l among his
technical ten pins; and repeated defiantly:

"Is old Religion but a spectre now,
Haunting the solitude of darkened minds,
Mocked out of memory by the sceptic day?
Is there no corner safe from peeping Doubt?"

"But, Miss Neville, I must be allowed to say that you do not in the
least grasp the vastness of this wonderful law of 'Natural
Selection,' of the 'Survival of the Fittest,' which is omnipotent
in its influence."

"Ah, but my reverence for Civilization cries out against your savage
enactments! Look at the bulwarks of defence which Asylums and
Hospitals lift against the operation of your merciless decree. The
maimed, the feeble, the demented, become the wards of religion and
charity; the Unfittest of humanity are carefully preserved, and the
race is retarded it its development. Civilized legislation and
philanthropy are directly opposed to your 'Survival of the Fittest;'
and since I am not a tattooed princess of the South Pacific, allowed
to regale myself with _croquettes_ of human brains, or a _ragout_ of
baby's ears and hands, well flavoured with wine and lemon, I
accepted civilization. I believe China is the best place for the
successful testing of your theory, for there the unfittest have for
centuries been destroyed; yet I have not heard that the superior, the
'Coming Race,' has appeared among the tea farms."

Elevating his voice, the small gentleman appealed to his host.

"I thought Mr. Palma too zealous a disciple of Modern Science to
permit Miss Neville to indulge such flagrant heresies. She has
absolutely denied that the mental development of a horse, or a dog,
or ape is strictly analogous to that of man----"

"Quote me correctly, I pray you, Doctor; to that of women, if you
please," interrupted Olga.

"She believes that it is not a difference of degree (which we know to
be the case), but of kind; not comparative, but structural--you
understand. How can you tolerate such schism in your household?
Moreover, she scouts the great Spencerian organon."

"Olga is too astute not to discover the discrepancy between the
theory of Scientists and the usages of civilized society, whose
sanitary provisions thwart and neutralize your law in its operations
upon the human race. 'Those whom it saves from dying prematurely, it
preserves to propagate dismal and imperfect lives. In our
complicated modern communities, a race is being run between moral and
mental