The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-25

lures delivered by our honored scientific
guest MIR. Richard A. Proctor. The success
OF this high essay, We venture to say, augurs
new era in the extension Of science among
the people, if it does not also inaugurate
great revolution in the national mind. There
was time when the songs and ballads OF
nation shaped and moulded its thought But
we live to see the day when the popular
mind is to be trained in higher school and
cast in the loftier and larger mould of nature,
amid the higher concepts of science
the lore of colors and OF Sounds
The innumerabe tenements OF beauty;
The miracles OF generatve force;
| Far-reachng concords Of astronomy.
The great engine through whose potent
agency this revolution is to be wrought is evil
IDENTIFY the popular science lecture, taking that
term in its most dignifed sense. When the
ROYAL Institution in 1901, selected DR.. Thomas
Youngs memoir on light and colors as the
Bakeran lecture for that year, Lord Brougham
stigmatized the popular lecture as fit only to
amuse the fashionable ladies who thronged its
halls and as unworthy place in the venerable
records of the society. No idler or falser APP
peal to prejudice was ever made than that Of
the great reviewer. The lectures of the Royal
Society at that time, though far inferior in
point of illustration and adaptedness, did
more to awaken scientific investigation
through the world than any means known to
history. The poor apprentice who happened
to hear the lectures of Young's successor (Sir
Humphrey Davy) was among the first fruits
of the science lecture system; and,
had that system given the world nothing
more, Michael Faraday would be its
title to universal respect ''That
might be of use to the public in disseminating
the true principles Of natural philosophy"
was the confessed ambition of Young, man
almost the peer of Newton, and similar am
bition is not unworthy our most mature and
original scientists of the present day
The Inauguration of scientific culture among
the thinking masses in America has long since
taken place; but its prosecution as great
national educational work must proceed upon
sound principles of common sense. The
thinking men and women of the land demand
solidity and high order of thought to engage
and even to tax their intellectual powers; for
in literature, as in war, the poets idea of the
pleasures of energy put forth-gaudia GER
taminis-is true to human nature. The list
lessness and apathy shown by the laboring
classes to 50 many scientific books
and lectures especially intended for them
arise from the fact that the instruction they
They are clothed in certain gilded or lively
style, which is palpably a cloak to disguise
the real knowledge to be impaired; and this
sugar coating naturally excites o suspicion
that it covers pill too nauseating to be seen.
Against this widespread error Of popular lee
turers and writers our most eminent scientists,
in their designedly popular communications
to the public, have entered their emphatic pro-
test The lectures of Tyndall (not to name
first some of our own science teachers) will
long be remembered for their combination of
profundity and popularity, and for the great
impulse they gave to the popular zeal in physi-
cal research throughout the country. The kim
bred works of our American scientists, as New
berry, Young, Whitney and many others, have
largely contributed to the popularzaton of
solid scientific erudition and research. And
now Professor Proctors lectures will have an
accumulative and far-reaching effect
The HERALD, conscious of the mighty agency
of the press in bringing about such revolu-
ton in national thought, has steadily exerted
itself to lead in the movement and to keep its
readers intelligently informed of every adj
vance of science. There can be no doubt the
greater commixture Of scientific with literary
and classical culture is demanded by the
genius of the age. The novel, in its best
FORMS has, till within few years. held place
as the most powerful engine of civilization,
just as a century ago and in remoter
periods of history, the epic poem,
handed down by memory from sire
to son, inspired the masses of men. Even
as late as the first quarter of this century the
old Highlanders of Scotland were as familiar
with Paradise Lost and the works of their
national historians as with their sheep hooks.
And we are told by distinguished geographer
that even in Iceland, amid perjury and priva-
ton, literary cultivation has reached and
retained a high degree This is all we'll as
far as it goes A nation ignorant of its his
toric annals and unanimated by the burning
thoughts of its Millions and its Shakespeare
must be poor indeed But with all the exist
ing sources of refreshing and refining culture
which we have inherited from the past we
need the infusion Of q more earnest and
solid learning. And this is to be derived
from the severer methods of the mathe-
matician and the physical Investigator.
The one rock on which the advocates
of scientific culture are in danger of ship
wrecking their hopes is their ambitious en-
deavor to make scientific speculation super
sede the testimony of Divine revelation. In
this overweening conceit the ignominious fail