[After the article came out he wrote again to Mr. Knowles:—]
4 Marlborough Place, N.W., April 14, 1889.
My dear Knowles,
I am going to try and stop here, desolate as the house is now all the chicks have flown, for the next fortnight. Your talk of the inclemency of Torquay is delightfully consoling. London has been vile.
I am glad you are going to let Wace have another "go." My object, as you know, in the whole business has been to rouse people to think…
Considering that I got named in the House of Commons last night as an example of a temperate and well-behaved blasphemer, I think I am attaining my object. [In the debate upon the Religious Prosecutions Abolition Bill, Mr. Addison said "the last article by Professor Huxley in the "Nineteenth Century" showed that opinion was free when it was honestly expressed."—"Times" April 14.]
Of course I go for a last word, and I am inclined to think that whatever Wace may say, it may be best to get out of the region of controversy as far as possible and hammer in two big nails—(1) that the Demonology of Christianity shows that its founders knew no more about the spiritual world than anybody else, and (2) that Newman's doctrine of "Development" is true to an extent of which the Cardinal did not dream.
I have been reading some of his works lately, and I understand now why
Kingsley accused him of growing dishonesty.
After an hour or two of him I began to lose sight of the distinction between truth and falsehood.
Ever yours,