38 MY LIFE 



acteristic example of his style, and as it is also the last letter 



of his I possess, I here reproduce it. 



" Hodcslica, Eastbourne. 

 " Mv Deab Wallace, 



" The instinct of self-preservation leads me, as a rule, 

 to decline to read and still more to give an opinion about books 

 that are sent to me. But, then, they do not usually come with 

 such a recommendation as yours, and if your friend Mr. Bell 

 is kind enough to send me a copy of his book, I will not only 

 read it, but pay him the highest compliment in my power, by 

 doing my best to pick holes in it ! I ' can't say no fairer/ 



" I get along very well under conditions of keeping quiet 

 here, and I am happy to say that my wife, who joins with me 

 in kind remembrances, has greatly improved in health since 

 we settled here. 



" Ever yours very faithfully, 



" T. H. Huxley/' 



Is there any reason why he should be good? If there be, then why 

 does evil exist? And there arises also the further question, that, 

 supposing there be a good reason why man should be good, is good- 

 ness possible to him? If his character be made for him, not by him, 

 how can he be good if his character, which he did not make himself, 

 be not good? Does his existence terminate at death? Does he come 

 into the world only for the sake of what he therein does — suffers — 

 enjoys? or is his existence continued after death? Is that existence, 

 if it be continued after death, to be desired or to be dreaded? Is the 

 having been born a misfortune or a blessing? What is the character 

 of God? Is he a Being to be feared — to be hated — or to be loved? 

 What are man's relations to his fellow-man? What are man's rela- 

 tions to God — that awful Being whose power over us seems to be 

 absolute? And that last, most terrible of questions, Is man's exist- 

 ence owing to God's malevolence — to His indifference — or to His 

 love?" 



Here are surely subjects enough for a volume of 420 pages, and Mr. 

 Bell discusses them all thoroughly and honestly, with wonderful 

 knowledge and sagacity, with sound logic, and in clear, forcible, and 

 often brilliant language. And he arrives at a grand — a magnificent 

 conclusion — a conclusion that comes as near to a satisfactory solution 

 of these seemingly insoluble problems as with our limited faculties 

 we can attain to. 



