xxx] BOSTON TO WASHINGTON 133 



those parts which attempted to justify the title by propound- 

 ing a new theory of evolution were either quite unsound in 

 reasoning or wholly unintelligble. When the second appli- 

 cation came, I told the editor that I had already agreed to 

 write one, but could easily write another from a different 

 point of view. This was accepted, and as the reviews were 

 unsigned, it was not difficult to make them appear to be by 

 distinct writers. In the first (which appeared in The Nation, 

 February 10, 1887) I gave a careful summary of the most 

 important contents of the volume, pointing out the novel 

 views, and stating how he differed from the Darwinians and 

 from the chief other schools of biologists. Only in one para- 

 graph at the end I pointed out the great imperfections of the 

 work, due to the absence of any attempt to weld the mass of 

 heterogeneous matter into a consistent whole. 



In the other article (T/ie Independent, March 17, 1887) I 

 presented my readers with a severe but, I think, perfectly 

 fair criticism, pointing out the extraordinary incongruity of 

 the materials, the numerous repetitions, the illustrations with- 

 out explanation on the plates or any reference to them in 

 the text, and many other deficiencies. I showed how con- 

 temptuously he spoke of Darwin as a mere compiler of facts 

 which every one knew, and the inventor of a theory that 

 proved nothing, until he himself had now supplied the missing 

 link — the new conception which cleared up everything ! Then 

 I dealt with his own supposed discoveries, his growth-force, 

 his law of acceleration and retardation, and other such matters, 

 showing that, so far as they were intelligible, they were all 

 included in Darwin's writings ; and I concluded by express- 

 ing regret that the talented author should have issued so 

 incomplete a work. I do not think that any of my friends in 

 Washington suspected that I was the author of either of the 

 articles, which I heard spoken of as fair criticisms. 



Before I left Washington, Judge Holman took me one 

 morning to call upon the President, Mr. Cleveland. The 

 judge told him I was going to visit California, and that 

 turned the conversation on wine, raisins, etc., which did not 



