elaborating, and which had been under examination and discussion by the whole biological world for a generation, was thought to be thus readily disposed of by a scholar's mate. Very curious, too, was it to observe the different effects produced in the world of science and in the outer world. Neither in the recent controversy between Dr. Wallace and Professor Henslow, nor in the criticisms of Mr. Bateson's late work, nor in the discussion before the Royal Society on Professor Weldon's experiments and views—all of them concerned with aspects of Natural Selection—is there the slightest sign that Lord Salisbury's attack had produced any impression whatever: a serene disregard showing that its irrelevance was tacitly recognized by all. Meanwhile the extreme improbability that there could be achieved so easy a triumph being overlooked, there was great rejoicing among those who stand by the old; even to the extent that a bishop and a dissenting minister were heard exchanging congratulations on what they supposed to be a defeat of the common enemy!
And now I have to make a remark to which the foregoing illustration is preliminary—the remark that this slaying of effigies entails on those concerned a provoking choice of alternatives. Either the attack must be noticed for the purpose of showing that the thing disproved was not the thing said, in which case time and energy, often much wanted for other purposes, must be spent; or else the attack must be passed by in silence, in which case readers assume that nothing is said because there is nothing to say—that the misstated view is the actual view, and the criticism of it fatal. For it never occurs to them that silence may result from preoccupation or from the belief that controversy is futile, or from ill-health. Once more, after many repetitions, I have myself to choose between the two evils. As the issue raised by Mr. Balfour is important, I reluctantly decide to accept his challenge.
Limitations of time and space oblige me to leave some controverted views of mine undefended; as instance certain ethical and æsthetical ones. I must content myself with saying that those who turn to my own expositions of them will carry away different impressions from those given by Mr. Balfour's burlesques. But before entering on the essential question, something may fitly be said concerning Mr. Balfour's assumptions and his methods. Let us look first at one of his assumptions.
"What remedy remains?" he asks; referring to the inadequacy of reasoning "based upon ordinary experience" to "enable us to break out of the Naturalistic prison-house." "One such remedy consists in simply setting up side by side with the creed of natural science another and supplementary set of beliefs, which
