1865.] Radiation. 713 



But there are even higher and more important benefits likely to 

 accrue to the human race from such scientific studies as these, however 

 valuable they may be in a material sense. The information which is 

 pouring in upon us day by day concerning the subtle forces of nature 

 and the properties of matter tends to develop the intellect, to exercise 

 the reasoning faculties, and to substitute for unreasoning credulity and 

 superstition a rational and ever-expanding conception of the Creator. 



It is to the task of thus interpreting the recent revelations of 

 Science that Mr. Warington has applied himself ; and most deservedly 

 has his noble work been rewarded by the bestowal of the Actonian 

 Prize ; a premium which the goodness of a lady has bequeathed for 

 the encouragement of a reverential study of Science. With this view 

 the author has not contented himself with treating of the phenomena 

 of radiation only in as far as they are to be observed in the inorganic 

 world, but he has shown how admirably the laws of motion here referred 

 to were framed for the advent of organized beings. 



Although the discussion of vital forces can hardly be considered to 

 come within the scope of the subject treated, yet we can easily conceive 

 that in his reflections upon the influence of radiation the author would 

 be drawn into those indirect results, or rather accompaniments, of the 

 operation of physical forces, and it would be almost as anomalous to 

 overlook the presence of plants and animals, in their relation to heat, 

 light, &c, as it would be to give the geography of a country and omit 

 to make mention of its inhabitants. Thus he does not confine his 

 observations to the method in which the forces operate, nor limit his 

 field of inquiry to the inorganic world ; but he shows how all these, 

 the meteorological, geological, and astronomical changes bear upon 

 the life of plants and animals. Nor does he for a moment appear to 

 lose sight of the main object of his essay. Whilst it is free from 

 anything like cant, and presents no approach to that spirit of intoler- 

 ance which would dictate to the students of science in what theological 

 Shibboleth they must seek their axioms, it is one fresh, joyous paean of 

 praise to the Creator, expressed, as far as man is able to do so, in 

 suitable poetical language. 



In every dewdrop, in every cloud, in each ray of sunshine, in every 

 gentle gale that blows, he sees, and sees rightly, a fresh evidence of 

 the " wisdom and beneficence of God." But we will let him speak for 

 himself, selecting a somewhat lengthy extract from his work to show 

 how ably it is penned : — 



" But yet, again, the kind of radiant force the sun gives forth is beauti- 

 fully accordant with the work it has to do. The mighty operations of its 

 beams that have engaged our attention hitherto are all accomplished by 

 one section only of the rays composing them — the heating rays : almost 

 wholly by those invisible to the eye, the extra-red. Some few of the more 

 highly refrangible rays are changed, indeed, by absorption, and so become 

 effective ; but the proportion done by these is scarcely worth notice. It 

 is to the originally obscure heat rays of the solar spectrum that winds and 

 rains and currents owe their origin. These rays, as before noticed, are 

 those which lower temperature occasions, merely rising in intensity and 

 number with the development of quicker undulations. They are hence 



