The New York herald., 1876-09-20

widely distributed in separate groups OF
cartridges throughout the extensive range OF
galleries which it has taken five years OF
incessant industry to cxcavatc. There
can be no greater danger from the
simultaneous explosion of the whole
number than there would be In the
explosion Of them one by one at sue
cessive intervals. Had it been possible or
economical to arrange for firing each group
on separate days there would have been no
thought of alarm, and yet the danger would.
have been neither greater nor less thnn it
will be by simultaneous explosion. Each
group of cartridges is expected to burst the
Immediately surrounding rock and to do no
more. Anybody can see that the explosion
at the same instant of the two most distant
groups at opposite extremities of the gallery
could have no effect in intensifying each
other, and the same reasoning will apply to
any other two groups and to the whole. We,
therefore, advise the people of the neighbor-
hood to dismiss their disquieting apprehen-
sons, merely taking such precautions on
the appointed dny rs General Newton will,
no doubt, furnish to the press for the guild
ance of the public. 1t would be so easy to
get up distressing panic on the contiguous
shores by practising on the credulity Of the
ignorant that we have thought it our duty to
guard tho community against cruel and
groundless fright.
Huxley's Discovery The Miltonic Hy-
pothesfs.
Ratxyoov {bo eO ooIoI I;b1ico1 fbaovv of
creation and the theory maintained by men
of science; between the theory which con-
templates the earth as fabricated in few
days by the voluntary net of an omnipotent
power and that which regards it as the result
of countless ages of change under the infu-
ence of cosmical laws, there is necessary
difference and conflict, and the believer in
one Of these theories cannot believe in the
other. This simple fact has caused that
large and earnest class Of persons who are
called religious people. as well ns those who,
if not religious, yet have the lingering faith
of home influence in the Bible as the "Word
Of God," to contemplate with distrust and
aversion the benefcent and wonderful
labors of the men of science of our day;
and it has given an extensive moral support
to the furious assault of bigotry on science
itself. It has caused men of science to be
described with some show of reason rs the
enemies of religion rather than as the true
pioneers of enlightenment, progress and
human amelioration. From this difficult
relation to one another the world of science
and the world of religion are to be equally
congratulated upon Mr.. Huxley's discovery
of safe issue by what may be called great
compromise. Science will no longer hold
the most respected Of oil books responsible
for childish theory of creation, and religion
need not frown on science when it assails
not her but only the poet John Mil
ton. Proceeding with scientific exactness
Mr.. Huxley endeavors to name the
source of the commonly accepted idea
of tho origin of the world. He finds this to
be the poem Paradise Lost" From the
obscurities Of the book of Genesis, and from
the uncertainties as to its authorship, it is
regarded as only o shadowy basis; but the
theory is laid out fully and amplifed with
detail in Millions poem-and from the i'm
possibility of finding this detail elsewhere
the poet is held for the whole fabric as the
last responsible person to whom it can be
traced. This discovery of q compromise,
which changes altogether the object of
scientific research, should be accepted with
gratitude, and John Milton never did any
such service to the world hitherto as he is
likely to do now.