156 AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY IV 



the only people scientific or other, who never 

 make mistakes are those who do nothing ; or that 

 anybody, for whose opinion I cared, would not rather 

 see me commit ten blunders than try to hide one. 

 Pending the production of further evidence, I 

 hold that the existence of people who believe in 

 the infallibility of men of science is as purely 

 mythical as that of the evil counsellor who advised 

 the withholding of the truth lest it should conflict 

 with that belief. 



I venture to think, then, that the Duke of 

 Argyll might have spared his " Little Lesson " as 

 well as his " Great Lesson " with advantage. The 

 paternal authority who whips the child for sins 

 he has not committed does not strengthen his 

 moral influence rather excites contempt and re- 

 pugnance. And if, as would seem from this and 

 former monitory allocutions which have been 

 addressed to us, the Duke aspires to the position 

 of censor, or spiritual director, in relation to the 

 men who are doing the work of physical science, 

 he really must get up his facts better. There 

 will be an end to all chance of our kissing the rod 

 if his Grace goes wrong a third time. He must 

 not say again that " no serious reply has been 

 attempted " to a view which was discussed and 

 repudiated, two years before, by one of the highest 

 extant authorities on the subject ; he must not say 

 that Darwin accepted that which it can be proved 

 he did not accept ; he must not say that a doctrine 



