18 APRIL 1891, Page 15

[To THU EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] "Sin,—The story you

gave in the Spectator of April 11th, with reference to the answer given to Professor Bonamy Price, is too good not to be rendered accurately, and if Sir Lyon Playfair had only seen the notice in the Times the day after his lamented death, he would have read it as related by the Professor himself. He said (I am quoting from memory, but I believe quite correctly) :—" I once asked a class of young students to tell me in as few words as possible, 'What was the moving force in man which produced. civilisation ?" Pro- .gressive desire,' was the reply, the best ever given to me."—