372 KEEPERS OF THE HEED OF SWINE x 



progressive portion of the human race, it has been reserved to a 

 scientific inquirer to discover that He was no better than a law- 

 breaker and an evil-doer. . . . How, in such a matter, came the 

 honours of originality to be reserved to our time and to Professor 

 Huxley? (Pp. 269, 270.) 



Truly, the hatchet is hardly a weapon of pre- 

 cision, but would seem to have rather more the 

 character of the boomerang, which returns to 

 damage the reckless thrower. Doubtless such 

 incidents are somewhat ludicrous. But they have 

 a very serious side ; and, if I rated the opinion of 

 those who blindly follow Mr. Gladstone's leading, 

 but not light, in these matters, much higher than 

 the great Duke of Wellington's famous standard 

 of minimum value, I think I might fairly beg 

 them to reflect upon the general bearings of this 

 particular example of his controversial method. 

 I imagine it can hardly commend itself to their 

 cool judgment. 



After this tragi-comical ending to what an old 

 historian calls a "robustious and rough coming 

 on " ; and after some praises of the provisions of 

 the Mosaic law in the matter of not eating pork 

 in which, as pork disagrees with me and for some 

 other reasons, I am much disposed to concur, 

 though I do not see what they have to do with 

 the matter in hand comes the serious onslaught. 



Mr. Huxley, exercising his rapid judgment on the text, does 

 not appear to have encumbered himself with the labour of in- 

 quiring what anybody else had known or said about it. He has 



