Of the affliction caused by persons who think that what they have picked
up from popular exposition qualifies them for discussing the great
problems of science, it may be said, as the Radical toast said of
the power of the Crown in bygone days, that it "has increased, is
increasing, and ought to be diminished." The oddities of "English as she
is spoke" might be abundantly paralleled by those of "Science as she is
misunderstood" in the sermon, the novel, and the leading article; and a
collection of the grotesque travesties of scientific conceptions, in the
shape of essays on such trifles as "the Nature of Life" and the "Origin
of All Things," which reach me, from time to time, might well be bound
up with them.