Jantary 11, 1895.] 



SCIEXCE. 



51 



It is characteristic of the work of a really 

 great genius, cither in Science, Literature 

 or Art, that it is not displaced and cannot 

 be displaced by that which may come 

 after it. 



A bit of scientific work may later be 

 found to be erroneous as to data, and, there- 

 fore, in the -wTOng as to conclusions, but if 

 it be the work of an aggressive, original 

 thinker, it will always have great value- 

 In the brilliant galaxy of physicists, or, as 

 he would himself call them, natural philos- 

 ophers, which the present century has pro- 

 duced, it is moderation to saj' that none 

 outshiaes Lord Kelvin, and it will not be 

 denied that none has equalled him in ag- 

 gressiveness and originalitj'. The range of 

 subjects upon which he has touched during 

 his long and active life is so extensive as to 

 certainly justify the use of the term Natural 

 Philosopher in its broader sense (and cap- 

 italized at that), for he has never touched a 

 department of human knowledge without 

 leaving it richer and more extensive for his 

 contact with it. That he has not been in- 

 variably infallible is recognized l>y no one 

 more fully than by himself, and the new 

 editions of his earlier papers which have 

 been issuing fi-om the press at intervals dur- 

 ing the past few j-ears. bear most interest- 

 ing evidence of his readiness to change his 

 attitude on great questions whenever the 

 verdict of later investigations is against him. 

 It is delightful to note the occasional par- 

 enthetical ' not ' put to-day into a sentence 

 which twenty years ago declared verj' pos- 

 itively that ' there /.< ' so and so, or, ' we 

 can,^ etc., completely reversing the mean- 

 ing of statements which were once made 

 with a good degree of confidence. "What- 

 ever else may be said, it cannot be asserted 

 that Lord Kelvin has ever lacked the cour- 

 age to express his own views in most forci- 

 ble and unmistakable language. Indeed, in 

 this respect, especially, he has set a splendid 

 standard of unswerving scientific honesty 



for the innunicralile workers who have been, 

 and will be, more or less influenced by his 

 metliods and their tremendous product- 

 iveness. 



Ilis views as to the proper attitude of the 

 philosopher in his relations to unexplored 

 regions of human experience are concisely 

 expressed in this noble sentence fi-om his 

 Presidential Address before the British As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, in 

 1871 : ■' Science is bound by the everlasting 

 law of honor to face fearlessly everj- prob- 

 lem which can fairly be presented to it." 

 "NAlien he comes, however, to touch upon 

 some problems which have long been of 

 great interest to the human race, but which 

 have been assumed, usually, to lie outside 

 the domain of experimental or exact science 

 ( and he touches upon them not infrequently 

 in the volume under consideration), it is not 

 difficult to see a very decided bias towards 

 certain views, and a promptness to accept 

 propositions not always well supported by 

 evidence, very greatly in contrast with 

 what is found in more vigorously scientific 

 discussion. 



This series of popular lectures and ad- 

 dresses is published in three volumes, the 

 fii'st and third having already appeared. 

 The second (issued later than the third), 

 to which attention is now invited, contains 

 the important addresses on geological phys- 

 ics which have attracted so much attention 

 during the past (juarter of a centuiy, to- 

 gether with a numl)er of lectures and short 

 papers on sul)jects related to general physics 

 and extracts fi-om addresses as president of 

 the Royal Society since 1890. The geologi- 

 cal papers are of great interest and have 

 had much to do with the moulding of the 

 views of geologists as to Dj'namical Geologj-. 

 The series begins with a short note covering 

 but a single octavo page, entitled, ' The 

 Doctrine of Uniformity in Geologi/ Brief i/ 

 Refuted,'' read at Edinburgh in 1S(;.5. It 

 fairly ' opens the ball,' and may be reg-ard- 



