Essays on Life 



referred to without other, for the most part, 

 than off-hand dismissal by Professor Weis- 

 mann in the last of the essays that have been 

 recently translated, I do not see how any one 

 who brings an unbiased mind to the ques- 

 tion can hesitate as to the side on which 

 the weight of testimony inclines. Professor 

 Weismann declares that " the transmission of 

 mutilations may be dismissed into the domain 

 of fable." l If so, then, whom can we trust ? 

 What is the use of science at all if the con- 

 clusions of a man as competent as I readily 

 admit Mr. Darwin to have been, on the 

 evidence laid before him from countless 

 sources, is to be set aside lightly and without 

 giving the clearest and most cogent explana- 

 tion of the why and wherefore ? When we 

 see a person " ostrichising " the evidence which 

 he has to meet, as clearly as I believe Pro- 

 fessor Weismann to be doing, we shall in 

 nine cases out of ten be right in supposing 

 that he knows the evidence to be too strong 

 for him. 



1 Essays, &c. 9 p. 447. 



306 



