♦ KNOV/LEDGE ♦ 



Bv Richard A. Proctor. 



THE'arratgements described in last week's "Gossip" 

 will be carried out in the first monthly number of Know- 

 ledge. Mr. Jerome Han'ison is preparing a paper on the 

 " Geology of London," and Mr. Butler one on an insect 

 (if attractive household character. Mr. Slack will not I 

 know desert us ; and though his subjects are micro- 

 •■^copical, then- interest is quite otherwise. As several 

 readers have at sundry times asked me to introduce into 

 t he pages of Knowledge a portrait of the Conductor of 

 that widely-read paper, I have thought that the first 

 number of the new series would bo a suitable opportunity. 

 So many engravings (sometimes from the same photo- 

 LCraph) have I'resented mc in aspects ranging from the 

 utterly feroci' 'US to the sweetlj' sniggering, that I have 

 thought (not knowing which of these is right, or if any 

 of them cat; be) that a Luxotype reproduction from a 

 photograph in ML\ssr.-. Elliott & Fry's " Gallery " 

 (which they have kindly given me leave to ase for this 

 parpose) would probably be more correct. I imagine, 

 however, thut my work is a better portraiture of all that 

 readers care to know of mc than any picture. 



As a curious illustration of the amenities of some 

 of those who address me, I received a few daj-s since a 

 letter assuring me (in cft'ect) that I am, 



(i) a liar, (ii) a hy[)ocrite, (iii) a bungler, 



(iv) a sophist, (v) a savage, (vi) a bear, 



(vii) an idict, (viii) an ignoramus, (ix) an Antinomian, 

 (or not an Antinomian, I forget which : it was meant for 

 abuse whatever it was). All this Is in tlie eo„,i,ass of 



the chargesVei-e broad. Can the -eiur;),! .■.^ulei- •.Nonde,- 

 if replies are occasionally jiointed, when attaek.s arc so 

 liludgeonly ? (I beg leave to patent this worc\) 



A CORUESI'i 



signed " Quo 

 continuing tl 

 changed my 

 (or intending 

 lectorum nosf 

 tion fully or i 

 appeared in t 

 patient iam," 

 rejoie 



I letter 



ieh T 



: tim 



other 

 this man 



the state of 

 possibility th 

 schoollxiy (ex 



vs.^ue ta,,dr:„ ^ ^^^ ^^ 



mind, and \n.vv\rA " It would l.'/' ;,lle,-in- 

 : to alter) the Latin into Abv.ti patit.Uia 

 wrum. Whether I carried out the altera- 

 Kit I cannot well remember ; but the passage 

 his remarkable form, — "It would be ahntere 

 Ac. ! On this " Hallj-ards " and one or two 

 ingly pounce on mc with the jeer that 

 vho sits on OTir science thinks ahutere is infini- 

 ! and that it governs a noun in the accusative, 

 kewise hau, ho, how, hi, haw !) " Hallyards " 

 t " being an experienced examiner," he Icnows 

 thus. Imagine, or admit as unimaginable, 

 a man's mind who could suggest the bare 

 at, in the well-known passage which every 

 ceiit Macaulay's) knows by heart, the verb 



in the familiar six-words questioti could possibly be in 

 the infinitive ! * Then when I point out (to " Hallyards ") 

 that, however obvious this utter absurdity may seem to 

 him, I at any rate did not make the mistake {tanquam 

 referret), he replies that evidently editors are not called 

 on, like other persons, to speak the truth ! 



But then he adds that I am " the second person he 

 ever felt enthusiastic about," which sounds nice, — though 

 whether enthusiastic for or against, the deponent sayeth 

 not. 



Now it is a matter of small moment to me that " Hall- 

 yards " or anyone else should abuse my Latinity, which 

 is of a very mixed kind. (I read Latin and Greek easily, 

 but I could not analyse a sentence worth a cent.) To 

 give me the lie, though, when I hiow (much more cer- 

 tainly than " Hallyards" even imagines he knows) that I 

 have carefully spoken the truth, c'est ixir trop fort. Tet 

 it is "Hallj-ards" — believe it if you can! — who 

 " winces " when he sees me laying on the thong. No 

 one ought to know better than he does what occasion 

 there has sometimes been for it. 



However, I am glad to lay down an office of the most 

 ungrateful sort and by no means congenial to me. Here- 

 after I appear in these pages, as I do on the platform, to 

 reason and to stiidy, not to argue. 



ftfbtttos* 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. 



Our Insect Enemies. By Theodore Wood. (London : 



Society for Promoting c'liristian Knowlcd-c. 188.5.)— 



We spoke highly on a f.r;...i '.-::. .' Mr. Wood's 



work, "Our Insect Alii-,' ,: 1 ■ - .ure-.m- 



i Ul.ou xM. Bel 



If Science is t 

 lools, it would sc 

 volume, in its Ej 



iiyle, which at 

 1 be generally 

 ?m difficult to 

 glish dress, as 



r the like, in 



,„/„r,: kc, .^e- 



.luotation, 



:,:,ksof his 



w.i.is," but I 

 e easily under- 



