1886 LETTER TO H. SPENCER 471 



proof returned herewith I really have no criticisms to 

 make (miracles, after all, may not be incredible). I have 

 read your account of your boyhood with great interest, 

 and I find nothing there which does not contribute to 

 the understanding of the man. No doubt about the 

 truth of evolution in your own case. 



Another point which has interested me immensely is 

 the curious similarity to many recollections of my own 

 boyish nature which I find, especially in the matter of 

 demanding a reason for things and having no respect for 

 authority. 



But I was more docile, and could remember anything 

 I had a mind to learn, whether it was rational or ir- 

 rational, only in the latter case I hadn't the mind. 



But you were infinitely better off than I in the 

 matter of education. I had two years of a Pandemonium 

 of a school (between 8 and 10) and after that neither 

 help nor sympathy in any intellectual direction till I 

 reached manhood. Good heavens ! if I had had a father 

 and uncle who troubled themselves about my education 

 as yours did aboiit your training, I might say as Bethell 

 said of his possibilities had he come under Jowett, 

 " There is no knowing to what eminence I might not 

 have attained." Your account of them gives me the 

 impression that they were remarkable persons. Men of 

 that force of character, if they had been less wise and 

 self-restrained, would have played the deuce with the 

 abnormal chicken hatched among them. 



The second matter is that your diabolical plot against 

 Lilly has succeeded vide the next number of the 

 Fortnightly. 1 I was fool enough to read his article, and 

 the rest followed. But I do not think I should have 

 troubled myself if the opportunity had not been good for 

 clearing off a lot of old scores. 



The bad weather for the last ten days has shown me 



1 Science and Morals, CoU. Mss. ix. 117. 



