LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, ix 



I don't mind telling you in confidence I arrived at some time 

 ago. . . . 



I am glad you liked my treatment of Mr. Lilly. ... I quite 

 agree with you that the thing was worth doing for the sake of 

 the public. 



I have in hand another bottle of the same vintage about 

 Modern Realism and the abuse of the word Law, suggested by a 

 report I read the other day of one of Liddon's sermons.* 



The nonsense these great divines talk when they venture to 

 meddle with science is really appalling. 



Don't be alarmed about the history of Victorian science.f 

 I am happily limited to the length of a review article or there- 

 abouts, and it is (I am happy to say it is nearly done) more of 

 an essay on the history of science, bringing out the broad fea- 

 tures of the contrast between past and present, than the history 

 itself. It seemed to me that this was the only way of dealing 

 with such a subject in a book intended for the general public. 



The article " Science and Morals ' was not only a sat- 

 isfaction to himself, but a success with the readers of the 

 Fortnightly. To his wife he writes : 



December 2. Have you had the Fortnightly? How does 

 my painting of the Lilly look ? 



December 8. Harris . . . says that my article " simply 

 made the December number," which pretty piece of gratitude 

 means a lively sense of favours to come. 



December 13. I had a letter from Spencer yesterday chuck- 

 ling over the success of his setting me on Lilly. 



Ilkley had a wonderful effect upon him. " It is quite 

 absurd," he writes after 24 hours there, " but I am wonder- 

 fully better already." His regimen was of the simplest, 

 save perhaps on one point. " Clark told me," he says with 

 the utmost gravity, " always to drink tea and eat hot cake 

 at 4.30. I have persevered, however against my will, and 

 last night had no dreams, but slept like a top." Two hours' 

 writing in the morning were followed by two hours' sharp 

 walking ; in the afternoon he first took two hours' walking 

 or strolling if the weather were decent ; " then Clark's pre- 

 scription diligently taken " (i.e. tea and a pipe) and a couple 



* " Pseudo-Scientific Realism," Coll. Ess. iv. 59. f See p. 149. 



