To Herbert Somerton Foxwell, 27 November 1895

My dear Foxwell

I agree with all you say about the importance of the realistic & statistical sides of economics: but I regard the ‘ratiocinatory’ as necessary also, especially at Cambridge: for if neglected here, it will be neglected everywhere: & the realistic side would be cared for fairly well, even if Cambridge ceased to exist.

As to Statistics, I find they are rather like cracknels; men seem to want a change after they have had a good deal of them. I found my class last year when I gave an exceptional amount of time to them, I found the class wearied, & was glad when I turned aside.

I think there is no doubt Westergaard is beyond comparison better than Mayr & Pidgin, the only books on your list of a similar scope. I wd advise you to get it, if you lecture much on the subject. It is astonishing how little people living close to one another know of one another. If the Goddess of truth had touched me with her wand & said—enumerate the chief virtues & defects of H.S.F's teaching, I shd have put on the short list on the bad side: too great a delight in questions that have lost reality: something of a neglect of real problems, especially on their Statistical side.