1 84 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



with immeasurable evil — especially to the people of Ireland ; and 

 that if it cost his political existence, or his head, for that matter, 

 he is prepared to take any and every honest man's means of pre- 

 venting the mischief ? 



" I see no sign of any. And if such a man should come to 

 the front, what chance is there of his receiving loyal and con- 

 tinuous support from a majority of the House of Commons ? I 

 see no sign of any. 



" There was a time when the political madness of one party 

 was sure to be checked by the sanity, or at any rate the jealousy, 

 of the other. At the last election I should have voted for the 

 Conservatives (for the first time in my life), had it not been for 

 Lord Randolph Churchill ; but I thought that by thus jumping 

 out of the Gladstonian frying-pan into the Churchillian fire, I 

 should not mend matters, so I abstained altogether. 



" Mr. Parnell has great qualities. For the first time the Irish 

 malcontents have a leader who is not eloquent, but who is honest ; 

 who knows what he wants and faces the risks involved in getting 

 it. Our poor Right Honourable Rhetoricians are no match for 

 this man who understands realities. I believe also that Mr. 

 Parnell's success will destroy the English politicians who permit 

 themselves to be his instruments, as soon as bitter experience of 

 the consequences has brought Englishmen and Scotchmen (and 

 I will add Irishmen) to their senses. 



" I suppose one ought not to be sorry for that result, but there 

 are men among them over whose fall all will lament" (Times, 

 loc. cit. Life, ii, pp. 124-6). 



Besides the second Genesis paper, the year's work 

 included an article for an American periodical (The 

 Youth's Companion), and two important essays. The 

 article, entitled "From the Hut to the Pantheon "is a 

 study in architectural evolution, the point of departure 

 being the prehistoric beehive hut. Since one of the two 

 essays, " The Evolution of Theology : an Anthropo- 

 logical Study," which appeared in the Nineteenth Century 

 for March and April 1886, and the counterblasts to 

 Gladstone, made up an important part of the fourth 

 volume of the Collected Essays (" Science and Hebrew 



