1870 ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM 353 



The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the 

 freedom to do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest 

 terms to any one who will take it of me. 



This was the latest of the essays included in Lay Ser- 

 mons, Addresses and Reviews, which came out, with a dedi- 

 catory letter to Tyndall, in the summer of 1870, and, whether 

 on account of its subject matter or its title, always remained 

 his most popular volume of essays. 



To the same period belongs a letter to Matthew Arnold 

 about his book St. Paul and Protestantism. 



My dear Arnold — Many thanks for your book which I have 

 been diving into at odd times as leisure served, and picking up 

 many good things. 



One of the best is what you say near the end about science 

 gradually conquering the materialism of popular religion. 



It will startle the Puritans who always coolly put the matter 

 the other way ; but it is profoundly true. 



These people are for the most part mere idolaters with a 

 Bible-fetish, who urgently stand in need of conversion by Extra- 

 christian Missionaries. 



It takes all one's practical experience of the importance of 

 Puritan ways of thinking to overcome one's feeling of the un- 

 reality of their beliefs. I had pretty well forgotten how real to 

 them " the man in the next street " is, till your citation of their 

 horribly absurd dogmas reminded me of it. If you can persuade 

 them that Paul is fairly interpretable in your sense, it may be 

 the beginning of better things, but I have my doubts if Paul 

 would own you, if he could return to expound his own epistles. 



I am glad you like my Descartes article. My business with 

 my scientific friends is something like yours with the Puritans, 

 nature being our Paul. — Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 

 26 Abbey Place, May 10, 1870. 



From the 14th to the 24th of April Huxley, accom- 

 panied by his friend Hooker, made a trip to the Eifel 

 country. His sketch-book is full of rapid sketches of the 

 country, many of them geological ; one day indeed there are 

 eight, another nine such. 



Tyndall was invited to join the party, and at first ac- 

 cepted, but then recollected the preliminaries which had to 



