i88y TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



Collected Essays, iii. 427-451, was duly delivered in Man- 

 chester, and produced a considerable effect. 



He writes to Sir M. Foster, December I : 



I am glad I resisted the strong temptation to shirk the busi- 

 ness. Manchester has gone solid for technical education, and 

 if the idiotic London papers, instead of giving half a dozen lines 

 of my speech, had mentioned the solid contributions to the work 

 announced at the meeting, they would have enabled you to 

 understand its importance. 



... I have the satisfaction of having got through a hard 

 bit of work, and am none the worse physically rather the better 

 for having to pull myself together. 



And to Sir J. Hooker : 



85 MARINA, ST. LEONARDS, Dec. 4, 1887. 



MY DEAR HOOKER x = 8, 6.30. I meant to have written 

 to you all to put off the x till next Thursday, when I could attend, 

 but I have been so bedevilled I forgot it. I shall ask for a bill 

 of indemnity. 



I was rather used up yesterday, but am picking up. In fact 

 my Manchester journey convinced me that there was more stuff 

 left than I thought for. I travelled 400 miles, and made a speech 

 of fifty minutes in a hot, crowded room, all in about twelve 

 hours, and was none the worse. Manchester, Liverpool, and 

 Newcastle have now gone in for technical education on a grand 

 scale, and the work is practically done. Nunc Dimittis ! 



I hear great things of your speech at the dinner. I wish I 

 could have been there to hear it. ... 



Of the two following letters, one refers to the account 

 of Sir J. D. Hooker's work in connection with the award 

 of the Copley medal ; the other, to Hooker himself, touches 

 a botanical problem in which Huxley was interested. 



ST. LEONARDS, Nov. 25, 1887. 



MY DEAR FOSTER ... I forget whether in the notice of 



Hooker's work you showed me there was any allusion made to 



that remarkable account of the Diatoms in Antarctic ice, to 



which I once drew special attention, but Heaven knows where? 



Dyer perhaps may recollect all about the account in the 



Flora Antarctica, if I mistake not. I have always looked upon 



Hooker's insight into the importance of these things and their 



49 



