SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22908, 16 June 1936, Page 11

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

DOMINATION OF MATERIAL THOUGHT

Lecturing to the W.E.A. in his series on "The Writer and Society," Mr J. Harris, 8.A., University librarian, spoke on scientific literature in the period succeeding the industrial revolution. In introducing this subject, the speaker disputed the value of the usual distinction between scientific and what was called "pure" literature. It was hardly fair to eay that a writer on "The Origin of Man" was not producing literature. He thought a valid distinction might be drawn between literature which was concerned solely with bald facts and that which attempted to draw out their meaning in relation. to human life. Pleasure, enjoyment and instructionwere still to be derived- from ancient Greek writings on human nature, though their scientific speculations were now valueless. Even, however, on admitting the distinction in this form, we were bortnd to include in "pure" literature books that were often regarded as just scientific—books such as Darwin's " Origin of Species" and the works of T. H. Huxley, A. R. Wallace and Herbert Spencer. Outlining the social background of this type of literature last century, Mr Harris said that the industrial revolution had brought in a new ago in more ways than one, particularly in England. The eighteenth century had been an " age of authority" in which men accepted traditional religious belief; classical art and architecture were in vogue, and a distinct sense of order prevailed. In the nineteenth century, the opposite was the case. The old aristocracy was being displaced by the rising manufacturing class, which were mostly Nonconformist in religion and very strong believers in personal freedom. Their belief in freedom of thought was closely linked up with their desire for freedom of trade and industrial expansion. There was a tremendous struggle between these upholders of freedom and the old champions of authority. The scientific writers being considered represented the new, vigorous class believing in freedom. All this desire for freedom, linked up with the development of industry, had a profound effect on the thought of the time. It was impossible to conceive in the preceding century of people like Huxley and Darwin developing their ideas as they did in the changed England of their day. This idea of freedom was applied to the scientific field by Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist. Hitherto there had been no idea that the earth had existed for any long period, it being generally held that it had been created by God at about 4000 b.c. It had even been argued by some that fossils which'had been found had been inserted in the ground by God to test man's faith. Lyell put the geological facts together to show that the earth had existed for millions of years. If there had not been this new class of people ready to receive these ideas, they would not have progressed very far. As it was, Lye]l's " Principles of Geology" went through 11 editions in his own lifetime.

The popular writings of Lyell and others prepared a public for men like Darwin and Huxley. Darwin was appointed in 1835 to a scientific expedition on the Beagle, in the course of which he touched at New Zealand, spending a few weeks at Keri-Keri, in the Bay of Islands. His journal of that voyage was published in 1839. It was not until 1859 that he actually published "The Origin of Species," which shook the foundations of the old traditional thought of England. In combating ecclesiastical and other opposition, Darwin was assisted by T. H. Huxley. He was not as great a scientist as Darwin, but a more vigorous and forceful personality. He called himself "Darwin's bulldog." The clear, forceful and vivid writing of these men, from whom Mr Harris read a few examples, showed that they were writing for a fairly wide public. Having mentioned other writers, such as A. R. Wallace, Mr Harris concluded his interesting and instructive address with some mention of the change in attitude towards scientific literature and in the literature itself, resulting from the social victory of the rising manufacturing class.