deny or disguise the fact that a very serious difficulty must have been created for me by the nature of my tenure. And let it be observed that the temptation, in my case, would have been far slighter than in that of a professor of theology; whatever biological doctrine I had repudiated, nobody I cared for would have thought the worse of me for so doing. No scientific journals would have howled me down, as the religious newspapers howled down my too honest friend, the late Bishop of Natal; nor would my colleagues in the Royal Society have turned their backs upon me, as his episcopal colleagues boycotted him.
I say these facts are obvious, and that it is wholesome and needful that they should be stated. It is in the interests of theology, if it be a science, and it is in the interests of those teachers of theology who desire to be something better than counsel for creeds, that it should be taken to heart. The seeker after theological truth, and that only, will no more suppose that I have insulted him than the prisoner who works in fetters will try to pick a quarrel with me, if I suggest that he would get on better if the fetters were knocked off; unless, indeed, as it is said does happen in the course of long captivities, that the victim at length ceases to feel the weight of his chains or even takes to hugging them, as if they were honorable ornaments.[1]—Nineteenth Century.
| LIFE IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.[2] |
By C. M. WOODFORD.
IN October, 1885, I left England with the object of paying a visit to the group of islands known as the "Solomon Islands," for the purpose of making collections of the fauna, and, if possible, penetrating to the mountains of the interior of some of the larger islands, which had not yet been visited by white men. The Solomon Islands are a group lying about five hundred miles to the eastward of New Guinea. They extend for six hundred miles in a northwest and southeast direction, and are situated between the parallels of 5° and 11° south latitude, and the meridians of 154° and 163° east longitude. They were first discovered by Mendana, the Spaniard, in 1507, who gave them the name of the Islands of Solomon, in order that his countrymen, supposing them to be the
- ↑ To-day's "Times" contains a report of a remarkable speech by Prince Bismarck, in which he tells the Reichstag that he has long given up investing in foreign stock, lest so doing should mislead his judgment in his transactions with foreign states. Does this declaration prove that the chancellor accuses himself of being "sordid" and "selfish," or does it not rather show that, even in dealing with himself, he remains the man of realities?
- ↑ From a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, March 26, 1888.
