A. BOOK OF THE MOMENT.

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

Cambridge Readings in the Literature of Science. Arranged by W. C. Dampier Whetham and Margaret Dampier Whetham. (Cambridge University Press. 7s. 6d. net.)

HERE is a book well worthy of the attention not only of the man of Science but of that butterfly of the bookshelves, the general reader. It is an anthology of Science, a Golden Treasury of human knowledge. It answers incidentally a question that is always springing up in the mind when a new

development is made in the Philosophy of Nature or when an enlarged significance is attached to some old truth. As the soul of man thrills to the impact of the word of enlightenment we ask ourselves, " When and how did the first hint of this conception dawn upon the world ? The rays are now clear and vigorous, but where did the grey light first show itself ? In what region of the heavens was the rosy cloud first seen ? " The desire to know and to study the records of the world's

first intimation of a great idea and to trace it down the ages it an instinct sound and inspiring. That is roughly what Mr. VVhetham and Miss Margaret Whetham, his daughter, have done for us in the Cambridge Readings in the Literature of Science. As the title-page tells us, the book is one of " extracts from the writings of men of science to illustrate the development of scientific thought." In order to give the

book that orderliness and cohesion which is essential to all scientific work, the writers have strung their pearls of thought on three main threads : (1) the structure of the universe— cosmogony ; (2) the nature of matter—atomic theories ; (8) the development of life—evolution.

All beginnings have the sense of mystery about them, and none more than those of Science, and beautiful was the land- scape on which the rays of true knowledge first fell—the violet mountains of Attica and the sparkling waves of the )Egean. The Greeks, possessed with a sense of beauty and harmony beyond all men before or since, tinged their Science with the same nobility that clothes the works of Homer, of Phidias, of Socrates, and of lEschylus. It was a Roman, however, not a Greek, who most miraculously flashed light into the dark corners of man's prison-house. Lucretius did not merely deny Divinely the Divine," but made the Torch of Know- ledge burn clearer when he waved it.

Mr. and Miss Whetham have chosen, not the Dryden version or partial version of Lucretius, but, instead, what I confess was new to me, though I admit it ought not to have been, the version of Evelyn the Diarist. It sounds a daring thing to say, but Dryden could not have done better than the Surrey Squire. Lucretius tells how " a Grecian " was the first who durst look upon and contradict the great tyrant

of the soul, superstition—the tyrant before whom " human life dejected lay." This is how he speaks of his Master Pythagoras nor the fame of gods, nor lightnings flash,

Nor threatning bruit of thundring Skies could dash,

but rather did his courage elevate,

Nature's remotest doors to penetrate ;

Thus did he with his vigorous wit transpieree

The flaming limits of the Universe. All that was great his generous soul had view'd, Whence what could be produc'd, what not be shew'd And how each finite thing hath bounds, nor may By any means from her fist limits, stray :

Wherefore fond Superstition,trampled -lies

Beneath, we rear our Trophies to the Skies. . . . Dark fears of mind, then banish quite away, Not with ithe Sun-beams, or the light of day,

But by such species, as from Nature flow,

And what from right informed reason grow; Which unto us this principle doth frame,

That Out of nothing, nothing ever came."

Equally forceful, though I cannot quote it, is the passage which describes -how Nature " Doth all dissolve, nothing annihilate," and how " Nature preserves matter whole from dissipation."

" Nor is there ought indeed which she supplies Without the aid of something else that dies."

A modern instance must next claim our attention. The glory of these latter days is Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It

is displayed for the general reader with great scientific tact and ability. We are told how " A curvature of space, taking bodies out of their free paths, may therefore be the cause of the phenomenon we call gravitation." Then follows a Om of writing by Professor Eddington in interpretation of the Einstein Theory, which, I say without fear of contradiction is worthy for lucidity and dignity of style to stand by tilt prose even of Newton. No one can think that I am over praising if I set forth the passage which ends the quotation from Professor Eddington in the book before me.

" The theory of relativity has passed in review the whole subject. matter of physics. It has unified the great laws, which by the precision of their formulation and the exactness of their applica- tion have won the proud place in human knowledge which physical science holds to-day. And yet, in regard to the nature of things, this knowledgs is only an empty shell—a form of symbols. It is knowledge of structural form, and not knowledge of content. All through the physical world runs that unknown content, which must surely be the stuff of our consciousness. Here is a hint of aspects deep within the world of physics, and yet unattainable by the methods of physics. And, moreover, we have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind has put into nature. We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origin. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the foot-print. And lo ! it is our own.'

