346 A Century of Science 



Lord on the earth is approached from the point of 

 view of the microscope, some men, who know not 

 what the holy of holies in physical and religious 

 science is, say that we have no example of the 

 origin of life without two parents." He went on 

 to cite the familiar instances of parthenogenesis in 

 bees and silk moths, and then proceeded as follows : 

 " Take up your Mivart, your Lyell, your Owen, and 

 you will read [where ? ] this same important fact 

 which Huxley here asserts, when he says that the 

 law that perfect individuals may be virginally born 

 extends to the higher forms of life. I am in the pre- 

 sence of Almighty God ; and yet, when a great soul 

 like that tender spirit of our sainted Lincoln, in his 

 early days, with little knowledge but with great 

 thoughtfulness, was troubled by this difficulty, and 

 almost thrown into infidelity by not knowing that 

 the law that there must be two parents is not univer- 

 sal, I am willing to allude, even in such a presence 

 as this, to the latest science concerning miraculous 

 conception. [Sensation.] " 



The vulgarity of this rhetoric is as glaring as its 

 absurdity. All that concerns me now, however, 

 is to point out the Brobdignagian dimensions of the 

 misstatement of facts. Let us look back for a 

 moment at the italicized quotation from Huxley, 

 upon which Mr. Cook builds up the wondrous asser- 



