of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, was not as
long or elaborate as such addresses are wont to be, but it contained
many thoughts of great value. After sketching the vast advances in
scientific knowledge made within the present century, he observed,
with great truth, that "the very story of the past which tells of the
triumphs of science puts away all thoughts of vainglory." Why? In the
first place, because no one can study the history of science without
being made to feel how very near, in many cases, the men of the past
came to anticipating some of the most famous discoveries and
generalizations of later years. Translate the language of an earlier
age into modern terms, and you often find that you have expressed the
most advanced scientific doctrine of to-day. In the second place, if
we find a certain lack of definiteness and truth to fact in the ideas
of the past, how can we be at all sure how _our_ ideas will look when
confronted with the fuller knowledge which doubtless our successors
will possess? Lastly, "there is written clearly on each page of the
history of science the lesson that no scientific truth is born anew,
coming by itself and of itself. Each new truth is always the offspring
of something which has gone before, becoming in turn the parent of
something coming after." However great the work of a man of science
may be, "it is not wholly his own; it is in part the outcome of the
work of men who have gone before." In this respect Professor Foster
sees a striking difference between the man of science and the poet. We
always know whence the former came, but the latter is almost as devoid
of visible ancestry as Melchizedek. When the man of science dies the
results which he achieved remain, and his work is taken up where he
left it off; whereas the poet, strictly speaking, has no continuators.
The Homeridæ do not represent Homer, nor do Dryden and Congreve take
the place of Shakespeare.
The story of natural knowledge or science, we are reminded, is a story
of continued progress. "There is in it not so much as a hint of
falling back--not even of standing still." The enemies of science
sometimes seek to turn against it the fact that each age revises the
conclusions of the preceding one. They ask, What dependence can be
placed upon opinions or theories that are thus subject to change? The
answer is that the science of each age is the nearest approximation
which that age can make to the truth, and upon some points represents
the truth with a great approach to finality of interpretation. The law
of gravitation, for example, as formulated by Newton, lies at the
foundation of the physics of to-day. The circulation of the blood was
discovered once for all by Harvey. The true theory of the solar system
was given once for all by Kepler. It is the glory of science that
whatever of imperfection may lurk in a scientific theory is sure to be
brought to light and corrected by subsequent observation and analysis.
The learned professor dwelt briefly but forcibly upon the qualities of
the scientific mind. In the first place, the scientific mind must
"vibrate in unison with that of which it is in search." It is in
search of truth, and it must therefore vibrate in unison with truth.
The follower of science must have a truthfulness beyond that of the
ordinary man, who does not set a great price upon exactness in his
observations or conclusions, and readily confounds things which,
superficially similar, are fundamentally different. Nature resents
even the most trifling inexactness, and the careless student will find
that the further he carries his inquiries the further he goes astray.
The scientific mind must also be alert. The indications and hints
which Nature gives are sometimes very slight, and only one who is
watchful in the extreme and attentive to the smallest things will
catch them. Then the problems which Nature sets are often complicated,
and call for a high degree of courage and perseverance. An inquiry
which seemed easy at first will suddenly become overcast by what seems
the most hopeless obscurity, and the scientific worker, unless he
possesses the necessary moral as well as intellectual qualities, will
fail in his quest. Considering the characteristics which the pursuit
of science tends to develop in its votaries, and considering that
scientific method is now and has been for many years past a
wonderfully devised system for carrying on research, Professor Foster
is surprised that the progress of science is not even more rapid than
it is. He fears that perhaps Science does not get the best minds
enrolled in her service, and rather hints that our institutions of
education are responsible for turning aside many who might lend great
aid in the advancement of real knowledge to less profitable pursuits.
In words of almost precisely similar import to some that we used in
these columns not very long ago, he observes that "that teaching is
one-sided, and therefore misleading, which deals with the doings of
man only and is silent about the works of Nature, in the sight of
which he and his doings shrink almost to nothing." The whole address
is stamped with the high thoughtfulness which so eminently
distinguishes its author, and deserves to be carefully pondered by all
who would understand the character and mission of science and the
intellectual needs of the present age.
_THE LATE WILLIAM H. APPLETON._
As many of our readers will have learned through the daily press, Mr.
William H. Appleton, long the head of the well-known publishing house
of D. Appleton and Company, passed away at his home in Riverdale on
the Hudson, October 19, 1899, having reached the advanced age of
eighty-five years. As one of the founders of this magazine, who from
the start was in close sympathy with its aims, kept up an active
interest in its management, and was ever ready to aid its conductors
with advice and encouragement, it is fitting that a few memorial words
should be spoken of him in these columns.
