1 6 LUCK, OR CUNNING ? 



cannot speak with tongues himself, he is the inter- 

 preter of those ■who can — without whom they might 

 as well be silent. I wish I could see more signs of 

 literary culture among my scientific opponents ; I 

 should find their books much more easy and agreeable 

 reading if I could ; and then they tell me to satirise 

 the follies and abuses of the age, just as if it was not 

 this that I was doing in writing about themselves. 



What, I wonder, would they say if I were to 

 declare that they ought not to write books at all, 

 on the ground that their past career has been too 

 purely scientific to entitle them to a hearing ? They 

 would reply with justice that I should not bring vague 

 general condemnations, but should quote examples of 

 their bad writing. I imagine that I have done this 

 more than once as regards a good many of them, and 

 I dare say I may do it again in the course of this 

 book; but though I must own to thinking that the 

 greater number of our scientific men write abominably, 

 I should not bring this against them if I believed 

 them to be doing their best to help us; many such 

 men we happily have, and doubtless always shall 

 have, but they are not those who push most to the 

 fore, and it is these last who are most angry with me 

 for writing on the subjects I have chosen. They 

 constantly tell me that I am not a man of science; 

 no one knows this better than I do, and I am quite 

 used to being told it, but I am not used to being con- 

 fronted with the mistakes that I have made in matters 

 of fact, and trust that this experience is one which I 

 may continue to spare no pains in trying to avoid. 



