habits of clearness and order. 

 There have been celebi-ated exceptions, but 

 the}- were individual. The nation regards it- 

 self as having a decidedly philosophical bent, 

 meaning a facility at taking broad and pro- 

 found views of the known. We venture to 

 contradict this opinion, doing it advisedly. 

 Their profundity is mj'sticism, their breadth 

 vagueness, yet a good philosopher must think 

 clearlj'. It is a remarkable but little heeded 

 fact, that Germany has not contributed her 

 share to the generalizations of science : she has 

 produced no Linne, Darwin, Lyell, Lavoisier, 

 or Descartes, each of whom bequeathed to 

 posterity a new realm of knowledge, although 

 she has given to the world grand results by 

 the accumulated achievements of her investi- 

 gators. The German's imperfect sense of hu- 

 mor is another obstacle which besets him on 

 eveiy path. He is cut off from the percep- 

 tion of some absurdity, like that of Kant's 

 neumenon, for instance. One cannot explain 

 this to him : it were easier to explain a shad- 

 ow to the sun, who alwaj's sees the lighted 

 side. To state the whole epigrammatically, 

 German science is the professional investiga- 

 tion of detail, slowly attaining generaliza- 

 tions. 



English science is the opposite of this, — 

 amateurish rather than professional. Some 

 might call it insular, j-et we should hardly join 

 them in so doing. In fact, the professional 

 investigator has hardly been a recognized char- 

 acter in the English social organization : until 

 recentlj' he was barel}' acknowledged, even by 

 the universities, which sought instructors who 

 knew and could teach, who might investigate 

 and discover in a subsidiarj', and, as it were, 

 unofficial waj^ A large number of English 



scientific men were disconnected from the uni- 

 versities and colleges after their own student 

 years, and were half or wholl}- amateurs ; and 

 their writings show the effects of this separa- 

 tion, not always, to be sure, but in manj- cases 

 with painful evidence, hy a lack of thorough- 

 ness, an imperfect acquaintance with other 

 investigations, and a failure to grasp the essen- 

 tial part of the problem : in brief, such writings 

 appear behindhand and superficial. Yet amid 

 these poorer productions are to be found a 

 right goodly number of the best scientific arti- 

 cles we possess in any language. Of late 

 years the proportion of the good has steadily 

 increased, and investigation is now more cor- 

 rectly' appreciated than ever before. Indeed, 

 there is no more encouraging event in the 

 recent progress of science than the sudden 

 elevation of the standard of original research 

 in England. The English are trained writers : 

 their scientific articles excel the German in 

 literary merit, being seldom slovenly' either in 

 arrangement or stj'le, and rarely wearisome 

 from sheer diffuseness. Ver}' noteworthy is 

 the fertility in generalizations of the English : 

 this is with them the outcome of individual 

 endowments, a single master attaining a broad 

 conclusion, — a process of individual effort 

 quite unlike the German democratic method of 

 generalizing by the accumulations of manj'. 

 Is it too much to say that the English and 

 Scotch are the Greeks of modern philosoph}' ? 

 French science is decidedly provincial : it is 

 apart, having onl}' an imperfect, uncertain ac- 

 quaintance with the great world outside, and 

 its international interests of original research. 

 The French have lagged far behind the great 

 movements of recent j-ears. Consider onlj- how 

 backward they have been in the comprehension 

 and acceptance of the Darwinian theorj' ; and 

 remember, too, that it were wiser to take out 

 the mainspring from a watch than to eliminate 

 evolution from biology. French scientific arti- 

 cles are well written, the matter is admirably 

 classified, it is all very clear. The keen, artis- 

 tic sense of the nation displaj's itself here ; but 

 it also deludes them into presenting a rounded 

 survey of a greater field than is demanded \>y 



