90 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



direct ; and you may avoid that too with 

 an IF. I knew when seven justices could 

 not take up a quarrel ; but when the parties 

 were met themselves, one of them thought 

 but of an IF, as If you said so, then I said 

 so, and they shook hands and swore 

 brothers. Your IF is the only peace- 

 maker, and much value is in an IF."* 



In a similar way the famous Pascal 

 contends that "!F Cleopatra's nose had 

 been only a little shorter, the history of 

 the world would have been changed." 

 Victor Hugo adopts the same line of argu- 

 ment respecting the result of Waterloo. 

 "!F it had not rained," he declares, " on 

 the night of the 17th of June, 1815, the 

 future of Europe would have been altered ! 

 A few drops of water more or less caused 

 the fall of Napoleon ! " Happy conclusion 

 for the vainest of Frenchmen ! ! ! 



Much of the Evolutionary hypothesis 

 rests upon this potent " If." Thus one of 

 Darwin's foreign disciples, a noted German 



* As You Like It, act v., scene iv. 



