244: LETTERS TO THE *• TIMES." T 



blind and unhesitating obedience to unlimited au- 

 thority. Undoubtedly, harlotry and intemper- 

 ance are sore evils, and starration is hard to bear, 

 or even to know of; but the prostitution of the 

 mind, the soddening of the conscience, the dwarf- 

 ing of manhood are worse calamities. It is a 

 greater evil to have the intellect of a nation put 

 down by organized 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 

 instruments, 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. 



