X KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE 375 



history might stand at no higher level than his 

 information about the natural sciences. However 

 unwillingly, I have felt bound to consider the 

 possibility that Mr. Gladstone's labours in this 

 matter may have carried him no further than 

 Josephus and the worthy, but somewhat antique, 

 episcopal and other authorities to whom he refers ; 

 that even his reading of Josephus may have been 

 of the most cursory nature, directed not to the 

 understanding of his author, but to the discovery 

 of useful controversial matter ; and that, in view 

 of the not inconsiderable misrepresentation of my 

 statements to which I have drawn attention, it 

 might be that Mr. Gladstone's exposition of the 

 evidence of Josephus was not more trustworthy. 

 I proceed to show that my previsions have been 

 fully justified. I doubt if controversial literature 

 contains anything more piquant than the story I 

 have to unfold. 



That I should be reproved for rapidity of judg- 

 ment is very just : however quaint the situation 

 of Mr. Gladstone, as the reprover, may seem to 

 people blessed with a sense of humour. But it is 

 a quality, the defects of which have been painfully 

 obvious to me all my life ; and I try to keep my 

 Pegasus at best, a poor Shetland variety of that 

 species of quadruped at a respectable jog-trot, by 

 loading him heavily with bales of reading. Those 

 who took the trouble to study my paper in good 

 faith and not for mere controversial purposes, 



