Trinity yet, lassie, by a long chalk."

"When I used to read those scientific books, and those queer
philosophies to father, it seemed to me that bodies were all that
mattered. That was when I was reading biology books and lectures. It
seemed so useless to me--just living, and handing on life, and living no
more."

"That was the idea when I was at the hospital. At a hospital, of
course, bodies do count tremendously. But in my day more than now
because we were in the reactionary stage from blood-letting,
incantations and so on. I remember how Biology came to me with a
sense of crystal precision and inevitability in those days."

He paused. Marcella asked rather doubtfully:

"But do you think that Biology is wrong?"

"Oh, Marcella, your 'rights' and 'wrongs' are so funny, if you only knew
it! You might as well say, 'Is fire wrong?' It's there. There's no
getting away from it. When I was a wee laddie at home I had to write
copy-book lessons on Saturday afternoons to keep me out of mischief. One
I wrote so often that it keeps coming into my mind in the most foolish
way often. 'Fire is a good servant but a bad master.' That was the
sentence. The times I've written it, thick down strokes, thin upstrokes!
Well, that's like any of these ologies--biology especially. It's a good
teacher. You don't have to let it be a taskmaster."

"I'd like to learn ologies, doctor. I'd like to learn to the roots of
things. All the things I know--legends, history, poetry, haven't any