(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—If Mr. Lankester repudiates
the charge of Peckaniffianism, there must be many, judging by my own feelings, only too ready with shame to acknowledge the imputation. For who could pro- fess to join in heart or voice in such words, for instance, as " 0 all ye animals, bless ye the Lord !" &c. ; or who could witness a sea of faces of one's countrywomen and countrymen, as I did last night, wrapped in enjoyment at a performance of "The Light of the World ;" or exist in any phase of so-called Christian life, with- out feeling the hideously hollow inconsistency of one's position, so long as such a wrong as vivisection is unredressed ? One's very subscriptions to most necessary hospitals and infirmaries add to the feeling of the intolerable helplessness of the state of things,— not, however, we may trust, a permanent helplessness. Middle- aged officials like myself are not, I suppose, apt to be morbidly sensitive ; but I do feel that until this abomination be put an end to, I must ever remain in my heart, with a never absent feeling of
depression and humiliation, a mocking PECKSNIFFIAN.
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