from him in service something like a compensation for the benefits with which it surrounds him by day and by night. But "independence" in this sense is absolutely inconsistent with swagger or any form of unsocial action or sentiment. We can conceive of some philosophic mind saying to this great nation, "One thing thou lackest." Knowledge we have, and material power and business energy, and back of all this, no doubt, a great fund of true humanity. But the lack is in consciousness of the true aim of life, which is beauty and harmony in all social relations. The voice of Science itself bids us make a true generalization, a true synthesis, before we begin to work out our plans. We have hitherto stopped short too much at the idea of knowledge as an instrument of work and ambition, and have greatly hindered the growth of knowledge thereby. If we now set before us as our main object the building up of character in all its elements, we shall find our progress sure, if not rapid, and shall discover a deeper meaning and value in our labors from year to year and from age to age.
THE TYNDALL BANQUET.
The dinner given to Professor Tyndall in London on the 29th of June, on the occasion of his retirement from his professorship in the Royal Institution, was also intended as a testimonial to the value of his work in the advancement of knowledge. The two hundred guests who participated constituted, according to the English papers, "as large and distinguished a company as ever assembled to do honor to a man of science"; or were "men who have rendered themselves notable in the pursuit and application of the most diverse forms of knowledge." It is questioned if English science has ever been more completely represented than at this banquet, where "the tables were crowded with men whose names are known wherever Nature is studied." Other men, equally eminent and equally representative in various fields, sent letters attesting their hearty concurrence in the honor intended for the investigator and teacher. British public life was represented by Lord Salisbury and other prominent men; literature, by Lord Lytton; and the United States, by Professor Asa Gray. Professor Stokes, President of the Royal Society, presided; and the presidents of several scientific societies were vice-chairmen.
Various reasons were given in the addresses why Professor Tyndall should be particularly honored. The chairman described his researches; Lord Lytton dwelt upon the value of his scientific writings as contributions to literature; Sir Lyon Playfair and the Earl of Derby spoke of the obligations the public service was under to science.
But Professor Tyndall's researches and discoveries were not considered his only claim to recognition. The feeling seemed general that the world was under peculiar obligations to him, of a higher character, because he had made science accessible to the public and attractive to the general reader. Professor Stokes insisted upon the importance, to the general diffusion of science, of expounding its leading principles and results, whether by lectures or by treatises, in which, while they are scientifically sound, popularity of style and general readableness are not sacrificed. Most of those present had had opportunities of being impressed with Professor Tyndall's lucid style and graphic expression in expounding to audiences the salient points of the scientific subject which he brought before them; and the same qualities were apparent in his books.
"Nature" also gives prominence to this feature of Professor Tyndall's work, saying that "if the wide-spread knowledge of science was to be, as it is, an
