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which I, as a naturalist, am not ashamed of, if he is, and he may 

 learn the A B C of this matter. "Thou makest darkness that 

 it may be night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do move. 

 The lions roaring after their prey do seek their meat from God. 

 The sun ariseth, and they get them away together, and lay them 

 down in their dens." 



Nay, even in the other case, if the similarity of colour could 

 be supposed, as I can only conclude the President intended us 

 to imagine, to be of use to the royal beast in stealing on his ' 

 prey unobserved, his roar would have given them ample notice 

 of his approach long beforehand. 



Again, thirdly, we are told that the " markings of the leopard 

 resemble spots of sunshine gleaming through the leaves." 



Well, if they did though they do not there positively is not 

 the most distant resemblance between the two, so that the one 

 could be mistaken for the other what use would it be to the 

 leopard if there were such resemblance ? 



Sir John Lubbock did not enlighten us on this point. 



Why, the leopard, too, sleeps in its lair while the sun is 

 shining, and prowls about in the dusk of night to seek its prey, 

 its own roar, in its way, making itself heard by every animal 

 within hearing of it. 



And these idle dreams are told us with the utmost gravity 

 by the President of the British Association on its fiftieth anni- 

 versary at York, in proof of the superior insight of the Darwinian 

 clique, and as establishing for ever, by such wonderful discoveries, 

 the scientific value of the flimsy fancies and vain vagaries of 

 their "craze." 



Huxley, too, put in an appearance, careering on the stage 

 on his old hobby. His worn-out, abortive "little horse" 

 (" Hipparion") had been long enough since on its last legs, but 

 the wretched animal has now been fairly ridden to death. It is 

 to be hoped that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals will take the case up. I am, &c., 



F. 0. MOERIS. 



Sept. 6tf, 1881. 



