168 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. VU 



services to their country. I wonder what Dr. Abbott would 

 think, and jjerhaps yay, if Ins youthful University friends 

 were spoken of as " raw curates and unlearned country 

 squires." 



When David Hume's housemaid was wroth because 

 somebody chalked up "St. David's" on his house, the 

 philosopher is said to have remarked, — " Never mind, 

 lassie, better men than I have been made saints of before 

 now." And, perhaps, if I had recollected that "better 

 men than I have been made texts of before now," a slight 

 flavour of wrath which may be perceptible would have 

 vanished from my first letter. If Dr. Abbott has found 

 any phrase of mine too strong, I beg him to set it against 

 " out and out pessimist " and " Heine's dragoon," and let 

 us cry quits. He is the last person with whom I should 

 wish to quarrel. 



Two interesting criticisms of books follow; one 

 The First Three Gospels, by the Rev. Estlin Carpenter ; 

 the other on Use and Disuse, directed against the 

 doctrine of use - inheritance, by Mr. Piatt Ball, who 

 not only sent the book but appealed to him for 

 advice as to his future course in undertaking a larger 

 work on the evolution of man. 



Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, 

 Oct. 11, 1890. 



Mt dear Mr. Carpenter — Accept my best thanks 

 for Tlie First Three Gospels, which strikes me as an 

 admirable exposition of the case, full, clear, and calm. 

 Indeed the latter quality gives it here and there a touch 

 of humour. You say the most damaging things in a way 

 so gentle that the orthodox reader must feel like the eels 

 who were skinned by the fair Molly — lost between pain 

 and admiration. 



