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can be, I need not tell you which it must be. " I have spoken." 

 You say you don't agree with me. You don't, don't you ? 

 You say that one man may take a horse to water, but that twenty 

 can't make him drink. That may be, but if I can swallow it, 

 surely you can, and much good may it do you. I have swallowed 

 it all long since, and if I can, you can. " Where there's a will, 

 there's a way." Is not that a good and wholesome proverb ? 



I believe, as I have told you again and again, that the 

 Imagination is of far more use in science than Reason. You tell 

 me that Milton has said, " Our Reason is our Law." He said so, 

 did he ? Perhaps he did, but pray do not name Milton's opinion 

 in the same day with mine. That would be rather too much. 



I believe that the world has lasted for long enough in pre- 

 historic times, and man upon it in all so-called Time of 

 inconceivable duration. You may possibly ask me how it is that 

 if so it has not been filled and overfilled with mankind ages before 

 this ? That is a question I cannot answer ; at least I decline to 

 answer it. I consider it as quite beneath me to notice it. 



I believe that " one hand has surely worked through the 

 Universe," though I have also said, over and over again, that 

 there has been no such hand at work at all. You may call this 

 a palpable contradiction. Let it be. I would as lief as not. 



I believe that the old-fashioned notion that humility is the 

 unfailing characteristic of a man of science is quite exploded, and 

 that conceit and self-opiniation have properly taken its place. 

 I can only speak for myself, and I am thoroughly self-satisfied. 

 Let that content you. Mild me plaudo. 



You are really too exacting. 



I believe, to conclude, you will allow me to repeat, that if such 

 writers as Cuvier, Sedgwick, Buckland, and others, agree with 

 me, they are in the right ; if not, they are in the wrong. What 

 more need be said ? Why waste more words about it ? That is 

 the long and the short of the matter, and it settles the question. 



To which I may add, what is an opinion good for, unless one 

 stands to it ? At all events I am, as I have already said, of the 

 " same opinion still," evidence or no evidence, proof or no proof, 

 right or wrong. That is my ultimatum. 



THE CONFERENCE is AT AN END. 



