i838 LETTER TO PROF. RAY LANKESTER 



Surely no one but a born fool can fail to be aware that we 

 constantly, and in very grave conjunctions, are obliged to act 

 upon extremely bad evidence, and that very often we suffer all 

 sorts of penalties in consequence. And surely one must be some- 

 thing worse than a born fool to pretend that such decision under 

 the pressure of the enigmas of life ought to have the smallest 

 influence in those judgments which are made with due and suffi- 

 cient deliberation. You will see that these considerations go to 

 the root of the w r hole matter. I regret that I cannot discuss the 

 question more at length and deal with sundry topics put forward 

 in your letter. At present writing is a burden to me. 



A letter to Professor Ray Lankester mixes grave and 

 gay in a little homily, edged by personal experience, on the 

 virtues and vices of combativeness. 



IO SOUTHCLIFF, EASTBOURNE, Dec. 6, l888. 



I think it \vould be a very good thing both for you and for 

 Oxford if you went there. Oxford science certainly wants 

 stirring up, and notwithstanding your increase in years and 

 wisdom, I think you would bear just a little more stoning * 

 down, so that the conditions for a transfer of energy are ex- 

 cellent ! 



Seriously, I wish you would let an old man, w r ho has had his 

 share of fighting, remind you that battles, like hypotheses, are 

 not to be multiplied beyond necessity. Science might say to you 

 as the Staffordshire collier's wife said to her husband at the 

 fair, " Get thee foighten done and come whoam." You have a 

 fair expectation of ripe vigour for twenty years; just think what 

 may be done with that capital. 



No use to tu quoque me. Under the circumstances of the 

 time, warfare has been my business and duty. Ever yours very 

 faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



Two more letters of the year refer to the South Kensing- 

 ton examinations, for which Huxley was still nominally 

 responsible. As before, we see him reluctant to sign the 

 report upon papers which he had not himself examined ; 

 yet at the same time doing all that lay in his power to 

 assist by criticising the questions and thinking out the 

 scheme of teaching on which the examination was to be 



* i.e. " holystoning," as the decks of a man-of-war. 



