Introduction xi 



Man in the Street," far too bare of scientific clothing to 

 satisfy the Mrs. Grundy of the domain : lacking all recog- 

 nised tools of science and all sense of the difficulties in his 

 way, he proceeded to tackle the problems of science with 

 little save the deft pen of the literary expert in his hand. 

 His very failure to appreciate the difficulties gave greater 

 power to his work — much as Tartarin of Tarascon ascended 

 the Jungfrau and faced successfully all dangers of Alpine 

 travel, so long as he believed them to be the mere " blagues 

 de reclame " of the wily Swiss host. His brilliant qualities 

 of style and irony themselves told heavily against him. 

 Was he not already known for having written the most 

 trenchant satire that had appeared since " Gulliver's 

 Travels " ? Had he not sneered therein at the very foun- 

 dations of society, and followed up its success by a pseudo- 

 biography that had taken in the " Record " and the 

 " Rock " ? In " Life and Habit," at the very start, he 

 goes out of his way to heap scorn at the respected names 

 of Marcus Aurelius, Lord Bacon, Goethe, Arnold of Rugby, 

 and Dr. W. B. Carpenter. He expressed the lowest opinion 

 of the Fellows of the Royal Society. To him the pro- 

 fessional man of science, with self-conscious knowledge 

 for his ideal and aim, was a medicine-man, priest, augur — 

 useful, perhaps, in his way, but to be carefully watched 

 by all who value freedom of thought and person, lest with 

 opportunity he develop into a persecutor of the worst 

 type. Not content with blackguarding the audience to 

 whom his work should most appeal, he went on to depre- 

 ciate that work itself and its author in his finest vein of 

 irony. Having argued that our best and highest know- 

 ledge is that of whose possession we are most ignorant, 

 he proceeds : " Above all, let no unwary reader do me 

 the injustice of believing in me. In that I write at all 

 I am among the damned." 



His writing of "EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW" 

 (1879) was due to his conviction that scant justice had 



