THE ENDO WMENT OF RESEARCH. 



I 99 



purpose of that of a hen when she 

 calls her chickens around her ; but 

 he could not imitate it, or even de- 

 scribe it beyond saying that the old 

 snake spoke to her progeny. 



This but illustrates what I have 

 said at page 17, that 



" More could be collected from intelli- 



gent people in or from country places, 

 [in America, about snakes] than one 

 would perhaps care to be troubled with;" 

 and at page 26, in regard to them swal- 

 lowing their young, that " the popular 

 belief in America is that snakes, with- 

 out regard to species, do it, while there 

 are few neighbourhoods in which one, if 

 not several people, cannot be easily found 

 who can testify to it as a fact." 



IV. THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH. 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY, in an 



address at the opening of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, at 

 Baltimore, on the i2th of Septem- 

 ber, 1876, when alluding to the " en- 

 dowment of research," said : 



" It is given to few to add to the 

 store of knowledge, to strike new springs 

 of thought, or shape new forms of 

 beauty." 



But he did not add that such, al- 

 most invariably, are, for a time at 

 least, abused, or refused the slight- 

 est courtesy, when something has to 

 give place to what is brought for- 

 ward. It would take up too much 

 room to give the philosophy of such 

 a phenomenon at length ; suffice it 

 to say that one reason for it is the 

 opposition, or the objection to dis- 

 cussion, on the part of those who 

 have such things in their special 

 keeping, and the consequent indif- 

 ference, incredulity, or even aver- 

 sion of those who look to them for 

 light on the subjects treated. 



One of these questions is the 

 preservation of the Jews, which the 

 Duke of Argyll, in his Reign of Law, 

 attributes to a miracle or a special 

 providence. On the face of it one 

 would say that the Duke would not 

 do any of the following things : 



ist, Maintain as true what he 

 does not believe to be so; ad, ad- 

 vance as truth what he does not 

 know to be fact or fable ; 3d, main- 

 tain a personal or popular dogma as 



a truth until the contrary is demon- 

 strated ; 4th, refuse to acknowledge 

 that any position taken up by him 

 is unsound on its being proved to 

 be so, or that there is no reasonable 

 foundation for it ; and 5th, allow his 

 opinion to influence others on any 

 subject he may have maintained, 

 after it has been proved to be falla- 

 cious. 



After completely refuting, I think, 

 all that the Duke advanced on that 

 subject, I said : 



" The fact of the Jews keeping dis- 

 tinct from others is a simple question, 

 that is easily understood when investi- 

 gated inductively and on its merits. It 

 is neither miraculous, a special provi- 

 dence, wonderful, nor remarkable " (p. 

 163). " I have discussed the subject 

 pretty fully in the work, showing that 

 the existence of the Jews since the dis- 

 persion is in exact harmony with every 

 natural law, and that it would have 

 been a miracle had they ceased to be 

 Jews, and become anything else than 

 what they are to-day ; and that there is 

 no analogy between their history and 

 that of any European nation " (p. 161). 

 And that " nothing having the decent 

 appearance of an argument can be ad- 

 vanced in support of such a theory " (p, 

 164,) as is generally held on this subject, 



In my Disquisition on the Gipsies 

 I have said that 



" Writers on the Christian Evidences 

 should content themselves with main- 

 taining that the Jews have fulfilled the 

 prophecies, and will yet fulfill them, and 



