802 EETIREMENT, TO 1897 : DARWINIANA , ETC. 



not vigorous it would not be Huxley's, and if we ask a man 

 for a specimen of himself, we must let him appear in his 

 own colours. 



When he made these suggestions to Huxley the day before, 

 he wrote : 



These are the only points as to which your articles could 

 be hypercriticised in the. matter of taste. For the rest I 

 would not alter anything. . . . The Quarterly does not 

 get one iota more than it deserves, or than the public should 

 see it gets. 



To F. Darwin 



The Camp, Sunningdale : Oct. 23, 1886. 



DEAR FRANK, I was not aware that the Bishop had 

 acknowledged the Review in his Essays. It certainly does 

 appear that this should be stated, but I would like to see 

 the passage acknowledging it, before considering how 

 much or how little of it should come in. No one who was 

 present at the Bishop's attack on Huxley at the Oxford 

 Meeting could wonder at Huxley's delighting in ' paying 

 him off.' 



I believe that the Q.R. has just treated Gosse as badly 

 almost as it did the Origin,' and if so Huxley's dressing is 

 not inopportune. It is abominable that a Review of such 

 standing should seek out ignorant and incompetent and 

 even prejudiced and hostile reviewers to write in such 

 cases, 



I quite feel with you that it is a pity that the ' Life ' of one 

 so far above all fierceness of disposition should have to treat 

 of matters requiring such stern and hot handling. But the 

 Q.R. was, from its influence and position, the head and front 

 of the offending, and if the history of Evolution has to be 

 dealt with, it must be brought to the front to be pilloried ; 

 and given Huxley as executioner, the rest follows ! Nothing 

 short of recasting the whole of his contribution as regards 

 the Quarterly would meet the case. Were Owen or the 

 Bishop in Huxley's place, and the tables turned, you would 

 have a contribution of malignant sneers and innuendoes. 

 It is the old story, ' the greater the truth, the greater the 

 libel.' 



