MR M'CABE’S LECTURES

Evening Star, Issue 18336, 25 July 1923, Page 8

MR M'CABE’S LECTURES

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I am loth to trespass again upon yonr hospitality, but 1 Jcara (hat tiiero has been a further bravo attack upon me in your columns now that I am Car awav. “ Common Sense ” lias a fine, fund bf irony. It is a pity that ho has not, an equal fund of honor in controversy. Ho eumlenso.s into an “ otc ” the real argument which 1 us ed - which science uses to prove the common ancestry of man and the ape, ami then makes merry over what wa.s not my argument. Had he quoted my words fairly, his sapient little proverb would Have look.' 1 verv foolish. It is not the general similarity of structure, but the common possession of a large number of useless organs, which compels us to look for a common ancestor. Similarly with Haeckel’s supposed " forgeries.” k was the accuser, Dr Brass (a name t would respectfully recommend t.i certain Dunedin citizens as a. ‘ imm de plume”), who was laughed out of the scientific court. .Moreover, I never said Dial tiermany could pul 25 per cent, of its population in the, field; and what I did say was eventually acknowledged, even by IMaire Delloc, to be true, in fine, while I am obliged to you for pointing out that being a joke to (1, K. Chesterton, to whom everything is a joke, is rot puite the same tiling as being ,: a joke ;n London ” (marvellous logic—or something else), may I add that I was at the. time on very friendly terms with (J.K C., amt he poked less fun at me than he is accustomed to do to others?—l am, etc., Josewi .M'Cakk. Christchurch, July 23.