A Rejoinder to Miss Wodeliouse's 

 Criticism. 



By GEO. P. MUDGE. 



I WILL endeavour to reply to most of the criticisms 

 which a metaphysical critic has passed upon my 

 article in the last number of this Journal. It may 

 also be permissible to attempt to show that Biology 

 is transcendent to Metaphysics, if not in its aerial 

 castles, at least in its mundane temples. 



Though recognising that Miss Wodehouse has 

 desired to be fair and has tried to understand my 

 attitude, I am afraid that the metaphysical spectacles, 

 through which she has surveyed it from a lofty height, 

 has rendered her task a little difficult, and not yet 

 can it be said that she has fully understood the nature 

 of my plea. If we may judge from one of her state- 

 ments, it is not certain whether we are to believe 

 that metaphysicians regard Metaphysics as a 

 science or simply look upon it as a relic of the Scholas- 

 tic Period ; an academic reminiscence of the early 

 days of culture when it was the best that the era 

 could produce, and the pronouncements of the 

 Schoolmen were accepted as articles of faith. But 

 Miss Wodehouse may rest assured that the days of 

 " accepting with undoubting faith everything that 

 experts tell us," even though we be " unskilled 

 amateurs," have passed for ever. I have asked no 



