1890 LETTER TO MR. PLATT BALL 285 



Gynaecomasty. Here practical disuse in the male ever since the 

 origin of the mammalia has not abolished the mamma or de- 

 stroyed its functional potentiality in extremely rare cases. 



I absolutely disbelieve in use-inheritance as the evidence 

 stands. Spencer is bound to it a priori his psychology goes to 

 pieces without it. 



Now as to the letter. I am no pessimist but also no opti- 

 mist. The world might be much worse, and it might be much 

 better. Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an 

 article of exclusively human manufacture and very much to 

 our credit. 



If you will accept the results of the experience of an old 

 man who has had a very chequered existence and has nothing 

 to hope for except a few years of quiet downhill there is noth- 

 ing of permanent value (putting aside a few human affections), 

 nothing that satisfies quiet reflection except the sense of having 

 worked according to one's capacity and light, to make things 

 clear and get rid of cant and shams of all sorts. That was the 

 lesson I learned from Carlyle's books when I was a boy, and it 

 has stuck by me all my life. 



Therefore, my advice to you is go ahead. You may make 

 more of failing to get money, and of succeeding in getting abuse 

 until such time in your life as (if you are teachable) you have 

 ceased to care much about either. The job you propose to under- 

 take is a big one and will tax all your energies and all your 

 patience. 



But, if it were my case, I should take my chance of failing 

 in a worthy task rather than of succeeding in lower things. 



And if at any time I can be of use to you (even to the an- 

 swering of letters) let me know. But in truth I am getting rusty 

 in science from disuse. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



P.S. Yes Mr. Gladstone has dug up the hatchet. We 

 shall see who gets the scalps. 



By the way, you have not referred to plants, wliich are a 

 stronghold for you. What is the good of use inheritance, say, 

 in orchids? 



The interests which had formerly been divided between 

 biology and other branches of science and philosophy, were 

 diverted from the one channel only to run stronger in the 

 rest. Stagnation was the one thing impossible to him; his 



