92 SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE m 



errors, it is not only the right, but the duty, of the 

 humblest layman, who may happen to be better 

 informed, to correct the evil effects of such perver- 

 sion of the opportunities which the State affords 

 them ; and such misuse of the authority which its 

 support lends them. Whatever else it may 

 claim to be, in its relations with the State, the 

 Established Church is a branch of the Civil 

 Service ; and, for those who repudiate the eccle- 

 siastical authority of the clergy, they are merely 

 civil servants, as much responsible to the English 

 people for the proper performance of their duties 

 as any others. 



The Duke of Argyll tells us that the " work 

 and calling" of the clergy prevent them from 

 " pursuing disputation as others can." I wonder if 

 his Grace ever reads the so-called " religious " news- 

 papers. It is not an occupation which I should 

 commend to any one who wishes to employ his 

 time profitably ; but a very short devotion to this 

 exercise will suffice to convince him that the 

 " pursuit of disputation," carried to a degree of 

 acrimony and vehemence unsurpassed in lay con- 

 troversies, seems to be found quite compatible with 

 the "work and calling" of a remarkably large 

 number of the clergy. 



Finally, it appears to me that nothing can be 

 m worse taste than the assumption that a body of 

 English gentlemen can, by any possibility, desire 

 that immunity from criticism which the Duke of 



