Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 125 



writer of Mr. Lilly s intelligence and good faith 

 is willing to father such a wastrel. If I am to deal 

 with the thing seriously, I find myself met by 

 one of the two horns of a dilemma. Either some 

 meaning, as unknown to usage as to the diction 

 aries, attaches to &quot; laboratory &quot; and &quot; chemical,&quot; 

 or the proposition is (what am I to say in my sore 

 need for a gentle and yet appropriate word ?) 

 well unhistorical. 



Does Mr. Lilly suppose that I put aside &quot; as 

 unverifiable &quot; all the truths of mathematics, of 

 philology, of history ? And if I do not, will he 

 have the great goodness to say how the binomial 

 theorem is to be dealt with &quot;chemically,&quot; even 

 in the best-appointed &quot; laboratory &quot; ; or where 

 the balances and crucibles are kept by which the 

 various theories of the nature of the Basque 

 language may be tested ; or what reagents 

 will extract the truth from any given History 

 of Rome, and leave the errors behind as a 

 residual calx ? 



I really cannot answer these questions, and 

 unless Mr. Lilly can, I think he would do well 

 hereafter to think more than twice before 

 attributing such preposterous notions to his 

 fellow-men, who, after all, as a learned counsel 

 said, are vertebrated animals. 



The whole thing perplexes me much ; and 

 I am sure there must be an explanation which 

 will leave Mr. Lilly s reputation for common sense 



