408 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY C HAI>. xx 



obtain a declaration that their belief is in accordance with 

 the law of England. 



People who differ on fundamentals are not likely to 

 convert one another. To you, as to my dear friend 

 Tyndall, with whom I almost always act, but who in this 

 matter is as much opposed to me as you are, I can only 

 say, let us be strong enough and wise enough to fight the 

 question out as a matter of principle and without bitter- 

 ness. Ever yours faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



November 9, 1866. 



MY DEAR TYNDALL Many thanks for the kind note 

 which accompanied your letter to the Jamaica Committee. 



When I presented myself at Kogers' dinner last night 

 I had not heard of the latter, and Gassiot began poking 

 fun at me, and declaring that your absence was due to a 

 quarrel between us on this unhappy subject. 



I replied to the jest earnestly enough, that I hoped 

 and believed our old friendship was strong enough to 

 stand any strain that might be put on it, much as I 

 grieved that we should be ranged in opposite camps in 

 this or any other cause. 



That you and I have fundamentally different political 

 principles must, I think, have become obvious to both of 

 us during the progress of the American War. The fact 

 is made still more plain by your printed letter, the tone 

 and spirit of which I greatly admire without being able 

 to recognise in it any important fact or argument which 

 had not passed through my mind before I joined the 

 Jamaica Committee. 



Thus there is nothing for it but for us to agree to 

 differ, each supporting his own side to the best of his 

 ability, and respecting his friend's freedom as he would 

 his own, and doing his best to remove all petty bitterness 

 from that which is at bottom one of the most important 

 constitutional battles in which Englishmen have for many 

 years been engaged. 



