X KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE 367 



relieve any anxieties which my friends may 

 entertain without delay. I assure them that my 

 skull retains its normal covering, and that though, 

 naturally, I may have felt alarmed, nothing 

 serious has happened. My doughty adversary 

 has merely performed a war dance, and his blows 

 have for the most part cut the air. I regret to 

 add, however, that by misadventure, and I am 

 afraid I must say carelessness, he has inflicted 

 one or two severe contusions on himself. 



When the noise of approaching battle roused 

 me from the dreams of peace which occupy my 

 retirement, I was glad to observe (since I must 

 fight) that the campaign was to be opened upon 

 a new field. When the contest raged over the 

 Pentateuchal myth of the creation, Mr. Gladstone's 

 manifest want of acquaintance with the facts and 

 principles involved in the discussion, no less than 

 with the best literature on his own side of the 

 subject, gave me the uncomfortable feeling that I 

 had my adversary at a disadvantage. The sun of 

 science, at my back, was in his eyes. But, on the 

 present occasion, we are happily on an equality. 

 History and Biblical criticism are as much, or 

 as little, my vocation as they are that of Mr. 

 Gladstone ; the blinding from too much light, or 

 the blindness from too little, may be presumed to 

 be equally shared by both of us. 



Mr. Gladstone takes up his new position in the 

 country of the Gadarenes. His strategic sense 



139 



