448 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xxiv 



his high moral standard, his scorn of everything mean or shifty, 

 his firm determination to speak what he held to be truth at 

 whatever cost of popularity. And for these things " I loved the 

 man, and do honour to his memory, on this side idolatry, as 

 much as any." 



Even those who scarcely knew him apart from his books, 

 underwent the influence of that ' determination to speak 

 what he held to be truth." I may perhaps be allowed to 

 quote in illustration two passages from letters to myself 

 one written by a woman, the other by a man ; 



" ' The surest-footed guide ' is exactly true, to my feeling. 

 Everybody else, among the great, used to disappoint one some- 

 where. He never ! ' 



" He was so splendidly brave that one can never repay one's 

 debt to him for his example. He made all pretence about re- 

 ligious belief, and the kind of half-thinking things out, and put- 

 ting up in a slovenly way with half-formed conclusions, seem 

 the base thing which it really is." 



