1873 SCIENTIFIC WORK AFTER 1870 111 



disputes. But to say truth I am not greatly concerned 

 about any reputation except that of being entirely honest 

 and straightforward, and that reputation I think and 

 hope I have. 



For the rest . . . the part I have to play is not to 

 found a new school of thought or to reconcile the antagon- 

 isms of the old schools. We are in the midst of a 

 gigantic movement greater than that which preceded and 

 produced the Reformation, and really only the continua- 

 tion of that movement. But there is nothing new in the 

 ideas which lie at the bottom of the movement, nor is 

 any reconcilement possible between free thought and 

 traditional authority. One or other will have to succumb 

 after a struggle of unknown duration, which will have as 

 side issues vast political and social troubles. I have no 

 more doubt that free thought will win in the long run 

 than I have that I sit he -i e writing to you, or that this 

 free thought will organise itself into a coherent system, 

 embracing human life and the world as one harmonious 

 whole. But this organisation will be the work of 

 generations of men, and those who further it most will 

 be those who teach men to rest in no lie, and to rest in 

 no verbal delusions. I may be able to help a little in 

 this direction perhaps I may have helped already. For 

 the present, however, I am disposed to draw myself back 

 entirely into my own branch of physical science. There 

 is enough and to spare for me to do in that line, and, for 

 years to come, I do not mean to be tempted out of it. 



Strangely enough, this was the one thing he was 

 destined not to do. Official work multiplied about 

 him. From 1870 to 1884 only two years passed 

 without his serving on one or two Koyal Commissions. 

 He was Secretary of the Royal Society from 1871 to 

 1880, and President from 1883 to his retirement, 

 owing to ill-health, in 1885. He became Dean as 



