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RUSTIC SOUNDS
RUSTIC SOUNDS
and other STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND NATURAL HISTORY by SIR FRANCIS DARWIN With Illustrations london JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1917 page I Rustic Sounds 1 II Francis Galton 13 III The Movement of Plants 36 IV A Lane in the Cotswolds 55 V Jane Austen 61 VI The Education of a Man of Science 78 VII The Pipe and Tabor 97 VIII Stephen Hales 115 IX Nullius in Verba 140 X Sir George Darwin 152 XI War Music 195 XII The Teaching of Science 201 XIII Picturesque Experiments 210 XIV Dogs and Dog Lo
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I RUSTIC SOUNDS
I RUSTIC SOUNDS
Sounds are to me more reminiscent than sights; they bring back the sensations of childhood, and indeed all memories of my past life, in a way more touching and clear than what is seen. Wendell Holmes claims the sense of smell as most closely associated with memory; for me, as I say, it is that of hearing. In this paper I shall wander in imagination through the different seasons in the home of my youth, and let the recalled rustic sounds lead where they will. To children there is something impre
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II. FRANCIS GALTON [13] 1822–1911
II. FRANCIS GALTON [13] 1822–1911
Francis Galton was born on February 16th, ninety-two years ago, and to-day we are met together to remember him—a word that seems to me more in tune with his nature than the more formal expression commemorate . He disliked pomposity, but he seems to have loved little private ceremonials. For instance, when he opened the first notebook in preparation for his autobiographical Memories , he began page I with Falstaff’s words: “Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying”—an inverte
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III THE MOVEMENTS OF PLANTS [36]
III THE MOVEMENTS OF PLANTS [36]
It is sometimes asserted that the power of movement is a character distinguishing animals from plants. This statement arises to some extent from an obvious confusion of thought. Trees are stationary, they are rooted to one spot, but they are not therefore motionless. We think them so because our eyes are dull—a fault curable with the help of a microscope. And when we get into the land of magnification, where the little looks big and the slow looks quick, we see such evidence of movement that
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IV A LANE IN THE COTSWOLDS
IV A LANE IN THE COTSWOLDS
Early in May I walked up from the valley to the extreme rim of the Cotswolds, just above our house. The lower country is all pasture, where we can wander at will, and delight in the many beautiful trees: the fresh green elms, the vernal yellow of the oak (which lingers in varying degrees behind some of its companions, but does not deserve Tolstoy’s epithet ‘maussade’), and the grey anatomy of the timid ash, whose black buds are still getting up their courage. We do not owe the trees in the mea
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V JANE AUSTEN
V JANE AUSTEN
The most obvious characteristic of English country life as described by Jane Austen, is a quietness such as even the elder generation now living have not experienced. A quietness which many would call dull and some few peaceful. It is, indeed, hard to believe that life was once so placid, so stay-at-home, so domestic, so devoid, not merely of excitement, but of any change whatever. The life of Emma Woodhouse (to take a single instance) has all the characteristics of this deep repose. At Hartf
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VI. THE EDUCATION OF A MAN OF SCIENCE
VI. THE EDUCATION OF A MAN OF SCIENCE
An Address to the Association of University Women Teachers, January 13, 1911 In the following pages I propose to give my own experience of education, that is to say, not of educating others, but of being educated. It seems to me that the education of one’s youth becomes clear to one in middle life and old age; and that what one sees in this retrospect may be worth some rough record and some sort of criticism. One may, of course, be mistaken about what was bad and what was good in one’s trainin
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APPENDIX I DRAWINGS AND CARVINGS OF PIPERS
APPENDIX I DRAWINGS AND CARVINGS OF PIPERS
At the risk of being tedious in the way of repetition I have thought it worth while to put together a rough list of the illustrations of pipe and tabor which I have met with. The earliest representation of a player on the 3-holed pipe, of which I have any knowledge, is the beautiful figure in the Angel Choir at Lincoln. Its date is, I believe, 1270, and it has been injured so that it is not possible to be sure of the manner in which the pipe is held. The tabor is suspended by means of a string
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APPENDIX II THE FINGERING OF THE 3-HOLED PIPER
APPENDIX II THE FINGERING OF THE 3-HOLED PIPER
The following diagram gives the fingerings which I have found to be best for a 3-holed pipe, a copy of an old one in the possession of Mr. Manning, of Oxford, to whom I am indebted for much kindly assistance. Fig. 6. 3-holed pipe fingering The fingerings are given for the keys D and G. I have not attempted to play in other keys. For each note the upper circle represents the thumbhole; 1 and 2 are for the first and second fingers respectively. The black circles are supposed to be closed, the w
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Assimilation.
Assimilation.
Hales’ belief that plants draw part of their food from the air, and again, that air is the breath of life, of vegetables as well as of animals (p. 148), are based upon a series of chemical experiments performed by himself. Not being satisfied with what he knew of the relation between “air” (by which he meant gas) and the solid bodies in which he supposed gases to be fixed, he delayed the publication of Vegetable Staticks for some two years, and carried out the series of observations which are m
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IX NULLIUS IN VERBA [140]
IX NULLIUS IN VERBA [140]
There is a well-known story of Charles Darwin which I shall venture to repeat, because nothing can better emphasise the contrast between Shrewsbury School as it is and as it was. Charles Darwin used, as a boy, to work at chemistry in a rough laboratory fitted up in the tool-house at his home in Shrewsbury. The fact that he did so became known to his school-fellows, and he was nicknamed “Gas.” I have an old Delphine Virgil of my father’s in which this word is scrawled, together with the name Mi
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Cambridge.
