11 MAY 1974, Page 3

Passmore and Flew

Sir: In his perceptive review of Passmore's Man's Responsibility for Nature (May 4), Professor Flew makes an understandable error when he says of the last chapter 'This is substantially the article ... which appears in the April Encounter.'

In fact the 'article' which appears in the April Encounter is simply a reprint of the last chapter of the book, which Encounter paid to serialise. The error is entirely due to Encounter who, in spite of a specific request, omitted to mention the derivation of their 'article' — thus making a nonsense, incidentally, of the opening paragraph which refers, by implication, to the rest of the book. I should add that they did the same when they serialised Professor Passmore's previous book, The Perfectibility of Man, four years ago.

Cohn Haycraft Duckworth and Company Limited, The Old Piano Factory, 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NWI.