APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 159 



A man who has only half as much food as he 

 needs is indubitably starved, even though his short 

 rations consist of ortolans and are served upon gold 

 plate. 



Economy does not lie in sparing money, but in 

 spending it wisely. 



We men of science, at any rate, hold ourselves 

 morally bound to "try all things and hold fast to 

 that which is good " ; and among public benefactors, 

 we reckon him who explodes old error, as next in 

 rank to him who discovers new truth. 



Whatever Linnaeus may say, man is not a rational 

 animal especially in his parental capacity. 



The inquiry into the truth or falsehood of a matter 

 of history is just as much a question of pure science 

 as the inquiry into the truth or falsehood of a matter 

 of geology, and the value of evidence in the two 

 cases must be tested in the same way. If anyone 

 tells me that the evidence of the existence of man in 

 the miocene epoch is as good as that upon which I 

 frequently act every day of my life, I reply that this 

 is quite true, but that it is no sort of reason for 

 believing in the existence of miocene man. 



Surely no one but a born fool can fail to be aware 

 that we constantly, and in very grave conjunctions, 

 are obliged to act upon extremely bad evidence, and 



