A Triangular Duel
Windle, Bertram C. A.
THOSE readers who still recall the celebrated triangular duel in which Mr. Midshipman Easy played a part may perhaps be reminded of it by the similar conflict in which three persons whose...
...Belloc might have said some of these things himself in Nature, and would have said them much better than I can...
...The sage who can discover a formula which will induce men, especially men of science, to cast an eye over Catholic credentials and discover what we really have to say for ourselves, will deserve well of religion, for he will go a long way in the direction of the conversion of the civilized world—which wants it badly...
...Of course it did not, as has just been shown...
...No doubt the editor considered himself justified, but it must be admitted that the descent of the guillotine was almost as inconvenient for Mr...
...Wells as an inaccurate writer of history, giving many hundreds of instances where his narrative was at fault...
...Belloc contributed a re-rejoinder in the shape of a little book called Mr...
...Wells's Outline of History...
...By this time the stage was ready for the appearance of the third duellist, and he arrived in the person of Professor Arthur Keith, F.R.S., president-elect of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and an anatomist of high distinction...
...but science was in no sort of way involved...
...It is a marvelous piece of research, destined to remain a classic in Its field...
...Mivart well...
...By no stretch of imagination could it be described as "a compilation...
...Wells is the author of An Outline of History all the world is aware, and some will remember the castigation which it received from Mr...
...H. G. Wells and Sir Arthur Keith, the incoming president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science—have recently been engaged...
...indeed it would have been difficult to refute the points brought forward by his critic...
...Wells declared in reply that Mr...
...Wells on the subject of natural selection...
...Of these it may be said, to commence with, that the attack is free from personalities while the reply bristles with them...
...That Mr...
...He is also wrong in the matter of Huxley, Mivart and Suarez, because he has read nothing but the cocksure Huxley account of the matter...
...Hilaire Belloc, Mr...
...But his major premise, that modern thought is unassailable when it affirms the truth of evolution, is one which cannot be said to be proved to a demonstration, and part of the case against it is this very book with which we are dealing...
...Wells's rejoinder Mr...
...By this time, the historical sector of the battle-field having been evacuated by the defending troops, but one corner of conflict remained, and that was the treatment by Mr...
...Belloc Objects to the Outline of History...
...Wells's Outline of History...
...Belloc quoted Professor Vialleton against evolution ; Sir Arthur demurred...
...Nothing could be more inaccurate...
...Mr, Wells made a not very adequate reply...
...Most emphatically they do not know, though they do not seem to consider that ignorance the slightest barrier to writing about us...
...Belloc about six years ago in the columns of the London Mercury...
...Wells tries to explain or justify...
...Wells madei a great deal too much of the theory, Mr...
...Belloc did not know what he was writing about, and even that he had invented the counter-arguments himself...
...Further, there are hundreds of instances of bad history cited in the attack, not a single one of which Mr...
...Wells issued his reply in a little volume entitled Mr...
...That Is the book from which Mr...
...It is a curious fact that men of science who would blush to find themselves ignorant of the exact feelings toward religion of, say, the Tehuelche, do not seem to feel any kind of embarrassment in writing of the Catholic Church, after all a biggish concern, without previously making any kind of an effort to find out what it teaches...
...Of course if he is quite certain that modern thought is unquestionably right, then he can do nothing else than dissent from his scientific brother...
...Belloc, as a pious son of the Church, should venture to express himself as finding no religious difficulty in connection with evolution, he thereby proves that he himself has never seen the works of Dorlodot, Wasmann or even the humble writer of these lines...
...The public, therefore, had before it attack and reply...
...Much later in his life, when Mivart unfortunately ventured into the fields of theology and eschatology, he did get off the track and leave the Church...
...Sir Arthur is here quite wrong...
...The situation sums itself up as has just been said: It would almost seem as if many outside our ranks do not even want to know what we Catholics believe...
...Belloc as for some of the aristocrats of whom he has written in other works...
...Similarly, with regard to Mivart, whom Sir Arthur supposes to have left the Church on account of scientific difficulties...
...Belloc Still Objects to Mr...
...Belloc to exhibit a hst of writers of first-rate importance who by no means agreed with Mr...
...Wells of the Darwinian theory of natural selection...
...but right on the heels of Sir Arthur's response to his criticism came the editorial comment: "No useful scientific purpose would be served by further correspondence on the points at issue...
...However, there is one point which emerges worthy of attention in connection with Sir Arthur's criticism—a point having to do with a work of the distinguished anatomist of Montpelller, Professor Vialleton...
...in fact, as far as the history of the world goes, he let judgment go by default, and it must be supposed could not do otherwise...
...Belloc's articles, slightly altered, also appeared in volume form under the title of A Companion to Mr...
...Belloc attacked him for ignorance of the fact that the value of this theory had been denied by many and discounted by far more...
...Shortly afterward, Mr...
...Sir Arthur proceeds to tell the world that he prefers Vialleton's earlier to his later ideas because they are more in consonance with modern thought...
...Recently, on the publication of the last edition of the Outline, Mr...
...There is no law compelling him to know anything about these books, but there is at least a decent convention that a reviewer shall know something about a subject before writing about it...
...and which he described, as he himself will admit when he does see It, In very incorrect terms...
...Sir Arthur admitted as much, and Indeed from his later remarks it is clear that he had still failed to come in contact with the book, for if he had, a man of his eminence and experience would never have alluded to it as "a compilation...
...Belloc quoted...
...Belloc seems to share the feeling — that the editor of The Universe did not see his way to permit the reply to appear in his columns...
...Belloc hardly put sufficient stress on the merits which it possesses...
...Midshipman Easy played a part may perhaps be reminded of it by the similar conflict in which three persons whose names are much before the world—Mr...
...About two hundred pages of this volume are taken up by a Critique Morpohologlque du Transformisme, which is a carefully reasoned attack on the modern doctrine of evolution...
...It was, of course, an easy task for Mr...
...Sir Arthur had never seen...
...He can certainly plead that, if he refused it, so did the editors of half a dozen other neutral journals, not considering, it must be supposed, that the duel was one which would interest their readers...
...For example, when Sir Arthur voices astonishment that Mr...
...It was natural that Mr...
...He never had the slightest scientific difficulty, and he himself told the writer that the then Pontiff sent him the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy on account of his Genesis of Species—the only scientific book he ever wrote which might be supposed to run counter in any sort of way to Church teaching...
...The present writer is not going to discuss that question here beyond saying that If, as he most certainly does, Mr...
...The writer knew Dr...
...Wells should desire to reply to these statements and equally natural that he should wish to do so in the columns of the paper where the attack appeared...
...Belloc affirmed that he did so because obviously he had never seen the Professor's latest work on the subject...
...Belloc returned to the fray with a series of articles which appeared in The Universe, a weekly Catholic paper published in London, in which he attacked Mr...
...To Mr...
...It would be hard to explain, for example, save by open confession of gross ignorance why he had used "Immaculate Conception" and "Virgin Birth" as alternative terms for the same event...
...The book in question Is a massive work of nearly seven hundred closely printed pages dealing with the morphology of the limbs and limb-girdles of fourfooted vertebrates...
...Wells had held this up as the final word of biological theory...
...which, clearly...
...Thereupon Mr...
...We may regret — Mr...
...Reviewing, in Nature, the leading English scientific journal, the three books named in this article, he made no reference to the historical matters they broached, but instead focussed his attention on the natural selection quarrel...
Vol. 6 • July 1927 • No. 10
