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seems, obscure truth and so refuse to recognize themselves to be in the wrong. Still I believe you are right; if we are to make men better than they are, we should begin by taking them as they are -- and they are, most of them, slightly stupid, and more than slightly lazy; so that one cannot hope to make them see which way the stream of life is flowing, or even that there is such a stream at all -- without making an occasional splash to turn their eyes that way; and my Preface is of that nature, an attempt at a splash. I won't say I am ashamed of it any more, but I can't help being a little ashamed of the state of things which make such splashes, if not absolutely necessary, at all events sometimes very useful.
Believe me
Yours most truly
Edwin A. Abbott
Note: The Preface to which Abbott refers is to the book Philomythus: An Antidote to Credulity a bitter attack on the reprinting of John Henry Cardinal Newman's Essay on Ecclediastical Miracles, which infuriated the supporters of the recently deceased Cardinal, and which evidently struck a responsive chord with Huxley. Unfortunately Huxley's letter does not survive. (Abbott systematically destroyed the correspondence he received.)