VoI i'8q^ VI ] Elliot, Truth versus Error. 43 



burdens the Code. There is no doubt in my mind that a Canon 

 could be drawn that would be acceptable to all Naturalists and 

 offend none in any of its provisions, and produce a nomenclature 

 that would be stable. 



Those who have no sympathy with Canon XL and its doctrines 

 are characterized in the ' Defense ' as extremists. I leave it to 

 my colleagues, the overwhelming majority of whom i am per- 

 suaded prefer Truth to Error, to decide which is the better, to be 

 extremely right or extremely wrong, and of those who comprise 

 the two classes thus designated which are the reprehensible 

 extremists ? In Dr. Allen's wrestling with the spelling lesson that 

 worries him so greatly, on page 300 he complains because trans- 

 literation from other languages in Latin is so difficult, but on 

 page 303 he speaks of it as a " simple matter." Evidently as he 

 investigates his eyes become open, and eventually he will be able 

 to see clearly in their true light the evils he now so strenuously 

 defends and that they can, by a little mental activity, be made to 

 disappear like an uneasy dream. One more point, my friend 

 states that purists or classicists and all other bad people who 

 sympathize with them, though happily they are " few," vacillate 

 and do not even spell alike, and there can never be a uniformity 

 of nomenclature with such persons, and he enumerates quite a 

 list of reasons why this must be so. — Man is fallible, and even 

 those who strive with all their strength to do right, at times may 

 wander by the way, but if they hold to the direct path an occa- 

 sional slip, though it may retard their progress and that of others, 

 yet will not prevent them from reaching the light at last. But 

 the Advocates of Error never slip nor vacillate, nor with them is 

 there a shadow of turning. Having determined to go wrong, 

 " c'est le premier pas qui coute," and that once taken "facile 

 decensus Averni," and they speedily reach their goal and settle 

 themselves comfortably amid the congenial darkness that can be 

 felt. In the ' Defense ' of Canon XL it is quite refreshing to 

 observe the complacency with which it is taken for granted that 

 its clauses can only be interpreted in one way, viz. : that in which 

 the authors wish to have them regarded. Thus, take " obvious " 

 or " known " typographical errors. By " obvious " is meant 

 " transposition of letters " or their " inversion overlooked in proof- 



