The Henson Journals

[29]

Wednesday, May 6th, 1925.

I am not afraid of the priests in the long run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life – always growing and increasing – is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper & lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength of the priests.

T. H. Huxley. Aug. 18th 1894.

Lang is reported to have delivered himself in response to the "Call to Action" issued by Storr & his company. He is magniloquent, platitudinous, and non–committal, in a word, conventionally archiepiscopal!

I wasted the morning in preparing a speech on the Castle. Ella & I lunched in Hatfield Hall before the meeting in the Castle Hall. Lady Cecil of Chelwood sate beside me, & in spite of her deafness we talked, The meeting was very ill–attended. Lord Durham spoke well, & was followed by Robert Cecil, and me. Then old Sir Francis Fox, the engineer spoke, & we dispersed after being photographed, & getting tea.

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