314 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVI 



and fame were all to be lost to me one after the other 

 as the penalty, still I will not lie. 



And now I feel that it is due to you to speak as 

 frankly as you have done to me. An old and worthy 

 friend of mine tried some three or four years ago to 

 bring us together because, as he said, you were the 

 only man who would do me any good. Your letter leads 

 me to think he was right, though not perhaps in the 

 sense he attached to his own words. 



To begin with the great doctrine you discuss. I 

 neither deny nor affirm the immortality of man. I see 

 no reason for believing in it, but, on the other hand, I 

 have no means of disproving it. 



Pray understand that I have no a priori objections to 

 the doctrine. No man who has to deal daily and hourly 

 with nature can trouble himself about a priori difficulties. 

 Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing 

 anything else, and I will believe that Why should I 

 not ? It is not half so wonderful as the conservation of 

 force, or the indestructibility of matter. Whoso clearly 

 appreciates all that is implied in the falling of a stone can 

 have no difficulty about any doctrine simply on account 

 of its marvellousness. But the longer I live, the more 

 obvious it is to me that the most sacred act of a man's 

 life is to say and to feel, " I believe such and such to be 

 true." All the greatest rewards and all the heaviest 

 penalties of existence cling about that act. The universe 

 is one and the same throughout ; and if the condition of 

 my success in unravelling some little difficulty of anatomy 

 or physiology is that I shall rigorously refuse to put 

 faith in that which does not rest on sufficient evidence, 

 I cannot believe that the great mysteries of existence will 

 be laid open to me on other terms. It is no use to talk 

 to me of analogies and probabilities. I know what I 

 mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse 

 squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon 

 weaker convictions. I dare not if I would. 



