Darwin. {248a} In my reply to Mr. Romanes I said,
"I will not characterise this accusation in the terms which it merits."
{248b} Mr. Romanes, in the following number of _Nature_, withdrew his
accusation and immediately added, "I was induced to advance it because it
seemed the only rational motive that could have led to the publication of
such a book." Again I will not characterise such a withdrawal in the
terms it merits, but I may say in passing that if Mr. Romanes thinks the
motive he assigned to me "a rational one," his view of what is rational
and mine differ. It does not commend itself as "rational" to me, that a
man should spend a good deal of money and two or three years of work in
the hope of deserving a contemptuous refutation from any one--not even
from Mr. Darwin. But then Mr. Romanes has written such a lot about
reason and intelligence.
The reply to Evolution, Old and New, which I actually did get from Mr.
Darwin, was one which I do not see advertised among Mr. Darwin's other
works now, and which I venture to say never will be advertised among them
again--not at least until it has been altered. I have seen no reason to
leave off advertising Evolution, Old and New, and Unconscious Memory.
I have never that I know of seen Mr. Romanes, but am told that he is
still young. I can find no publication of his indexed in the British
Museum Catalogue earlier than 1874, and then it was only about Christian
Prayer.
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