"Did you not question the possibility of the description I gave of my grotesque drunkards, and of the form of my subterranean guide?" my guest retorted.
"Yes; but I spoke of men, you describe animals."
"Man is an animal, and between the various species of animals that you say are well known, greater distinctions can be drawn than between my guide and surface-earth man. Besides, had you allowed me to proceed to a description of animal life beneath the surface of the earth, I would have shown you that my guide partook of their attributes. Of the creatures described, one only was of the intra-earth origin—the Mole,—and like my guide, it is practically eyeless."
"Go on," I said; "'tis useless for me to resist. And yet"—
"And yet what?"
"And yet I have other subjects to discuss."
"Proceed."
"I do not like the way in which you constantly criticise science, especially in referring thereto the responsibilities of the crazed anatomist.[13] It seems to me that he was a monomaniac, gifted, but crazed, and that science was unfortunate in being burdened with such an incubus."
[13] This section (see [p. 190]) was excised, being too painful.—J. U. L.
"True, and yet science advances largely by the work of such apparently heartless creatures. Were it not for investigators who overstep the bounds of established methods, and thus criticise their predecessors, science would rust and disintegrate. Besides, why should not science be judged by the rule she applies to others?"