96 



sized people. There are soft good fools,* clever headed 

 devils, and men. There are raging fanatics, dead utili- 

 tarians, and living Christians. There are rabid ranters, 

 ridiculous ritualists, and " sober-minded. '' So amongst 

 politicians there are mad conservatives, mad radicals, and 

 sensible men; extreme tories, extreme "retrogressionists," 

 and reasonable beings. 



NOTE II. 



The following two letters I published in the Yorkshire 

 newspapers. 



SIR, Mr. Gamgee has written a book about the cattle 

 plague. He shows how true has turned out what he 

 always said, namely, that no specific cure for the complaint 

 would be discovered. He is quite right. But that very 

 small minority, the men of clear-seeing common sense, 

 always said exactly the same thing from analogy from 

 the fact that there is no specific cure for the corresponding 

 diseases amongst men. But what an astonishing idea it 

 gives one of the power of human credulity to think that, in 

 spite of the experience of all ages that no specific cure has 

 ever been discovered for any malignant disease whatever 

 either in man or beast, that in spite I say of this, imme- 

 diately what we fancy a new disease makes its appearance, 

 we all set to work with the utmost confidence to discover 

 its cure, and profess ourselves astonished and disappointed 

 when we do not succeed. In his book Mr. Gamgee repeats 

 his doctrine that the rinderpest is only taken by contagion 

 from Russian cattle, and that the management of cattle 

 has nothing to do with its origin. Last summer was the 



* " Tanto buon die val nicntc," says the Italian proverb. 