The career of Mr. Appleton was a marked one in many respects. Entering
the book business of his father, Mr. Daniel Appleton, at an unusually
early age, he soon developed such an aptitude for affairs that at
twenty-one he went abroad for the purpose of making the acquaintance
of the leading foreign publishers and paving the way for closer
relations with them in the importation and sale of their books in this
country. Three years later, or at the age of twenty-four, his father
made him a partner in the business, which had previously been extended
so as to include the publication as well as the sale of books, and had
now so increased in volume as to compel removal to more commodious
quarters. Ten years of growth and uninterrupted prosperity followed,
when Mr. Daniel Appleton, in 1848, retired from the now
well-established firm, William H. Appleton, at the age of thirty-four,
becoming its head, with his brothers John A. and Daniel Sidney as
partners. In co-operation with these and other brothers who afterward
entered the business, Mr. Appleton guided the operations of the firm
for a period of nearly fifty years, successfully piloting it through
several financial crises and carrying it to a foremost place among the
publishing houses of America.
Besides the routine of an extensive publishing business, the history
of the house during this time includes a number of large undertakings
involving the expenditure of vast sums of money, and years of labor by
many workers, and attended with risks that only the most far-seeing
business sagacity could justify. We may presume that the several
members of the firm shared a common faith in the success of these
great enterprises, but it is fair to infer that as the head of the
house William H. Appleton took a leading part in their origin and
execution. One of these ventures was the publication of the American
Cyclopædia, which in its present revised form represents an outlay of
over a million dollars and some ten years of time. Another
undertaking, and the one that we wish more particularly to speak of
here, was the extension of the business in the line of popular
scientific publications.
Scientific circles in this country have never realized the debt they
owe to D. Appleton and Company, and especially to William H. Appleton,
in this regard. It is no exaggeration to say that the advance of
science in the United States was hastened by more than a quarter of a
century by the enlightened and courageous policy which led the firm to
add this class of books to their lists at the time they did.
Everything apparently was against it--nothing in its favor. Our
scientific literature consisted mainly of a few text-books having only
a limited sale. Science itself was an affair of laboratories and bug
collectors, the one to be shunned and the other commiserated. The few
utterances of scientific men having a bearing on the great questions
of the right interpretation of Nature, man's relations to his fellows
and to the world at large, social betterment, etc., that here and
there arrested public attention were received with contemptuous sneers
or scouted as the rankest infidelity. Few who are not past middle life
will find it possible now to realize that this was the general
attitude toward science forty years ago, but we have only to refer the
reader to the writings of the time for abundant confirmation of our
statements.
It was such conditions as these that the firm was called upon to face
when considering the question of entering this new field of
publication. All ordinary business instincts were against it. Scarcely
a publisher either here or abroad would even listen to the proposal to
risk his capital in such an enterprise. Nevertheless, Mr. Appleton,
lending an appreciative ear to the arguments of the former editor of
this journal and displaying his usual foresight, finally decided in
favor of the project, which afterward resulted in the introduction of
the works of Spencer, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Bain, Romanes, and
other distinguished writers to American readers. A further step in the
same direction, taken later, was the publication of the International
Scientific Series, now numbering some eighty volumes. The scheme as
originated and shaped by Professor Youmans was heartily seconded by
Mr. Appleton, as was also the plan of the Popular Science Monthly.
A distinctive feature of the arrangements for the issue of all these
foreign books, and one which redounds in no small degree to the credit
of the firm, was the voluntary agreement, in the absence of an
international copyright law, to pay their authors the usual royalties,
making no distinction between them and authors at home. Mr. Appleton
had been a lifelong advocate of international copyright, founding his
contention on the simple justice of recognizing the property rights of
the author, no matter where he lived. Although to adopt such a course
was to expose themselves to the possibility of heavy loss through the
issue of reprints by irresponsible parties, a thing which actually
happened in the case of a good many of the volumes, the principle was
faithfully adhered to, thus anticipating by many years the central
provision of our present law.
The storm of denunciation raised abroad by the appearance of the
earlier installments of these writings might well have deterred the
boldest from repeating the experiment of giving them currency in
America. But in spite of solemn warnings that dire consequences would
be visited on the publisher who ventured to issue them here, the books
continued to appear, while the predicted evils never came to pass.
