120 DAKWINIANISM. 



is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance, Huxley. 

 I am therefore a poor critic : a paper or book, when first 

 reid, generally excites my admiration, and it is only after 

 considerable reflection that I perceive the weak points" (an 

 admission that significantly tells the whole story). " My 

 power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought 

 is very limited " (in such abstract there are no moving 

 objects to be seen and watched) ; " and therefore I could 

 never have succeeded with metaphysics or mathematics." 

 In regard to metaphysics there is a similar implication 

 in an allusion to Janet (iii. 46) : "As for M. Janet, he is 

 a metaphysician, and such gentlemen are so acute that I 

 think they often misunderstand common folk." Again, in 

 the same reference, more explicitly he tells us (i. 69): 

 " I read a good deal during these two years on various 

 subjects, including some metaphysical books ; but I was 

 not well-fitted for such studies " (the conscientious self- 

 improvement was still going on). His son says once : " In 

 August he records that he read a good deal of various 

 amusing books" and "paid some attention to meta- 

 physical subjects." Metaphysics and amusement ! Yet, 

 surely, it is amusing to learn (ii. 8) that his theory of 

 natural selection would lead to the study of the whole of 

 metaphysics. " My theory," he says there, " would give 

 zest to recent and fossil comparative anatomy ; it would 

 lead to the study of instincts, heredity, and mind-heredity, 

 whole of metaphysics." As yet, then, the study (meta- 

 physics) has not been even led to, but, God be thanked ! 

 it will soon now be complete through knowledge of 

 instincts and heredity mind-heredity! As regards 

 mathematics, here is another avowal of his own (i. 46): 

 " I attempted mathematics but I got on very slowly 

 the work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my not being 

 lint If want, so thought it safest to give my view as almost the same as 

 7m-), and he says he is not sure he understands it " ? 



