Abstract

Contrasts

This article literary appraises the book "Nobel: Dynamite and Peace," by Ragnar Sohlman and Henrik Schuck. The scientist, Michael Faraday, whose researches and discoveries mark an epoch in the history of physical science and yet who believed without doubt or question the most extravagant superstitions of orthodox Christian faith, had such a mind. But this double-compartment type of mentality is more common outside the field of religion than people sometimes imagine. These biographers of the great Swedish scientist recognize that it seems inconsistent that a man who devoted so much energy to warlike inventions should at the same time have been a pronounced pacifist, and confess that he was sensitive to the incongruousness of his work with his pacifist sentiments.