I think this divine system was published several years before, and was
republished with an introduction in 1834.[663] Capt. Woodley was very sure
that the earth does not move: he pointed out to me, in a conversation I had
with him, something--I forget what--in the motion of the Great Bear,
visible to any eye, which could not possibly be if the earth moved. He was
exceedingly ignorant, as the following quotation from his account of the
usual opinion will show:
"The north pole of the Earth's axis deserts, they say, the north star or
pole of the Heavens, at the rate of 1 deg. in 713/4 years.... The fact is,
nothing can be more certain than that the Stars have not changed their
latitudes or declinations _one degree_ in the last 713/4 years."
This is a strong specimen of a class of men by whom all accessible persons
who have made any name in science are hunted. It is a pity that they cannot
be admitted into scientific societies, and allowed fairly to state their
cases, and stand quiet cross-examination, being kept in their answers very
close to the questions, and the answers written down. I am perfectly
satisfied that if one meeting in the year were devoted to the hearing of
those who chose to come forward on such conditions, much good would be
done. But I strongly suspect few would come forward {308} at first, and
none in a little while: and I have had some experience of the method I
recommend, privately tried. Capt. Woodley was proposed, a little after
1834, as a Fellow of the Astronomical Society; and, not caring whether he
moved the sun or the earth, or both--I could not have stood _neither_--I
signed the proposal. I always had a sneaking kindness for paradoxers, such
a one, perhaps, as Petit Andre had for his _lambs_, as he called them.
There was so little feeling against his opinions, that he only failed by a
fraction of a ball. Had I myself voted, he would have been elected; but
being engaged in conversation, and not having heard the slightest objection
to him, I did not think it worth while to cross the room for the purpose. I
regretted this at the time, but had I known how ignorant he was I should
not have supported him. Probably those who voted against him knew more of
his book than I did.
I remember no other instance of exclusion from a scientific society on the
ground of opinion, even if this be one; of which it may be that ignorance
had more to do with it than paradoxy. Mr. Frend,[664] a strong
anti-Newtonian, was a Fellow of the Astronomical Society, and for some
years in the Council. Lieut. Kerigan[665] was elected to the Royal Society
at a time when his proposers must have known that his immediate object was
to put F.R.S. on the title-page of a work against the tides. To give all I
know, I may add that the editor of some very ignorant bombast about the
"forehead of the solar sky," who did not know the difference between
_Bailly_[666] and _Baily_,[667] received hints which induced him to
withdraw his proposal for election into the Astronomical Society. But this
was an act of kindness; {309} for if he had seen Mr. Baily in the chair,
with his head on, he might have been political historian enough to faint
away.
De la formation des Corps. Par Paul Laurent.[668] Nancy, 1834, 8vo.
Atoms, and ether, and ovules or eggs, which are planets, and their eggs,
which are satellites. These speculators can create worlds, in which they
cannot be refuted; but none of them dare attack the problem of a grain of
wheat, and its passage from a seed to a plant, bearing scores of seeds like
what it was itself.