MR. H. E. GLASSON'S SUGGESTION ABOUT ROMANES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 170, 20 July 1910, Page 9

MR. H. E. GLASSON'S SUGGESTION ABOUT ROMANES.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Mr. Glasson strives to account for the return of Romanes to the Christian faith by attributing to him "a strong emotional bias" that was exaggerated by "the brain affection from which he appears to have suffered towards the close of his life." -The bold implication that a clear-headed man cannot be a Christian Deliever may safely be left to answer itself. All I am concerned about here is to combat the utterly unfounded -and unworthy suggestion juet mentioned. While the professor was making notes of his "Thoughts on Religion," he was also engaged in what is perhaps his best work on science—"Darwin and after Darwin." Does the hemiplegia account for the able statement given there of natural selection?

' Again, when we note that Komanes died in 1594, and that in 1889 he wrote three articles for the "Nineteenth Century," in one of which he passed a severe criticism upon his own earlier work, entitled "A Candid Examination of Theism," we see that the hemiplegia cannot be alleged as the cause of an emotional bias. Not until June, 1892, did the first warnings of serious illness come. Mr. Glasson has thus made a suggestion for which he cannot bring a scrap of evidence. As for "the vigorous and acute thought" of the antiTheistic volume, it is instructive to note that Darwin wrote a letter to the author in TS7B, wherein he said that if he had oised the same argument he would bs unable to answer a critical theologian. Romanes came to see what lie frankly admitted, namely, that he had made the mistake of relying upon. Spencer's doctrine of "persistence of force." The term "persistence" was suggested by Huxley. Prof. Tait observed that there is only one known, instance of its action, and this was on the occasion of Baron Munchausen's journey to the moon. The worthy got there by holding on to his boots. —I am, etc., D. D. SCOTT. The Manse, Oneiunga. •;" . .