18641869] HUXLEY ON COMTE 313 



To J. D. Hooker. Letter 229 



Caerdeon, Barmouth, North Wales, 



July 24th [1869]. 



We shall be at home this day week, taking two days on 

 the journey, and right glad I shall be. The whole has been 

 a failure to me, but much enjoyment to the young. . . . My 

 wife has ailed a good deal nearly all the time ; so that I loathe 

 the place, with all its beauty. I was glad to hear what you 

 thought of F. Miiller, and I agree wholly with you. Your 

 letter came at the nick of time, for I was writing on the very 

 day to Miiller, and I passed on your approbation of Chaps. X. 

 and XL Some time I should like to borrow the Transactions 

 of the New Zealand Institute, so as to read Colenso's article. 1 

 You must read Huxley v. Comte 2 ; he never wrote anything 

 so clever before, and has smashed everybody right and left in 

 grand style. I had a vague wish to read Comte, and so had 

 George, but he has entirely cured us of any such vain wish. 



There is another article 3 just come out in last North 

 BritisJi, by some great mathematician, which is admirably 

 done ; he has a severe fling at you, 4 but the article is directed 



1 Colenso, " On the Maori Races of New Zealand." N. Z. Inst. 

 Trans., 1868, Pt. 3. 



2 "The Scientific Aspects of Positivism." Fortnightly Review ^ 1869, 

 p. 652, and Lay Sermons, 1870, p. 162. This was a reply to Mr. 

 Congreve's article, "Mr. Huxley on M. Comte," published in the April 

 number of the Fortnightly, p. 407, which had been written in criticism 

 of Huxley's article in the February number of the Fortnightly, p. 128, 

 " On the Physical Basis of Life." 



3 North British Review, Vol. 50, 1869 : "Geological Time," p. 406. 

 The papers reviewed are Sir William Thomson, Trans. R. Soc. Edin., 

 1862 ; Phil. Mag., 1863 ; Thomson and Tait, Natural Philosophy, Vol. I., 

 App. D ; Sir W. Thomson, Proc. R. Soc. Edin., 1865 ; Trans. Geol. 

 Soc. Glasgow, 1868 and 1869 ; Macmillaris Mag., 1862 ; Prof. Huxley, 

 Presidential Address, Geol. Soc. London, Feb., 1869 ; Dr. Hooker, 

 Presidential Address, Brit. Assoc., Norwich, 1868. Also the review on 

 the Origin in the North British Review, 1867, by Fleeming Jenkin, and 

 an article in the Pall Mall Gazette, May 3rd, 1869. The author treats 

 the last-named with contempt as the work of an anonymous journalist, 

 apparently unconscious of his own similar position. 



4 The author of the North British article appears to us, at p. 408, to 

 misunderstand or misinterpret Sir J. D. Hooker's parable on "under- 

 pinning." See Life and Letters, III., p. 101 (note). Sir Joseph i 

 attacked with quite unnecessary vehemence on another point at p. 413. 



