IV 



THE CONTROVERSIALIST 



In a letter to his wife, written at Baden, in 1873, 

 Huxley says : 



We are in the midst of a gigantic movement, 

 greater than that which preceded and produced the 

 Reformation, and really only the continuation of that 

 movement. But there is nothing new in the ideas 

 which lie at the bottom of the movement, nor is any 

 reconcilement possible between free thought and tra- 

 ditional authority. One or other will have to suc- 

 cumb after a struggle of unknown duration, which 

 will have as side issues vast political and social 

 troubles. I have no more doubt that free thought 

 will win in the long-run than I have that I sit here 

 writing to you, or that this free thought will organise 

 itself into a coherent system, embracing human life 

 and the world as one harmonious whole. But this 

 organisation will be the work of generations of men, 

 and those who further it most will be those who teach 

 men to rest in no lie, and to rest in no verbal delu- 

 sions. I may be able to help a little in this direction 

 — perhaps I may have helped already. 1 



Until his retirement, twelve years afterwards, that 

 help was, perforce, rendered only fitfully ; but, once 

 master of his time, Huxley said that whether it was 



*I. 397- 

 158 



