1890 THE ARYAN QUESTION 173 



p_S. — Yes — Mr. Gladstone lias dug up the hatchet. 

 We shall see who gets the scalps. 



By the way, you have not referred to plants, which 

 are a stronghold for you. What is the good of use- 

 inheritance, say, in orchids ? 



The interests which had formerly been divided 

 between biology and other branches of science and 

 philosophy, were diverted from the one channel only 

 to run stronger in the rest. Stagnation was the one 

 thing impossible to him ; his rest was mental activity 

 without excessive physical fatigue ; and he felt he 

 still had a useful purpose to serve, as a friend put it, 

 in patrolling his beat with a vigilant eye to the loose 

 characters of thought. Thus he writes on September 

 29 to Sir J. Hooker : — 



I wish quietude of mind were possible to me. But 

 without something to do that amuses me and does not 

 involve too much labour, I become quite unendurable — to 

 myself and everybody else. 



Providence has, I believe, specially devolved on Glad- 

 stone, Gore, and Co. the function of keeping " 'ome 'appy " 

 for me. 



I really can't give up tormenting ces drules. 



However, I have been toiling at a tremendously 

 scientific article about the " Aryan question " absolutely 

 devoid of blasphemy. 



This article appeared in the November number of 

 the Nineteenth Century {Coll. Essays, vii 271) and treats 

 the question from a biological point of view, with the 

 warning to readers that it is essentially a speculation 

 based upon facts, but not assuredly proved. It starts 



