FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES 87 



Then I said, " O brother-in-law to Mr. Spurgeon's haberdasher ! 

 Who seasonest also the skins of Canadian owls, 

 Thou callest ' trousers ' ' pants/ whereas I call them ' trousers,' 

 Therefore thou art in hell-fire, and may the Lord pity thee ! " 



Oh God ! oh Montreal ! 



" Preferrest thou the gospel of Montreal to the gospel of Hellas, 



The gospel of thy connection with Mr. Spurgeon's haberdasher to the 



gospel of the Discobolus?" 

 Yet none the less blasphemed he beauty saying, "The Discobolus hath 



no gospel, — 

 But my brother-in-law is haberdasher to Mr. Spurgeon." 



Oh God! oh Montreal! 



In June, 1863, an article appeared in the Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History by the Rev. S. Haughton, 

 entitled " On the Bee's Cell and the Origin of Species." At 

 that time I was eager to enter the lists with any one who 

 attacked natural selection or Darwin's exposition of it. This 

 article was full of the usual errors and misconceptions, some 

 of the most absurd nature, but all set forth as if with the 

 weight of authority in a scientific periodical. I accordingly 

 replied in the October number of the Annals, and criticized 

 the critic rather severely. Mr. Haughton had written : " The 

 true cause of the shape of the cell is the crowding together of 

 the bees at work, as was first shown by BufTon " — a view 

 which Darwin had disproved both by observation of many 

 distinct species of bees, and by careful experiment with the 

 honey-bee, as I explained in the article. He then argues that 

 " if economy of wax ' was the essential cause of the bees 

 forming hexagon cells out of circular ones, by gnawing away 

 the solid angles, as Darwin observed them doing, we ought 

 to find a series of species, some making triangular, others 

 square cells, because these are the forms which geometrically 

 come next to the hexagon in economy of wax to a given area ! 

 quite overlooking the fact that the primitive cells are proved 

 to be circular, and that circles in contact cannot be changed 

 by any gradual process of modification involving saving of 

 wax into triangles or squares. 



He then charges Darwin with three unwarrantable as- 



