222 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. IX 



assure you making a soul for anything is an amazingly 

 difficult operation. You are always in danger of doing 

 as the man in the story of Frankenstein did, and making 

 something which will eventually devour you instead of 

 being useful to you. 



And here I may give a letter which refers to the 

 movement for technical education, and the getting 

 the City Companies under way in the matter. In 

 the words of Mr. George Howell, M.P., 1 it has an 

 additional interest "as indicating the nature of his 

 own epitaph " ; as a man " whose highest ambition 

 ever was to uplift the masses of the people and 

 promote their welfare intellectually, socially, and 

 industrially." 



4 MARLBOKOUGH PLACE, N.W., 

 Jan. 2, 1880. 



DEAR MR. HOWELL Your letter is a welcome New 

 Year's gift. There are two things I really care about 

 one is the progress of scientific thought, and the other is 

 the bettering of the condition of the masses of the people 

 by bettering them in the way of lifting themselves out 

 of the misery which has hitherto been the lot of the 

 majority of them. Posthumous fame is not particularly 

 attractive to me, but, if I am to be remembered at all, 

 I would rather it should be as " a man who did his best 

 to help the people " than by other title. So you see it 

 is no small pleasure and encouragement to me to find 

 that I have been, and am, of any use in this direction. 



Ever since my experience on the School Board, I have 

 been convinced that I should lose rather than gain by 

 entering directly into politics. . . . But I suppose I have 



1 Who sent it to the Times (July 3, 1895) just after Huxley's 

 death. 



