386 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxv 



Of Mr. Spencer's comparison of the State to a living 

 body in the interests of individualism: — 



I suppose it is universally agreed that it would be useless 

 and absurd for the State to attempt to promote friendship and 

 sympathy between man and man directly. But I see no reason 

 why, if it be otherwise expedient, the State may not do some- 

 thing towards that end indirectly. For example, I can conceive 

 the existence of an Established Church which should be a bless- 

 ing to the community. A Church in which, week by week, 

 services should be devoted, not to the iteration of abstract propo- 

 sitions in theology, but to the setting before men's minds of an 

 ideal of true, just, and pure living; a place in which those who 

 are weary of the burden of daily cares should find a moment's 

 rest in the contemplation of the higher life which is possible 

 for all, though attained by so few ; a place in which the man of 

 strife and of business should have time to think how small, 

 after all, are the rewards he covets compared with peace and 

 charity. Depend upon it, if such a Church existed, no one 

 would seek to disestablish it. 



The sole order of nobility which, in my judgment, becomes 

 a philosopher, is the rank which he holds in the estimation of 

 his fellow-workers, who are the only competent judges in such 

 matters. Newton and Cuvier lowered themselves when the one 

 accepted an idle knighthood, and the other became a baron of 

 the empire. The great men who went to their graves as Michael 

 Faraday and George Grote seem to me to have understood the 

 dignity of knowledge better when they declined all such mere- 

 tricious trappings.* 



The usual note of high pressure recurs in the following 

 letter, written to thank Darwin for his new work, The 

 Descent of Man, and Sexual Selection. 



Jermyn Street, Fed. 20, 1871. 

 My dear Darwin — Best thanks for your new book, a copy 

 of which I find awaiting me this morning. But I wish you 

 would not bring your books out when I am so busy with all sorts 

 of things. You know I can't show my face anywhere in society 

 without having read them — and I consider it too bad. 



* On the other hand, he thought it right and proper for officials, in 

 scientific as in other departments, to accept such honours, as giving 

 them official power and status. In his own case, while refusing all 



