periods, and connected with different subjects,
yet all united in the bond of the Faith? To point to these men--and a
host of other names might be cited--is to overthrow at once and finally
the edifice of falsehood reared by enemies of the Church, who, before
erecting it, might reasonably have been asked to look to the security of
their foundations.

Still there is the edifice, and as every edifice must rest on some kind
of foundation or another, even if that foundation be nothing but sand,
it may be useful and interesting to inquire, as I now propose to do,
what foundation there is--if in fact there is any--for this particular
allegation.

We might commence by interrogating the persons who make it. The
probability is that the reply which would at once be drawn from most of
them would amount to this: "Everybody knows it to be true." If the
interrogated person is amongst those less imperfectly informed we shall
probably be referred to Huxley or to some other writer. Or we may even
find ourselves confronted with that greater knowledge--or less
inspissated ignorance--which babbles about Galileo, the Inquisition, the
_Index_, and the _imprimatur_.

Galileo and his case we shall consider later on, for he and it are
really germane to the question with which we are dealing. The
Inquisition has really nothing to do with the matter. The _Index_ we
also reserve for a later part of this essay. With the _imprimatur_ we
may now deal, since there is no doubt that there is a genuine
misunderstanding on this subject on the part of some people who are
misled perhaps through ignorance of Latin and quite certainly through
ignorance of what the whole matter amounts to. Let us begin by reminding
ourselves that, though the unchanging Church is now, so far as I am
aware, the only body which issues an _imprimatur_, there were other
instances of the exercise of such a privilege even in recent or
comparatively recent days. There were Royal licences to print with which
we need not concern ourselves. But, what is important, there was a time
when the scientific authority of the day assumed the right of issuing an
_imprimatur_. I take the first book which occurs to me, Tyson's
_Anatomie of a Pygmie_, and for the sake of those who are not acquainted
with it, I may add that this book is not only the foundation-stone of
Comparative Anatomy, but also, through its appendix _A Philological
Essay Concerning the Pygmies, the Cynocephali, the Satyrs, and