1886 THE ETON SYSTEM 743 



condition, first at Bournemouth, and then at Ilkley, for the last 

 five months, with such small success that I find a few days in 

 London knocks me up, and I go back to the Yorkshire moors 

 next week. 



We have no water-hens there — nothing but peewits, larks, 

 and occasional grouse — but the air and water are of the best, 

 and the hills quite high enough to bring one's muscles into play. 



I suppose that Nebuchadnezzar was quite happy so long as 

 be grazed and kept clear of Babylon; if so, I can hold him for 

 my Scripture parallel. 



I wish I could accept your moral No. 2, but there is amaz- 

 ingly little evidence of " reverential care for unoffending cre- 

 ation " in the arrangements of nature, that I can discover. If 

 our ears were sharp enough to hear all the cries of pain that 

 are uttered in the earth by men and beasts, we should be deaf- 

 ened by one continuous scream ! 



And yet the wealth of superfluous loveliness in the world 

 condemns pessimism. It is a hopeless riddle. — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



Please remember me to Mrs. Skelton. 



The election of a new Headmaster at Eton, where he 

 was a member of the Governing Body, was a matter of no 

 small concern to him at this moment. Some parts of the 

 existing system seemed impossible to alter, though a reform 

 in the actual scheme and scope of teaching seemed to him 

 both possible and necessary for the future well-being of the 

 school. He writes to his eldest son on July 6, 1886 : — ■ 



The whole system of paying the Eton masters by the profits 

 of the boarding-houses they keep is detestable to my mind, but 

 any attempt to alter it would be fatal. 



... I look to the new appointment with great anxiety. It 

 will make or mar Eton. If the new Headmaster has the capacity 

 to grasp the fact that the world has altered a good deal since the 

 Eton system was invented, and if he has the sense to adapt Eton 

 to the new state of things, without letting go that which was 

 good in the old system, Eton may become the finest public school 

 in the country. 



If on the contrary he is merely a vigorous representative of 

 the old system pure and simple, the school will go to the dogs. 



I think it is not unlikely that there may be a battle in the 

 Governing Body over- the business, and that I shall be on the 



