244 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " V 



than blind and unhesitating obedience to un- 

 limited authority. Undoubtedly, harlotry and 

 intemperance are sore evils, and starvation is 

 hard to bear, or even to know of; but the 

 prostitution of the mind, the soddening of the 

 conscience, the dwarfing of manhood are worse 

 calamities. It is a greater evil to have the 

 intellect of a nation put down by organised 

 fanaticism; to see its political and industrial 

 affairs at the mercy of a despot whose chief 

 thought is to make that fanaticism prevail; to 

 watch the degradation of men, who should feel 

 themselves individually responsible for their own 

 and their country's fates, to mere brute instru- 

 ments, ready to the hand of a master for any use 

 to which he may put them. 



But that is the end to which, in my opinion, 

 all such organizations as that to which kindly 

 people, who do not look to the consequences of 

 their acts, are now giving their thousands, in- 

 evitably tend. Unless clear proof that I am 

 wrong is furnished, another thousand shall not 

 be added by my instrumentality. 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



