454 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVIII 



seemed impossible to alter, though a reform in the 

 actual scheme and scope of teaching seemed to him 

 both possible and necessary for the future well-being 

 of the school. He writes to his eldest son on July 

 6, 1886 : 



The whole system of paying the Eton masters by the 

 profits of the boarding-houses they keep is detestable to 

 my mind, but any attempt to alter it would be fatal 



... I look to the new appointment with great anxiety. 

 It will make or mar Eton. If the new Headmaster has 

 the capacity to grasp the fact that the world has altered 

 a good deal since the Eton system was invented, and if 

 he has the sense to adapt Eton to the new state of things, 

 without letting go that which was good in the old system, 

 Eton may become the finest public school in the country. 



If on the contrary he is merely a vigorous representa- 

 tive of the old system pure and simple, the school will go 

 to the dogs. 



I think it is not unlikely that there may be a battle 

 in the Governing Body over the business, and that I shall 

 be on the losing side. But I am used to that, and shall 

 do what I think right nevertheless. 



The same letter contains his reply to a suggestion 

 that he should join a society whose object was to 

 prevent a railway from being run right through the 

 Lake district. 



I am not much inclined to join the " Lake District 

 Defence Society." I value natural beauty as much as 

 most people indeed I value it so much, and think so 

 highly of its influence that I would make beautiful scenery 

 accessible to all the world, if I could. If any engineering 

 or mining work is projected which will really destroy 

 the beauty of the Lakes, I will certainly oppose it, but I 



