i8S6 CONTROVERSY WITH MR. GLADSTONE 



125 



However, this between ourselves, I am seriously anxious to 

 use what little stuff remains to me well, and I am not sure that 

 I can do better service anywhere than in this line, though I 

 don't mean to have any more controversy if I can help it. 



(Don't laugh and repeat Darwin's wickedness.) Ever yours 

 very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



However, this " contribution to the next round " seemed 

 to the editor rather too pungent in tone. Accordingly 

 Huxley revised it, the letters which follow describing the 

 process : 



4 MARYBOROUGH PLACE, N.W.,/<7. 15, 1886. 



MY DEAR KNOWLES I will be with you at 1.30. I spent three 

 mortal hours this morning taming my wild cat. He is now cas- 

 trated ; his teeth are filed ; his claws are cut ; he is taught to 

 swear like a " mieu " ; and to spit like a cough ; and \vhen he is 

 turned out of the bag you won't know him from a tame rabbit. 

 Ever yours, T. H. HUXLEY. 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, N.W. ,/<?. 20, 1886. 



MY DEAR KNOWLES Here is the debonnaire animal finally 

 titivated, and I quite agree, much improved, though I mourn the 

 loss of some of the spice. But it is an awful smash as it stands 

 worse than the first, I think. 



I shall send you the MS. of the Evolution of Theology to- 

 day or to-morrow. It \vill not do to divide it, as I want the 

 reader to have an apergu of the whole process from Samuel of 

 Israel to Sammy of Oxford. 



I am afraid it will make thirty or thirty-five pages, but it is 

 really very interesting, though I say it as shouldn't. 



Please have it set up in slip, though, as it is written after the 

 manner of a judge's charge, the corrections w 7 ill not be so exten- 

 sive, nor the strength of language so well calculated to make a 

 judicious editor's hair stand on end, as was the case with the 

 enclosed (in its unregenerate state). Ever yours very truly, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



Some time later, on September 14, 1890, writing to 

 Mr. Hyde Clarke, the philologist, who was ten years his 

 senior, he remarks on his object in undertaking this con- 

 troversy : 



I am glad to see that you are as active-minded as ever. I 

 have no doubt there is a great deal in what you say about the 



