226 GBOEGE JOHN EOMANES 188I- 



to my Edinburgh class. Six lectures are to be devoted 

 entirely to Weismann, and when they are pubhshed 

 (as they will be this time next year), I think it will be 

 seen that Weismannism is not such very plain saihng 

 as Weismann himself seems to think. Vines has anti- 

 cipated some of my points in his paper in 'Nature'; 

 but I hope this may have the effect of letting me see 

 what answers can be given before I shall have to 

 publish. 



Tours very truly, 



G. J. KOMANES. 



In the midst of these scientific labours and scien- 

 tific controversies, Mr. Eomanes found time for other 

 thoughts and for other work. 



At the beginning of 1889 he dehvered an address 

 at Toynbee Hall on the Ethical Teaching of Christ, 

 of which the following is an extract : 



' The services rendered by Christ to the cause of 

 morahty have been in two distinct directions. The 

 first is in an unparalleled change of moral concep- 

 tion, and the other in an unparalleled moral example, 

 joined with pecuHar powers of moral exposition and 

 enthusiasm of moral feehng which have never before 

 been approached. The originahty of Christ's teach- 

 ing might in some quarters be over-rated, but the 

 achievement it was impossible to overrate. It is 

 only before the presence of Christ that the dry bones 

 of ethical abstraction have sprung into Hfe. The 

 very essence of the new reHgion consists in re- 

 estabhshing more closely than ever the bonds be- 

 tween morahty and rehgion. One important effect of 