Cambridge.
We have seen that George was elected a Fellow of Trinity in October 1868, and that five years later (October 1873) he began his second lease of a Cambridge existence. There is at first little to record: he held at this time no official position, and when his Fellowship expired he continued to live in College, busy with his research work, and laying down the earlier tiers of the monumental series of papers which he gave to the world. This soon led to his being proposed (in November 1877) for th
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Games and Pastimes.
Games and Pastimes.
As an undergraduate George played tennis—not the modern out-door game, but that regal pursuit which is sometimes known as the game of kings and otherwise as the king of games. When George came up as an undergraduate there were two tennis courts in Cambridge, one in the East Road, the other being the ancient one that gave its name to Tennis Court Road, and was pulled down to make room for the new buildings of Pembroke. In this way was destroyed the last of the College tennis courts of which we
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Scientific Committees.
Scientific Committees.
George served for many years on the Solar Physics Committee and on the Meteorological Council. With regard to the latter, Sir Napier Shaw has at my request given me his impressions: [178] It was in February 1885, upon the retirement of Warren De la Rue, that your brother George, by appointment of the Royal Society, joined the governing body of the Meteorological Office, at that time the Meteorological Council. He remained a member until the end of the Council in 1905, and thereafter, until his
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International Associations.
International Associations.
During the last ten or fifteen years of his life George was much occupied with various International bodies, e.g. the International Geodetic Association, the International Association of Academies, the International Congress of Mathematicians, and the Seismological Congress. With regard to the last named it was in consequence of George’s report to the Royal Society that the British Government joined the Congress. It was however with the Geodetic Association that he was principally connected. Si
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Personal Characteristics.
Personal Characteristics.
His daughter, Madame Raverat, writes: I think most people might not realise that the sense of adventure and romance was the most important thing in my father’s life, except his love of work. He thought about all life romantically, and his own life in particular; one could feel it in the quality of everything he said about himself. Everything in the world was interesting and wonderful to him, and he had the power of making other people feel it. He had a passion for going everywhere and seeing e
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HONOURS, MEDALS, DEGREES, SOCIETIES, ETC.
HONOURS, MEDALS, DEGREES, SOCIETIES, ETC.
Order . K.C.B. 1905. Medals . [192a] 1883. Telford Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 1884. Royal Medal. [192b] 1892. Royal Astronomical Society’s Medal. 1911. Copley Medal of the Royal Society. 1912. Royal Geographical Society’s Medal. Offices . Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Plumian Professor in the University. Vice-President of the International Geodetic Association, Lowell Lecturer at Boston U.S. (1897). Member of the Meteorological and Solar Physics Committees. P
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XI WAR MUSIC
XI WAR MUSIC
AN ADDRESS TO A SOCIETY OF MORRIS DANCERS DECEMBER 21, 1914 According to the Dictionary of Music [195] the military march is meant “not only to stimulate courage but also to ensure the orderly advance of troops.” In other words, military music serves to incite and to regulate movement. But these cannot always be discriminated. The tramp tramp of marching soldiers is ordered by the rhythm of the band. This is obvious, but we cannot say how far the bravery of the tune puts strength into tired
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XII THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE [201]
XII THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE [201]
It is not difficult to sympathise with what Dr. Birkbeck aimed at in founding the College which bears his name. His idea seems to have been, that whatever a man’s calling may be, he is the better for accurate knowledge of the things with which he deals. This is a sufficiently obvious statement. But if for the word ‘accurate’ we substitute ‘scientific,’ it is no longer a platitude—at least it is not so in the ears of the semi-educated. For we can still find people who believe in the “practica
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XIII PICTURESQUE EXPERIMENTS
XIII PICTURESQUE EXPERIMENTS
To those who have never made experiments on plants it may seem that ‘picturesque’ is an odd term to apply to laboratory methods. But to an experimentalist the adjective does not seem overstrained. There is not merely the pleasure of seeing a prediction verified—that may be experienced in more everyday matters. There is a peculiar delight in the discovery of a method of revealing some detail in the natural history of living things. I remember vividly the pleasure which I felt when I first tri
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XIV DOGS AND DOG LOVERS
XIV DOGS AND DOG LOVERS
“The more I see of men, the more I like dogs.”— Archbishop Whately . [219] Why is it that some people do not like dogs? There are those who dislike other people’s dogs just as they dislike strange children. This is a point of view which is comprehensible though unattractive. Still, in comparison with those who do not like dogs at all this class seem positively amiable. I knew a lady with the most perfect understanding of the qualities of human beings, whether bad or good, yet she had no symp
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NOTES.
NOTES.
[3] Lundy’s Land, and other Poems , by Duncan Campbell Scott, Toronto. [5] I have an antiquarian interest in the penny whistle as being a poor relation of the “recorder” of our forefathers. [8] A Naturalist’s Calendar , by Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns). Cambridge University Press, 1903. [9] Life and Letters , Vol. II., p. 114. [13] This, the first Galton Lecture, was delivered before the Eugenics Education Society, February 16th, 1914, and is, by permission, reprinted, with som
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