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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 519. 



faceted pebbles in geology, tojather with 

 Reibungshreccia, roches moutonnees, and the . 

 like, are put to shame for their poverty. Time 

 was when none but the untutored savage 

 called hills ' ispatinows ' and ' pahas,' and the 

 Brahmin was left in undisputed possession of 

 ' doabs.' In those artless days we were wont 

 to say ' hillside ' and ' pot-hole ' when needful, 

 without blushing for the uncouthness of our 

 mother-tongue, and in blissful ignorance of 

 such refinements as ' cuesta ' and ' remolino.' 

 But now that physiographers, like Sganarelle, 

 ' have changed all that,' we are overcome at 

 the thoiight of our unletteredness. 



Sometimes, however, even Chinook and 

 Hottentot fail, and in such plight it becomes 

 necessary to improvise new terms on the spot. 

 Eeeent coinage from a strenuous mint has en- 

 riched us with ' can't bes ' and ' not yets ' ; 

 may we not hope for ' has beens,' ' izzers ' and 

 ' come ons ' (out west they have them already) 

 to complete the sequence ? Another bright 

 medallion is ' inglenook,' though had the 

 choice been left to us we would have preferred 

 ' tiddledywink ' ; and there are similar jeweled 

 expressions too numerous to mention. 



Whether this sort of a polyglot-colloquial 

 nomenclature accords well with the dignity of 

 science we leave others to judge. But before 

 physiographers can claim the authority of 

 good usage they must get the majority of the 

 people to agree with them. Ere that time 

 . comes, however, we may be permitted to set 

 some store upon Spencer's ' Philosophy of 

 Style,' upon Pope's great neo-classic essay,- 

 and upon the raillery of that master of satire, 

 who says: 



'Nor slight applause will candid pens afford 

 To him who furnishes a wanting word. 

 Then fear not, if 'tis needful, to produce 

 Some term unknown, or obsolete in use, 



New words find credit in tliese latter days. 

 If neatly grafted on a Gallic phrase.' 



In the second place, as to methods of illus- 

 tration. Headers of Science, and of John Bur- 

 roughs's articles in the Century and Atlantic 

 Monthly, are familiar with the attitude dis- 

 played by our best critics toward the popular 

 fetich of humanizing the animal kingdom. 



The physiographic cult, mirahile dictu, aims 

 at nothing short of hiimanizing the universe. 

 The earth, to them, is a sentient being; land 

 and sea are considered as alive; moral char- 

 acter an attribute of the elemental forces of 

 nature. 



Modern physiographic literature appears to 

 be chiefly concerned with the working out of 

 these and similar ideas in extenso. Every- 

 where is the aim to impart instruction by 

 means of false analogy. The method of in- 

 directness is exalted, the method of allegory, 

 of wrong metaphor; the method that seeks to 

 flatter minds that are quick to act on sugges- 

 tion, that appeals chiefly to childish and sav- 

 age intelligence. For the enlightened un- 

 derstanding resents having truth served up 

 to it in spurious form. We tire of having 

 things depicted not as they are, but gross- 

 ly caricatured. In the end we lose all pa- 

 tience, as did old Ben when he complained 

 that ' barbarous phrases often made him out 

 of love with good, sense, and wrong sense 

 wracked him beyond endurance.' Then it is 

 we wish writers would take Burroughs'? ad- 

 vice to heart, who bids us to ' humanize facts 

 to the extent of making them interesting, if 

 you have the art to do it, but leave a dog a 

 dog, and a straddlebug a straddlebug.' 



Lest any suppose these strictures to be un- 

 duly severe, a few random illustrations may 

 be offered in proof of the contrary. Certainly 

 refined usage does not warrant the likening 

 of topographic features to human nurslings, 

 nor even to precocious infants,* as they have 

 been likened. To refer a land surface to the 

 ' puppy stage ' would be ridiculous ; but not 

 one particle less so is the current series of 

 technical terms taken from human infancy, 

 adolescence, maturity and senility. The anal- 

 ogy is false, and therefore improper. Not 

 less extravagant are the analogies taken from 

 birth, rejuvenation and decease, including 

 even violent death by ' drowning ' or ' behead- 



, * The Grand Canyon of the Colorado is solemnly 

 cited as an example of a ' precocious infant ' in 

 one of the best of modern text-books on physiog- 

 raphy (Dryer's, 1901). Human growth-stages 

 are even ascribed to heavenly bodies, as witness 

 Professor Todd's account in ' The New Astronomy.' 



