The Duke of Somerset delivered an incisive and epigrammatic but
utterly misleading speech at Newton Abbott, on Monday evening. We have discussed its main thesis—the superiority of the men of science to the politicians—elsewhere, but wish here to correct a very characteristic error. The Duke said that Mr. Gladstone, in his recent speech, had declared a fiddle to be equal to a steam-engine, a remark only to be paralleled by that of the Italian who said, " Genoa had produced two great men, Paganini and Columbus." Mr. Gladstone said nothing of the kind. What he did say was, that as much mental power might go to
the invention of a fiddle as to that of a steam-engine ; and his meaning was correct, though his illustration was bad. The inventor of the fiddle was probably indebted in great measure- to his physical organisation, an organisation sensitive to music, but it is none the less true that material result is no test of mental power. Leverrier's discovery of Neptune took at least at much brains as Fulton's application of steam, and the productions. of " Hamlet " took a great deal more.
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