444 ON THE METHOD OF PAL/EON TOLOGY 



I have left untouched many points in Dr. Falconer's essay, not 

 because they cannot be answered, but because I conceive they will 

 answer themselves. Under this category I leave such passages as 

 those at p. 488, the singular bad taste of which will cause Dr. Falconer, 

 in his cooler moments, far more annoyance than they have occasioned 

 to any one else, except his friends. But I cannot pass without more 

 grave comment, the allusion, at p. 477, to the audience which I had 

 the honour to address. Dr. Falconer's apparent ignorance of the 

 nature of the Friday evening audience at the Royal Institution — one 

 which the best men in this country approach gravely and earnestly, 

 knowing as they do that, whatever be the " mixture " of their hearers, 

 there is pretty sure to be among them a fair jury of their peers,— can 

 be his sole excuse for the tone of his remarks. 



