MR. HUGH PRICE HUGHES ' S BOOK OP TRAVEL. [To THE EDITOR
OF THE "SPECTATOR." J SIR,—The able reviewer of my book of travel in the Spectator of December 14th, amid many kindly comments, accuses me of "sundry inaccuracies," giving as illustrations statements about Timoleon and Eurybiades the Spartan. I made them both on the authority of Plutarch. The statement about Eury- biades is, I know, inconsistent with Herodotus. For reasons which Grote gives, Herodotus is probably right. But surely on a biographical detail like that one may without rebuke follow Plutarch. Your reviewer also charges me with saying that "the average morality of the early Christians was degraded." What I really said is that "they were im- measurably inferior to the Christians of our age, both intellectually and morally," and that "with few exceptions they were anything but Christlike characters." They lacked the distinctively " Christlike " quality of loving and for- giving their cruel persecutors. As to the alleged extravagant strength of language with which I condemned the pigeon- shooting at Monte Carlo, that depends upon the quality and quantity of our humanitarianism. It is because your reviewer's notice is on the whole so careful and kindly that I venture to put in this brief plea.—I am, Six, Sze.,
8 Tarlton Street, Gordon Square.
HUGH PRICE HUGHES.
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