Public-domain ebook
by John Fiske
Language: en1,028 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Essays, Letters & Speeches·Science - Chemistry/Biochemistry
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #40590.
John Fiske’s A Century of Science, and Other Essays is a sprawling, interdisciplinary collection that weaves together his own scientific theories with a wide‑ranging commentary on history, literature, law, and folklore. The volume opens with a personal letter to a former editor, in which Fiske recounts the publication of his “infancy theory” on human evolution and its reception by leading naturalists of the 1870s. He then launches into a sweeping survey of scientific progress, beginning with Priestley’s discovery of oxygen and tracing the rise of modern chemistry, astronomy, and spectroscopy, while interlacing autobiographical notes and reflections on the social implications of his ideas.
The prose is characteristically Victorian, dense yet eloquent, marked by long sentences, frequent parenthetical asides, and a tone that blends scholarly rigor with occasional wit. Readers who relish the intellectual vigor of late‑19th‑century essayists, particularly those interested in the history of science, evolutionary thought, and the cultural currents that shaped the era, will find Fiske’s work both stimulating and rewarding.
The opening · free to read
Indeed, down to the present time, I have been left almost in exclusive possession of that area of speculation which is occupied with the genesis of Man as connected with that prolongation of infancy which first began to become conspicuous in the manlike apes. There are many who assent to what I have put forth, but few who seem inclined to enter that difficult field on the marchland between biology, psychology, and sociology. Doubtless this is because the attention of the scientific world has for forty years been absorbed in the more general questions concerning the competency of natural selection, the causes of variation, the agencies alleged by Lamarck, and in these latter days Weismannism, etc. In course of time, however, the more special problems connected with man's genesis will surely come uppermost, and then we may hope to see the causes of the lengthening of infancy investigated by thinkers duly conversant alike with psychology and embryology.
Questions of priority in originating new theories may not greatly interest the general reader, but you and I feel interested in preventing any misconception in the present case; and it was thus that the careless remark of the friendly reviewer led me to insert in the present volume the shorthand report of some autobiographical remarks on the infancy theory. In reading the proof-sheets I have noticed that the book contains elsewhere many allusions to personal experiences. This feature, which was quite unforeseen, will not fail to commend it all the more strongly to you, my ancient friend and comrade. As for readers in general, I may best conclude in the words of old Aaron Rathbone, whose book entitled "The Surveyor" was dated "from my lodging at the house of M. Roger Bvrgis, against Salisburie-house-gate, in the Strand, this sixt of Nouember, 1616." This wise and placid philosopher saith: "To perswade the courteous were causelesse, for they are naturally kind; and to diswade the captious were bootless, for they will not be diverted. Let the first make true vse of these my labours, and they shall find pleasure and profit therein; let the last (if they like not) leave it, and it shall not offend them."
Wherefore let me, without further ado, subscribe myself,
Ever yours, JOHN FISKE.
CAMBRIDGE, October 25, 1899.
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