24 Selections from Huxley 



clined at angles far greater than those which that learned 

 Academician, Elie de Beaumont, declared to be possible. 

 Naturally I was ashamed of these impertinent lava cur- 

 rents, and felt inclined to call them " Laves mous- 

 5 seuses." 



Courage, my friend, behold land ! I know you love my 

 handwriting. I am off to Rome to-day, and this day- 

 week, if all goes well, I shall be under my own roof-tree 

 again. In fact I hope to reach London on Saturday even- 

 10 ing. It will be jolly to see your face again. Ever yours 

 faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



[To the Lord Mayor of London. Monte Generoso, 

 Switzerland, June 25, 1889. On Louis Pasteur.] 



My Lord Mayor I greatly regret my inability to be 



15 present at the meeting which is to be held, under your 

 Lordship's auspices, in reference to M. Pasteur and his 

 Institute. The unremitting labors of that eminent French- 

 man during the last half-century have yielded rich har- 

 vests of new truths, and are models of exact and refined 



20 research. As such they deserve, and have received, all the 

 honors which those who are the best judges of their 

 purely scientific merits are able to bestow. But it so 

 happens that these subtle and patient searchings out of 

 the ways of the infinitely little of the swarming life 



25 where the creature that measures one-thousandth part 

 of an inch is a giant have also yielded results of su- 

 preme practical importance. The path of M. Pasteur's 

 investigations is strewed with gifts of vast monetary 

 value to the silk trades, the brewer, and the wine mer- 



30 chant. And this being so, it might well be a proper and 

 graceful act on the part of the representatives of trade 

 and commerce in its greatest center to make some public 



