MR M'CABE’S LECTURES.

Evening Star, Issue 18334, 23 July 1923, Page 3

MR M'CABE’S LECTURES.

TO XHK EDITOR.

Sir, —I notice the übiquitous Mr Robinson is once again after a scalp, the elusive victim this time being Mr Joseph M'Cabe. Drawn doubtless from an inspired source, a formidable list of writers and publications (fancy quoting the ‘.Month’!) find place in dismissing Mr M'Cabe as a fool. He may be. The man who wrote ‘The (Martyrdom of Ferrar’ and ‘Twelve Years in a Monastery’ is necessarily regarded in certain circles ns a sterile hybrid. It may, however, be said that when the same Joseph (M'Cabe was known as Father Antony S.J., nud occupied the position of rector of a Roman Catholic seminary, these same critics viewed him as having good prospects of canonisation. Ycrb. sap.—l am, etc., Sense. July 20. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Now that Mr M'Cabe has left Dunedin Mr Robinson writes to remind us that Mr M'Oabe’s lectures were not scientific, because Mr M'Cabe is a scientist in any real sense. Mr Robinson’s logic is that a scientific truth cannot be given other than by the scientist himself. Mr Robinson evidently does not want science to be popular; he may please a few of his admirers and take a load off their minds, but he can rest assured that scientific truths are very popular to-day, especially that science which deals with anthropology and the evolution of man. Mr M'Cabe to-day has no serious rival in the world as an educator on scientific matters. At the present time his return is looked for in England, and in America the universities have him booked up tor a year nr so. Regarding the writer who stated that Mr M'Cabe translated Haeckel, not having the least idea what the author was talking about, perhaps Mr Robinson or his friend in the ‘ Month ’ is not aware that Professor Haeckel wrote a special dictionary of his own, to go with his works in order that his fellow countrymen may understand the lists of new words he had invented. The translation of Professor Haeckel’s writings on the most difficult subject known was no menu effort, therefore, on the part of Joseph (M'Cabe, who translated Professor Haeckel’s works from German into English and several other languages. As regards live scientists, to my mind it is better to qnqfe live men than dead ones. At the same time Joseph .M'Cabe never fails to mention the good work of those past as well ns those present. Regarding the Java man, Mr (M'Cabe said that this skull was in the British Museum, and for some reason or other the authorities would insist. upon ticketing it as the skull of a Gibbon. To-day it wears the ticket of ancient man (of some 400,000 years ago), and alongside it now are the skulls, bones, and tools of some thirty others..— I am, etc,, Agnostic. July 20.