1880 CORRESPONDENCE WITH DARWIN 281 



principles and results, which have so profoundly 

 modified society and have created modern civilisa- 

 tion, will give a "criticism of life," as Matthew 

 Arnold defined " the end and aim of all literature," 

 that is to say culture, unattainable by any form of 

 education which neglects it. In short, although the 

 " culture " of former periods might be purely literary, 

 that of to-day must be based, to a great extent, upon 

 natural science. 



This autumn several letters passed between him 

 and Darwin. The latter, contrary to his usual 

 custom, wrote a letter to Nature, in reply to an 

 unfair attack which had been made upon evolution 

 by Sir Wyville Thomson in his Introduction to Tlie 

 Voyage of the Challenger (see Darwin, Life and Letters, 

 iii. 242), and asked Huxley to look over the conclud- 

 ing sentences of the letter, and to decide whether 

 they should go with the rest to the printer or not. 

 "My request," he writes (Nov. 5), "will not cost 

 you much trouble i.e. to read two pages for I 

 know that you can decide at once." Huxley struck 

 them out, replying on the 14th, "Your pinned- on 

 paragraph was so good that, if I had written it 

 myself, I should have been unable to refrain from 

 sending it on to the printer. But it is much easier 

 to be virtuous on other people's account ; and though 

 Thomson deserved it and more, I thought it would 

 be better to refrain. If I say a savage thing, it is 

 only ' Pretty Fanny's way ' ; but if you do, it is not 

 likely to be forgotten." 



