357 
i8 S3.] Analyses of Books. 
which has never happened for a man without wide and thorough 
knowledge of a branch of science to make great discoveries in 
that particular branch.” Of course an ignorant man may by hap 
observe some important fadt hitherto unrecognised, but the 
probability is that if such a fadt come before him he will see 
neither its importance, its meaning, nor its novelty. The vulgar 
contention “ that it is unlikely for some unknown person to 
succeed where Newton, &c., have failed,” is dismissed with the 
contempt it merits. Perhaps the most offensive instance of this 
fallacy in existence is to be found in a pamphlet by the Rev. F. 
O. Morris, B.A., entitled “All the Articles of the Darwin Faith ” 
(see “Journal of Science,” 1878, p. 467). 
The advocates of the so-called “ Zetetic Astronomy,” are 
naturally weighed in the balance, and found wanting. Among 
them figures, of course, “Parallax,” known in 1849 as S.Goulden, 
and afterwards as Rowbotham. Mr. Prodtor happily remarks 
that the name parallax “ may have been chosen to indicate his 
wish to change the accepted views of the universe, for does not 
Liddell and Scott’s ‘ Lexicon ’ give as the meaning of the verb 
P arallasso , ‘ to change or alter a little , especially for the worse,' 
or else, as indicative of the ingenuity of the man in avoiding any 
argument which appeared irresistible (for the verb means also to 
slip aside, escape, or dodge). His skill in this respedf was re- 
markable. He would reason at any length with those who had 
a smattering of astronomical knowledge, and he would only 
occasionally, by some reference to scripture, exchange what 
resembled argument for an * appeal to the gallery ’ ; but when 
a really unanswerable argument was brought against him, he had 
a simple but effedlive formula, which always afforded a loophole 
for escape : ‘ Come, sir,’ he would reply, ‘ you have said your 
say ; others wish to speak as well as you.’ ” So much for public 
discussions ! 
A smile will, perhaps, be called up to the face, and an old 
adage to the memory of the reader when he encounters the fol- 
lowing passage : — “ No one is likely to believe that there is a 
semi-transparent moon merely because ‘ Parallax ’ says there is ; 
while probably nine-tenths of those who have read Lockyer’s 
‘ Elementary Lessons in Astronomy ’ are satisfied that seamen 
find local time ‘ by observing when the sun is at the highest 
point of its path ’ (article 564) ; that when the sun moves fastest 
the dial will get before the clock, and vice versa (article 416) ; and 
so on with the other blunders in that too clever compilation. 
But, though the mischief done by the paradoxist with his false 
science is less serious than that accomplished by those who 
write about real science without sufficient knowledge, yet the 
study of paradoxes is not on that account to be recommended.” 
An essay on the “ Influence of Marriage on Death and Crime,” 
opens with the remark: — “There are reasons for believing that 
a good hearty blunder has a better chance of thriving than an 
