e floral decorations. But, in his concluding
sentences, the Duke soars into a Tyrtaean strain which roused even my
dull soul.

It was high time, indeed, that some revolt should be raised
against that Reign of Terror which had come to be
established in the scientific world under the abuse of a
great name. Professor Huxley has not joined this revolt
openly, for as yet, indeed, it is only beginning to raise
its head. But more than once--and very lately--he has
uttered a warning voice against the shallow dogmatism that
has provoked it. The time is coming when that revolt will be
carried further. Higher interpretations will be established.
Unless I am much mistaken, they are already coming in sight
(p. 339).

I have been living very much out of the world for the last two or
three years, and when I read this denunciatory outburst, as of one
filled with the spirit of prophecy, I said to myself, "Mercy upon us,
what has happened? Can it be that X. and Y. (it would be wrong to
mention the names of the vigorous young friends which occurred to me)
are playing Danton and Robespierre; and that a guillotine is erected
in the courtyard of Burlington House for the benefit of all
anti-Darwinian Fellows of the Royal Society? Where are the secret
conspirators against this tyranny, whom I am supposed to favour, and
yet not have the courage to join openly? And to think of my poor
oppressed friend, Mr. Herbert Spencer, 'compelled to speak with bated
breath' (p. 338) certainly for the first time in my thirty-odd years'
acquaintance with him!" My alarm and horror at the supposition that
while I had been fiddling (or at any rate physicking), my beloved Rome
had been burning, in this fashion, may be imagined.

I am sure the Duke of Argyll will be glad to hear that the anxiety he
created was of extremely short duration. It is my privilege to have
access to the best sources of information, and nobody in the
scientific world can tell me anything about either the "Reign of
Terror" or "the Revolt." In fact, the scientific world laughs most
indecorously at the notion of the existence of either; and some are so
lost to the sense of the scientific dignity, that they descend to the
use of transatlantic slang, and call it a "bogus scare." As to my
friend Mr. Herbert Spencer, I have every reason to know that, in the
"Factors of Organic Evolution," he has said exactly what was in his
mind, without