New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-07-07


ganic forms. These explicit statements of Professor
Tyndall present decisive rebuke to the presump-
ton which has yentured to denounce him as ma
terialist as well as to the scolism which contends
that the principles Of psychology can be learned
only from dissection of the brain.
We will not attempt to follow the author at
greater length in the manifold details Of this singu-
laTly interesting volume, especially as our readers
are more or less familiar with many of them from
previous notices or references in these columns We
only take leave to recall their attention the adj
mirablc discourse on the Scientific Use OF the
Imagination" in which Professor Tyndall, among
other pregnant suggestions, hints at, rather than
discusses the consequences of the doctrine OF Evolu
ton IN religious point of view. do not THINK
says he that this hypothesis is to be flouted away
contemptuousy; ! do not think 1t is to be de-
nounced as wicked. The only thing out of place
in the discussion is dogmatsm on either side.
Under the fierce light Of scientific inquiry
this hypothesis is sure to be dssipated If 1t
possess not core of truth. It's existence AS
a hypothesis in the mind is quite compati-
bic with the simultaneous existence of all those
virtues to which the term Christian has been APP
Piled 1t does not sOlve,-it does not profess TO
solve-the ultimate mystery of this universe. IL
leaves in fact that mystery untouched.
means ignorant of the uncertainty of their data and
they yield no to it than provisional assent.
They know the limits beyond which science ceases
to be strong They best know that questions offer
themselves to thought which science, as now prose
cuted, has not even the tendency to solve. They
keep such questions open and will not tolerate any
unnecessary limitation Of the horizon of their souls
They have as little fellowship with the atheist who
saws there is no God as with the thest who processes
to know the mind of God. Two things said I'M
manuel Kant, fill me with awe: the starry heavens
and the sense of moral responsibility in man.. And
in his hours of health and strength and sanity,
when the stroke of action has ceased and the pause
of reflection has set in, the scientific investigator
finds himself Overshadowed by the same awe.
Breaking contact with the hamperng details of
earth. it associates him with power which gives
fullness and to his existence, but which he
neither aualyze nor comprehend"
Several incidental notices in the volume are Of
peculiar interest illustrative of the personal tastes
and mental habits of the author, all of whose writ
ngs are tnged with his vigorous and original in
dividuality. Speaking of the comparative claims of
the classical and scientific methods means of edu
cation, he expresses the opinion that the proper
study of language is intellectual discipline of the
highest kind. Z" If except discussions on tue com
paratiye merits of POpery and Professionalism, En-
gsh grammar was the most important discipline of
my boyhood. The piercing through the involved
and inverted sentences of Paradise Lost the link
ing of the verb to its often distant nominatiye,
of the relative to its distant antecedent, of the
agent to the object of the transitve verb, of the
proposition to the noun or pronOun which it gov
erned-the study of variations in mood and tense,
the transformations often necessary to bring out
the true grammatical structure Of scntence-all
this was to my young mind discipline Of the high
est value and indeed source of unfagging delight.
How rejOiced when / found great author trip
ping and was fairly able to pin him to a from
which there escape! As speak, some of the
which exercised me when boy rise to my
recollection. He that hath to hear let him
hear That one Of them, where the lie is left,
as it were, floating in mid air without any verb to
support it. / speak thus of English because it was
of real value to me. ! do net speak of other Ian
guages because their educational value for me was
almost insensible. But knowing the value of En-
gish so well. should be the last to deny, or even
to doubt, the high discipline involved in the proper
study of Latin and Greek"
In connection with this point the author asserts
the importance, if not the supremacy of the emo
tional nature making frank acknowledgment Of
his mental obea cations to three maserspirits, whose
widest distance from his own. THE reading of the
works of two men, neither Of them mbged with tho
spirit of modern science neither of them, indeed,
friendly to that spirit, has placed me here to-day.
These men are the English Carlyle and the Ameri-
can Emerson. must ever remember with gratitude
that through three long. cold German winters Car
lyle placed me in my tub, even when ice was on its
surface at five o'clock every morning; not
slavshly but cheerfully, meeting each days
studies with a Tesolute will, determined
whether victor or vanquished not TO shrink
from difficulty. | never should have gone through
Analytical Geometry and the Calculus had 1t not
been for those men. / never should have become a
physical investigator, and hence without them
should not have been here to-day. They told me
what | ought to do III way that caused me to do
it, and all my consequent intellectual action is to be
traced 10 this purely moral source To Carlyle and
Emerson ought TO add Fichte. the greatest repre-
sentative of pure idealism. These three unscientic
men made me practical scientific worker. They
called out, 'Actp l hearkened to the summons,
taking the liberty however, of determining for my
self the direction which effort was TO take" II is
this universally of comprehension, indeed, com
bined with his lofty and passionate devo-
ton to truth. no less than his eminent
sagacity III scientific research, that has given
Professor Tyndal his noble position not only among
the physical inQuirers, but among the profound
thinkers of the present age The brilliancy of his
imagination is equal to the acuteness and strength of
his understanding. The poetical aspects of Nature
have as deep hold upon his sympahes as the facts
of the material universe upon his intellect
He is no less alive to the grand speculative questions
which invariably suggested by the experience of
life than to the sensible phenomena that have been
the objects of his delicate analysis. The highest
flights of his fancy are always combined with
sobriety of thought and sanity Of Judgment. What
ever verdict accordingly, may be pronounced upon
his onininns DO one can fail 10 reonpnize In his