8o SCIENCE IN " BONDAGE " 



authorities is infallible is proved by the facts that 

 mistakes do creep into works of science, however 

 carefully examined, and that more than one book 

 with an imprimatur has, none the less, found its 

 way on to the Index. Before leaving this branch 

 of the subject one cannot refrain from calling 

 attention to another point. How often in 

 advertisements of books do we not see quotations 

 from reviews in authoritative journals a medical 

 work from the Lancet, a physical or chemical from 

 Nature ? Frequently too we see " Mr. So-and- 

 So, the well-known authority on the subject, says 

 of this book, etc., etc." What are all these 

 authoritative commendations but an imprimatur 

 up to date ? 



Passing from the imprimatur to a closer con- 

 sideration of our subject, it is above all things 

 necessary to take the advice of Samuel Johnson 

 and clear our minds of cant. Every person in 

 this world save perhaps a Robinson Crusoe on 

 an otherwise uninhabited island, and he only 

 because of his solitary condition -is in bondage 

 more or less to others ; that is to say, has his 

 freedom more or less interfered with. That this 

 interference is in the interests of the community 

 and so, in the last analysis, in the interests of the 

 person interfered with himself, in no way weakens 

 the argument ; it is rather a potent adjuvant to it. 

 However much I may dislike him and however 

 anxious I may be to injure him, I may not go 

 out and set fire to my neighbour's house nor to his 

 rick-yard, unless I am prepared to risk the serious 

 legal penalties which will be my lot if I am detected 



