I\ 



The Laying Bare of the Marvel A Legend 



(The Manchester University Magazine, April, 1905) 



IT was in the days when men said, " This is an age of civilisa- 

 tion "; but their words were not true. For it was a time 

 when things were, as they say, " topsy-turvy" ; when those 

 who did much work had little goods, and those who did none 

 at all were fat and rich and clothed in the furs of animals ; 

 it was a time when the exchange of goods was greatest 

 between those in whom the desire for goodness was least, 

 when those who had great store of goods drave in chariots, 

 noiseless, dragged by horses, and when those who were richer 

 still and more wicked drave in chariots, noisy, driven by 

 spirits. But I speak not of these because I know them not ; 

 but of those who do much work, and have no stores ; for 

 they busy themselves with many things, and derive pleasure 

 from wondering how those things which they see round 

 about them have come to be. And the greatest pleasure 

 amongst them is to discover how such things come to pass, 

 and the greatest foolishness amongst them is to think they 

 can discover why. Now of such folk there are two kinds 

 one kind which busies itself with things that are dead and 

 have never been alive ; and another whose delight is in things 

 which are alive but which do not remain so for long. The 

 knowledge got by the first is necessary to the labours of 

 the second ; but the knowledge got by the second is not 



1 This fable is an account of the Cambridge debate on Heredity at 

 the British Association Meeting, 1904, in which Mendelians and Biometri- 

 cians disputed. Peturcha = A. D. D. 



162 



