THE ATOM 859 



hot between Frankland and Tyndall, Huxley quietly giving 

 occasional dagger thrusts to both, and especially to Tyndall, 

 who held that he saw atoms visually in his mind's eye, and 

 who on his inability to describe to Huxley what he saw, was 

 met by H. with the rejoinder, * Ah, now I see myself ; in 

 the beginning was the Atom, and the atom is without form 

 and void, and darkness sits on the face of the Atom ! ' No 

 doubt if Huxley had been asked for his view of the Atom, 

 this would have been the substance of his answer, if not the 

 wording. 1 



To the Same 



June 30, 1895. 



This has been a chequered birthday for me, as the day 

 of a great sorrow and a great joy. 



Huxley died yesterday ; we had been fast friends for 

 42 years, and our brotherly love was shared by none in its 

 depth and strength. I heard from him on the 27th ! no 

 doubt the last letter he ever wrote, in a sad hand, still 

 clinging to hope, but giving an account of himself that 

 precluded my accepting it. We began life as Assistant 

 Surgeons, E.N., he a few years after me, and we forgathered 

 like steel and magnet on his and my return to England in 

 1851. 



Per contra, Reggie has come out at the top of the 

 candidates for the post of Assistant to the Director of the 

 Intelligence Department of the Board of Agriculture. 



The same letter to Ayerst Hooker tells of other interests 

 during the preceding days. 



We have just returned from three days in Staffordshire, 

 to an old friend Godfrey Wedgwood, who has retired from 

 business, and built himself a very pretty house at 700 ft. 

 above the sea, some 8 miles from the potteries, out of the 

 smoke, and quite in the country. We went over Etruria 

 and saw all the processes, and much to be admired. The 

 Americans have developed a taste for the ornamental ware 

 which the Wedgwoods have vastly improved. 



The chief motive of our visit was, to be present at the 

 opening of the Exhibition of old Wedgwood ware, in the 



1 Cp. p. 112 and i. 643. 