It must not be inferred from the foregoing, however, that Mr. Appleton
was either unmindful or wanting in respect for the opposition which
his course aroused. Much of this had its origin in the religious
convictions of the community, not a little of the criticism, be it
said, emanating directly from the Church or its leading
representatives. But, being a strong churchman himself, actively
furthering the work of the Church with his private means and personal
co-operation, in full sympathy with its purposes, and rejoicing in its
beneficent influence, he was the last one who would wantonly outrage
the sacred beliefs of his fellow-men. Yet, gifted with a
large-mindedness that is at least unusual in the walks of business, he
was enabled to see that the onward march of natural knowledge which
had so often before excited alarm among men of narrow views could have
nothing in it that was inconsistent with a truly religious life;
while, on the other hand, to promote its advance and diffusion was to
contribute by so much to the highest human welfare.
The wisdom of Mr. Appleton's course has been fully justified by the
event. As we look over the last half of the century, which has been so
fruitful in discovery and has witnessed the development of so many
agencies for the amelioration of human ills and so manifold an
increase in man's power for right living, we can see at the various
stages of this evolution how large a part the broadening of thought
fostered by these authors and the new aims and methods in inquiry
suggested by them have contributed to the advance. It could not, in
short, have been made so rapidly or effectively without the stimulus
they gave. For what has been done in this line in this country we
think--when we reflect that it was he who had the courage to bring the
works of those thinkers here, and who made them accessible to students
and the reading public, who constituted the agency through which the
new thoughts and aims were spread--a very important part in the
achievement may fairly be ascribed to Mr. William H. Appleton.
Scientific Literature.
Owing to the increasing demands upon our space, authors and publishers
are notified that hereafter the department of Scientific Literature,
with the exception of Publications Received, will be discontinued.
SPECIAL BOOKS.
The busy pen of Mr. _John Fiske_ has produced another book marked by
the qualities which the public has learned to associate with all his
work--lucidity of expression, felicity of illustration, a large
command of the conventional elements of literary composition, and a
philosophy which, while very free and lightsome in its steps and
paces, always has the luck to fetch up within easy hailing distance of
a moderate orthodoxy. Mr. Fiske undertakes to conduct us on an
excursion _Through Nature to God_,[27] somewhat as Cook, of
international fame, might undertake to see us safe from New York to
the Holy Land. Of the two, we think Cook makes the surer thing of it;
yet no one can deny that Mr. Fiske has done his best to trace the
itinerary and encourage his excursionists to believe that they will
"get there."
[Footnote 27: Through Nature to God. By John Fiske. Boston and New
York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.]
We may as well candidly confess that we have not much faith in the
method followed in the work before us. The intention is to show that
an analysis of Nature and of Nature's ways yields God; in other words,
that we have only to carry out the processes of thought which an
examination of the external world and of human history sets in motion
in order to find God at the end of the argument. Thus, by searching,
contrary to what Scripture has generally been held to imply, we find
out both that God is and to some extent what he is. We prefer the
older view. The world's greatest Teacher said simply, "God is a
spirit." He did not say that this was a conclusion to which many lines
of argument led. He did not hint at any kind of argument, but assumed
the affirmation of God by the human consciousness. We venture to say
that if Mr. Fiske's method were successful and we could argue
ourselves into a belief in God, the result would be disastrous; for
the God of argument, or even of analogy, is not the God of the human
soul or conscience. We should have one conclusion more of science, but
we should lose that for which no conclusion of science could make
amends--our sense of the infinite and the possibility of faith.
Mr. Fiske discusses, in the early chapters of his book, The Mystery of
Evil. He takes the familiar ground that evil is the necessary
correlative, and in a manner the necessary condition, of good. We are
placed in a universe that abounds in evil in order that by conquering
it we may raise ourselves to a moral level otherwise impossible. On
one page the author goes so far as to say that God, and not the devil,
"is the creator of evil," but elsewhere he relaxes his boldness and
speaks of evil being "permitted." One feels like asking, If good and
evil are equally made by God, then which is which? When we speak of
electricity as positive and negative we do not ascribe any superiority
to one over the other. Nor do we say that centrifugal is a more
commendable form of force than centripetal, or _vice versa_. "For
strong and resolute men and women," we are told, "an Eden would be but
a fool's paradise." This is not complimentary to our first parents in
their primitive condition of innocence, and it puts the curse
pronounced upon them in a somewhat equivocal light. There is also
quite a rehabilitation of the "serpent," who, it seems, knew quite
well what he was talking about and gave excellent advice. We wonder
whether Mr. Fiske is really of opinion that it helps us to solve any
of the practical problems of life to be told that without evil there
could not be good. Men have known for centuries that it is good to
fight evil, though what evil is essentially they have often been in
doubt. Upon the latter point Mr. Fiske does not in the least attempt
to enlighten us; and yet it should be rather a more hopeful enterprise
to attempt to show us what is specifically evil and ought therefore to
be resisted, than to vindicate evil in general as the indispensable
condition of good, and something, therefore, which God was justified
in making.