Here are words worthy of thoughts as soul-shaking and august as any ever presented to the human mind. May I not say of this passage something like what Browne says in Urn Burial of Christian mysticism ? Those who are happy enough truly to understand and penetrate the meaning of the words I have quoted, " have already had an handsome anticipation of the heaven " of full and complete knowledge. Professor Eddington may seem at first merely to have brought us back on our own traces or shown us our own image in the glass as the final mystery ; but surely this is in truth an intimation of the spiritual verities—the grand refusal of materialism.

Lest my scientific readers should say that I have led them too far by the flowery paths of literature, let me quote a piece of stricter science. Mr. Whetham lets us see the dawn of the great and potent theories of evolution in the words of Lamarck, that great man of science who, though neglected during his life, is now coming into his inheritance. Though he died in poverty in 1829, almost discarded by his age, he lighted a candle in the world which burns brighter every year. Here is the famous passage on the evolution of the giraffe.

" It is interesting to observe the result of habit in the peculiar shape and size of the giraffe (Camelo-pardalis) this animal, the largest of the mammals, is known to live in the interior of Africa in places where the soil is nearly always arid and barren, so that it is obliged to browse on the leaves of trees and to make constant efforts to reach them. From this habit long maintained in all its race, it has resulted that the animal's fore-legs have become longer than its hind legs, and that its neck is lengthened to such a degree that the giraffe, without standing up on its hind legs. attains a height of six metres (nearly 20 feet). . . . I shall show in Part IL that when the will guides an animal to any action, the organs which have to carry out that action are immediately stimulated to it by the influx of subtle fluids (the nervous fluid), which become the determining factor of the movements required. This fact is verified by many observations, and cannot now be called in question. Hence it follows that numerous repetitions of these organized activities strengthen, stretch, develop and even create the organs necessary to them. We have only to watch attentively what is happening all around us, to be convinced that this is the true cause of organic development and changes. Now every change that is wrought in an organ through a habit of frequently using it, is subsequently preserved by reproduction, if it is common to the individuals who unite together in fertilization for the propagation of their species. Such a change is thus handed on to all succeeding individuals in the same environment, without their having to acquire it in the same way that it was actually created. . . . Everything then combines to prove my statement, namely : that it is not the shape either of the, body or its parts- which gives rise to the habits of animals and their mode of life ; but that it is, on the oontrary, the habits, mode of life, and all the other influences of the environment which have in course of time built up the shape of the body and of the parts of animals. With new shapes, new faculties have been acquired, and little by little nature has succeeded in fashioning animals such as we actually see them. Can there be any more important conclusion in the range of natural history, or any to which more attention should be paid than that which I have just set forth " How can I resist putting side by side with this a short passage from Darwin's The Origin of Species ? Here is a

passage from the introduction.

" In the next chapter the fitruggle for Existence amongst all organic beings throughout the world, which inevitably follows from their high geometrical powers of increase, will be treated of. This is the doctrine of Malthus, applied to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive ; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any

being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form."

The citation of the doctrine of Malthus is full of significance and shows how tremendous was the influence of the clergyman Professor of Economics at the College of the Honourable East India Company at Haileybury. Darwin, like Thomas Chalmers, saw that Malthus could not be dismissed with the sneers of Carlyle or with the shoulder shrugs of the Victorian optimists. Truly prescient was it of Professor Whetham to add an extract from the first chapter on the Principle of Population as a vital contribution to Evolutionary Science, the Science of the Development of Life.

" In an enquiry concerning the improvement of society, the mode of conducting the iukect which naturally presents itself is :- (1) To investigate the causes that have hitherto impeded the progress of mankind towards happiness ; and (2) to examine the probability of the total or partial removal of these causes in future. To enter fully into this question, and to enumerate all the causes that have hitherto influenced human improvement, would be much beyond the power of an individual. The principal object of the present essay is to examine the effects of one great cause intimately united with the very nature of man ; which, though it has been constantly and powerfully operating since the com- mencement of society, has been little noticed by tho writers who have treated this subject. The facts which establish the existence of this cause have, indeed, been repeatedly stated and acknow- ledged ; but its natural and necessary effects have been almost totally overlooked ; though probably among these effects may be reckoned a very considerable portion of that vice and misery, and of that unequal distribution of the bounties of nature, which it has been the unceasing object of the enlightened philanthropist in all ages to correct. The cause to which I allude is the constant tendency in all 'animated life to increase beyond the nourishment prepared for it."

I can only leave this inspiring book with the hope that its authors will add new rooms to their treasury and once more put before us riches old and new.

J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.