!6 2 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, x 



However, this was only the beginning of his campaign. 



On January 27, a letter from him appeared in the Times, 

 guarding against a wrong interpretation of his speech, in 

 the general uncertainty as to the intentions of the proposers 

 of the scheme. 



I had no intention (he writes) of expressing any enthusi- 

 asm on behalf of the establishment of a vast permanent bazaar. 

 I am not competent to estimate the real utility of these great 

 shows. What I do see very clearly is that they involve difficul- 

 ties of site, huge working expenses, the potentiality of endless 

 squabbles, and apparently the cheapening of knighthood. 



As for the site proposed at South Kensington, " the 

 arguments used in its favour in the report would be con- 

 clusive if the dry light of reason were the sole guide of 

 human action." But it would alienate other powerful and 

 wealthy bodies, which were interested in the Central In- 

 stitute of the City and Guilds Technical Institute, " which 

 looks so portly outside and is so very much starved inside." 



He wrote again to the Times on March 21 : — ■ 



The Central Institute is undoubtedly a splendid monument of 

 the munificence of the city. But munificence without method 

 may arrive at results indistinguishably similar to those of stingi- 

 ness. I have been blamed for saying that the Central Institute 

 is " starved." Yet a man who has only half as much food as he 

 needs is indubitably starved, even though his short rations con- 

 sist of ortolans and are served upon gold plate. 



Only half the plan of operations as drawn up by the 

 Committee was, or could be, carried out on existing funds. 



The later part of his letter was printed by the Com- 

 mittee as defining the functions of the new Institute : — 



That with which I did intend to express my strong sympathy 

 was the intention which I thought I discerned to establish some- 

 thing which should play the same part in regard to the advance- 

 ment of industrial knowledge which has been played' in regard 

 to science and learning in general, in these realms, by the Royal 

 Society and the Universities. ... I pictured the Imperial In- 

 stitute to myself as a house of call for all those who are con- 

 cerned in the advancement of industry; as a place in which 

 the home-keeping industrial could find out all he wants to know 



