1 90 LITE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. Vlli 



greater marvels than the miracles of theology ; only 

 the evidence for them is very different. 



The following letter was written in acknowledg- 

 ment of a paper by the Eev. E. McClure, which 

 endeavoured to place the belief in an individual 

 permanence upon the grounds that we know of no 

 leakage anywhere in nature ; that matter is not a 

 source, but a transmitter of energy ; and that the 

 brain, so far from originating thought, is a mere 

 machine responsive to something external to itself, a 

 revealer of something which it does not produce, like 

 a musical instrument. This "something" is the 

 universal of thought, which is identified with the 

 general \6yo<i of the fourth gospel. Moral perfection 

 consists in assimilation to this ; sin is the falling short 

 of perfect revealing of the eternal X0709. 



Huxley's reply interested his correspondent not 

 only for the brief opinion on the philosophic question, 

 but for the personal touch in the explanation of the 

 motives which had guided his life-work, and his 

 "kind feeling towards such of the clergy as en- 

 deavoured to seek honestly for a natural basis to 

 their faith." 



HoDESLEA, Eastbourne, 

 March 17, 1891. 



Dear Mr. IMcClure — I am very much obliged for 

 your letter, which belongs to a different category from 

 most of those which I receive from your side of the 

 hedge that, unfortunately, separates thinking men. 



So far as I know myself, after making due deduction 

 for the ambition of youth and a fiery temper, which 



