2 Mr. Grant Aliens Botanical Fables 



earth. The late Laureate familiarized us with the truth 

 that in the lowliest of living things there is something 

 that must remain incomprehensible until we shall have 

 fathomed the whole mystery of being : 



Flower in the crannied wall, 



I pluck you out of the crannies ; 



Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 



Little flower ; but if I could understand 



What you are, root and all, and all in all, 



I should know what God and man is. 



Our peripatetics quite agree with the poet, that the 

 key to all truth is needed in order to unlock the riddle 

 of the flower's life ; but they differ from him altogether 

 in this, that for them there is no mystery : they have the 

 key, and therefore are they able to compel the blossom 

 to display to us all that we should know, about ourselves, 

 and about the forces which brought us into being. 



The writers with whom at present I am concerned, 

 though they are not scientific men, yet claim to speak 

 in the name of Science. They have not themselves 

 engaged in original research, but they profess to expound 

 the discoveries of specialists for the benefit of the 

 general public, a large proportion of whom firmly believe 

 that in them they are listening to the accredited agents 

 of scientific thought. This is not strictly speaking the 

 case, and yet scientific men have in great measure only 

 themselves to thank for the confusion. Writers who 

 publicly profess to popularize the new philosophy, should 

 be publicly disowned if they misrepresent it. Men of 

 science are quick enough to assail the exponents of the 

 old belief when they seem to trench on their own ground: 

 they ought, one would think, to be even more solicitous 

 that the sacred name of science should not lightly be 

 invoked on behalf of unsound doctrine. 



It must be remembered too that, whether scientific 

 or not, these writers are eminently popular. They claim 

 for their method, and claim justly, that they can be 

 understanded of the people to a degree which is impos- 

 sible for those who treat subjects in a more technical 



