GLADSTONE'S METHODS 219 



and going to look at the house there in which he had 

 once lived. 



Of controversy for the year there is no lack. Articles 

 in answer to "The Keepers of the Herd of Swine" 

 appeared in the Nineteenth Century for January and 

 February, by the Duke of Argyll and Mr. Gladstone 

 respectively. The next number contained Huxley's re- 

 joinder, entitled " Mr. Gladstone's Controversial Methods" 

 (Coll. Essays, v, p. 393). The Gadarene swine question is 

 here entered into very fully, and discussed as a historical 

 problem in the solution of which all available facts are 

 employed. And as the title indicates, the article deals 

 not only with the matter but also the manner of Glad- 

 stone's attacks, — 



" couched in language which certainly does not err upon the 

 side of moderation or of courtesy. . . . 



" Persons who, like myself, have spent their lives outside the 

 political world, yet take a mild and philosophic concern in what 

 goes on in it, often find it difficult to understand what our 

 neighbours call the psychological moment of this or that party 

 leader, and are, occasionally, loth to believe in the seeming con- 

 ditions of certain kinds of success. And when some chieftain, 

 famous in political warfare, adventures into the region of letters 

 or of science, in full confidence that the methods which have 

 brought fame and honour in his own province will answer there, 

 he is apt to forget that he will be judged by those people on 

 whom rhetorical artifices have long ceased to take effect, and to 

 whom mere dexterity in putting together cleverly ambiguous 

 phrases, and even the great art of offensive misrepresentation, are 

 unspeakably wearisome. And, if that weariness finds its ex- 

 pression in sarcasm, the offender really has no right to cry out. 

 Assuredly, ridicule is no test of truth, but it is the righteous 

 meed of some kinds of error." 



Since the Duke of Argyll did not take the opportunity 

 of withdrawing certain erroneous statements {cf. p. 197), 

 further controversy with him is declined. 



