Essays on Life 



man concealing worse than nullity of meaning 

 under sentences that sound plausibly enough, 

 we should distrust him much as we should 

 a fellow-traveller whom we caught trying to 

 steal our watch. We often cannot judge of 

 the truth or falsehood of facts for ourselves, 

 but we most of us know enough of human 

 nature to be able to tell a good witness from 

 a bad one. 



However this may be, and whatever we 

 may think of judging systems by the direct- 

 ness or indirectness of those who advance 

 them, biologists, having committed themselves 

 too rashly, would have been more than human 

 if they had not shown some pique towards 

 those who dared to say, first, that the theory 

 of Messrs. Darwin and Wallace was unwork- 

 able ; and secondly, that even though it were 

 workable it would not justify either of them 

 in claiming evolution. When biologists show 

 pique at all they generally show a good deal 

 of pique, but pique or no pique, they shunned 

 Mr. Spencer's objection above referred to with 

 a persistency more unanimous and obstinate 



than I ever remember to have seen displayed 



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