324 RETIREMENT, TO 1897 : OF BOOKS, ETC. 



masses are not only ignorant, but wrong-headed, it could 

 only be a curse to all ; and Thomas Hooker arguing from 

 the point of view of a small body united in sympathy and 

 well superstition, is no sign of originality, and still less of 

 sound reasoning. 



He disbelieved in the egalitarian tendencies of reforming 

 Radicalism as emphatically as in the true Tory's impene- 

 trability to ideas. In his official relations he had suffered 

 more from the activity of the one party than from the passivity 

 of the other, though neither offered special sympathy. Indeed 

 he writes to W. E. Darwin (June 9, 1895) : 



My experience of the Public Departments is, that they 

 are riddled with small defects, and much idleness and 

 that in this respect many want overhauling, but not all. 

 But that, as regards great reforms of methods, the chances are 

 that the new arrangements, not founded on experience, do 

 as much evil as good and are certain to cost more. There 

 must always be a tremendous friction between a spending 

 and a conserving Dept., and I do not see how a change 

 in the relations of the chiefs is to prevent that, or even to 

 mitigate it much. We are apt to forget that if Red-tape 

 has prejudice on its side, it also has experience. 



During his long experience he found that with rare excep- 

 tions the official and governing classes cared little and under- 

 stood less what science ultimately meant to the nation's 

 life. To men of their upbringing and circumstances science 

 was something alien, intrusive, disturbing to the established 

 order of education, thought, and action ; in its highest flights, 

 a thing abstract and dusty, typified by museums and pro- 

 fessors ; and when it descended to earth, a useful familiar 

 labouring in the forges of civilisation. There was no question 

 of a national organisation of science for future national de- 

 velopment ; aid was limited to the obvious by conscientious 

 administrators to whom economy only meant the cutting 

 down of expenditure. But when the question arose of reform- 

 ing public departments from above, common sense forbade 

 him to expect a magical transformation. 