The second division of the book deals with The Cosmic Roots of Love
and Self-Sacrifice. We can not see that these roots are traced further
back than the mother's affection for her offspring. Mother's love is
doubtless an old story in the world by now, and perhaps as good a
story as earth has to tell; but it seems to us that the "cosmic"
character of it is not very apparent. We may believe that it was
destined to come in the fullness of time, but this can be said equally
of all that exists. "I think it can be shown," says Mr. Fiske, "that
the principles of morality have their roots in the deepest foundations
of the universe; that the cosmic process is ethical in the profoundest
sense; that, in that far-off morning of the world when the stars sang
together and the sons of God shouted for joy, the beauty of
self-sacrifice and disinterested love formed the chief burden of the
mighty theme." All we can say in regard to this is that Mr. Fiske has
_not_ shown it. He has shown just what we all knew before--that love
exists in the world, that it antagonizes selfishness, and that human
beings are endowed with a moral and religious sense--but he has not
made it plain that the meaning of the universe is to be found in these
(as we regard them) higher developments. He has himself acknowledged
that, on a broad view of the world-wide struggle for life, there are
no moral elements to be seen.
Religion, as we hold, is its own justification. There is more of
religion in one verse of the Psalms than in all the Theodicies that
ever were written. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so
panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the
living God." Here is the whole essence of the matter--the affirmation
of the human heart that there is something or some one beyond and
above the mesh of circumstance and fact in which our lives are
involved; something or some one who authenticates all that is good,
and everlastingly condemns what is evil; something or some one to
which or to whom the soul gravitates as to nothing else in the
universe. When this affirmation is strong, religious life is strong;
when it is weak, religious life is weak; should it cease entirely,
then religion is dead. The book Mr. Fiske has given us is interesting
from first to last--all his books are interesting--but it does not
increase our knowledge, nor does it add to our knowledge faith.
GENERAL NOTICES.
The author of _Extemporaneous Oratory for Professional and Amateur
Speakers_[28] is himself one of the most effective orators, especially
in debate, of the time. He has embodied in this book the results of
ripened thought and successful experience gained in a field in which
he is a master, for the instruction and help of those who would follow
what he regards as the greatest of all arts, including the elements of
all--music in the intonations of the voice, and painting and sculpture
in the life, attitudes, and expression of the speaker. It is an art,
too, which has wielded a more general and important influence than any
other, which is almost universal in its appeals, and which any one may
at any time find useful, when it will be of great advantage to him to
possess the ability "to speak distinctly to the purpose, gracefully,
with genuine fire." Extemporaneous oratory concerns the delivery, in
form and language suggested by the occasion, "of ideas previously
conceived and adopted with more or less fullness and precision,
together with such thoughts and feelings as may arise and obtain
utterance." It has many advantages over other methods of oratory, all
tending to give the speaker greater power over his audience, and
particularly in the fact that the extemporizer is at all times ready
to expound, defend, illustrate, and enforce his opinions. The
extemporaneous speaker must have a full and fluent command of
language, and a full store of facts which he may at any time have to
bring to bear upon the subject of his address and in the vindication
of his opinions. The first place of importance is given to facts of
natural science, which are of increasing utility. "To the educated and
uneducated alike, natural science is now the most interesting of
themes." Next come the facts of history and biography, those of the
special branches bearing on the speaker's theme and purpose, and the
great general conceptions included in the thoughts of the learned; and
he must have settled opinions. At the basis of Dr. Buckley's treatment
of this art and of his advice to those who would perfect themselves in
it is the principle that extemporization is evolution after
involution. This advice, in which the various phases of the subject
are commented upon under a great variety of aspects, concerns the
general preparation for the address, the acquisition of effective
command of language, the exercise and training of the voice, the
intellectual and physical elements that enter into oratory, its
accessories, and the factor of the audience--all plainly and
practically presented, with a facility of style that makes the reading
of the book a pleasure.
[Footnote 28: Extemporaneous Oratory for Professional and Amateur
Speakers. By James M. Buckley. New York: Eaton & Mains. Pp. 480.
Price, $1.50.]