New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-21


detect the loss.
The chapter devoted to the character of the ex-
perimentast is one Of the greatest practical inter
est in the whole work, and will be read with
pleasure for its subtlety of insight and beauty VI
composition even by those who have no taste Ior
scientific discussion. We must compress ih'o p"'
agraph what is expanded over many pages l. 10
common opuion saws Professor Jeyons' tnat seiou0o
can be evolved from money or labor Hence tno
prevailing passion for magnificent enooWihen'S'
Bnt these can no more produce genus than sun
shine and moisture can generate living beings In
both cases the mysterious germ Is wanting DuV 'no
Influence of genius is quite as great as IL ever was III
all branches of human affairs III is possible 'na'
,ho ,oaon ORGANIZATION of scientific study has in
creased the rapidity with which scientific discov-
o;os orc Yoade known Their details are worked
ont bv many heads and many hands. Darwin
now no sooner propOunds original IDEAS concerning
the evolution of animated creatures than tnose
ideas are discussed and applied by other haturas's
in every part of the civilized world. In former days
his labors would have been hidden LOT years IN rare
manuscripts. Generations would have passed De-
fore bis theory would have received the same
amount of criticism and confederation which has
been given to it within the last fifteen years. But
the general result is that the genius OF Darwin is
been formerly In regard to those qualities of mind
which constitute a genius for natural knowledge.
precise definition is out of the question. The
nbilosopbic mind however, may be re-
garded "a one before whose glance facts
must display their meaning and fall into
logical order The man with genius for dis
covery is readily impressed by the slightest excep-
tional phenomenon A strange fact suggests TO his
mind whatever of like nature has previously come
within his experience. His IMAGINATION Is active
suggesting a Multitude OF relations which unex-
plained facts may bear to each other. He brings
into play active and vigorous powers of deductlye
reasoning enabling him TO infer what Will happen
under each supposed condition Lastly, he has the
love of certainty which leads him to compare, with
perfect candor, the results OF his speculatlons
with the test Of fact and experiment. The
great discoyerer is not one who selzes upon
the truth at once, or has any special
method of diyining it. The errors of the great
mind often far exceed in number those of the less
vigorous one. Guesses at truth are among the first
REQUISITES of discovery. But the erroneous guesscs
must of necessity be many times as numerous as
those which prove well founded. There is nothing
intrinscally absurd except that which proves con-
trary to logic and experience. No limit can be
placed TO the freedom of framing hypothesis.
Kepler is an extraordinary instance to this effect
No minor laws of nature are moro firmly established
than those which he detected concerning the orbits
and motions OF planetary masses. Did we not know
by his own writings the multitude of errors into
which he fell, we might suppose that he
had some special faculty of Selling on the
truth. But in fact he was full of chimerical
notions. His celebrated laws were the fruit
of lifetime of speculations, for the most part
vain and groundess. But his name has become
immortal on account Of the patience with which he
compared his hypothesis with the facts of observa
ton, the candor with which he acknowledged his
repeated failures and the persistent ingenuity with
which he renewed his attack upon the riddles OF
nature.
Next to Kepler, Faraday is the most remarkable
among natural philosophers for the record of his
erroneous as we'll as his successful speculations
His writings full of suggestions which must not
be judged of by the light of subsequent discovery.
There was occasionally wildness in his
notions which in less careful experimentast
might have been fatal to the attarnmcnt of truth.
Ii is remarkable that Faraday made the most extern
sive additions to human knowledge without the aid
of mathematics beyond the common rules of arith-
metc In all his writings there is not an algebraic
formula or mathematical problem of any complexity.
Although ii has been declared on high authority
that Faraday's methods were of mathematical
nature it is the opinion of the author that his
perments for the most part purely qualitative
aud that bis mathematical ideas were of Tudiment
AIRY character
In the conclusion of the work Professor Jevons
briefly discusses the aspects of modern science in its
relation to theology. There are scientific men, he
remarks who assert that the interposition of Prov
dence is impossible, because the laws of nature
invariable. But his own studies in logic have led
him to call in question all such negative inferences
The exclusive study of physical science seems in
some cases to produce q dopnatic spirit. few
groups of facts are brought under the apparent sway
Of Ia VS. and the investigator hastily assumes that be
is close upon the ultimate springs of being.
particle Of gelatinOus matter is found to
obey the ordinary laws of chemistry, yet
1t lives and moves. The world is there
fore asked TO believe that chemistry can
resolve the mysteries of existence With regard to
the theories of Mr.. Darwin tand Herbert Spencer
the author maintains that they are certainly not
demonstrated, but are to some extent Hypothetical
and open TO doubt like all the theories Of physical
science STILL in their main features lie regards the
theories of evolution and natural selection as two of
the most probable hypothesis proposed, har-
monizing and explaining they do immense num-
bers Of diverse facts, 81 question:" says he,
whether any scientific works which have appeared
since the Principal of Newton, are comparable in
Importance with those of Darwin and Spencer
revolutionizing as they do all our views Of bodily
mental, moral, and social phenomena"
But granting all this, he cannot for moment
admit that the theory of evolution will alter our
theological views. The theory embraces several
laws which have been observed in the production of
living forms, but these laws do not determine the
size and figure of living creatures, any more than
the law Of gTavitation determines the magnitude,
and distance, of the planets. The author no less
than Paley believes that the eye of man manifests