I have had to watch with some attention--in fact I
have been favoured with a good deal of it myself--the sort of criticism
with which biologists and biological teachings are visited. I am told
every now and then that there is a "brilliant article"[5] in so-and-so,
in which we are all demolished. I used to read these things once, but I
am getting old now, and I have ceased to attend very much to this cry of
"wolf." When one does read any of these productions, what one finds
generally, on the face of it, is that the brilliant critic is devoid of
even the elements of biological knowledge, and that his brilliancy is
like the light given out by the crackling of thorns under a pot of which
Solomon speaks. So far as I recollect, Solomon makes use of the image
for purposes of comparison; but I will not proceed further into that
matter.
Two things must be obvious: in the first place, that every man who has
the interests of truth at heart must earnestly desire that every
well-founded and just criticism that can be made should be made; but
that, in the second place, it is essential to anybody's being able to
benefit by criticism, that the critic should know what he is talking
about, and be in a position to form a mental image of the facts
symbolised by the words he uses.
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