376 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xxi 



If the whole thing is too much for the Dons' nerves I am 

 no judge of their delicacy I am quite ready to give up the 

 lecture. 



In fact I do not know whether I shall be able to make myself 

 heard three weeks hence, as the influenza has left its mark in 

 hoarseness and pain in the throat after speaking. 



So you see if the thing is altogether too wicked there is an 

 easy way out of it. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



HODESLEA, April 28, 1893. 



MY DEAR ROMANES My mind is made easy by such a hand- 

 some acquittal from you and the Lady Abbess, your coadjutor in 

 the Holy Office. 



My wife, who is my inquisitor and confessor in ordinary, has 

 gone over the lecture twice, without scenting a heresy, and if 

 she and Mrs. Romanes fail a fico for a mere male don's nose ! 



From the point of view of the complete argument, I agree 

 with you about note 19. But the dangers of open collision with 

 orthodoxy on the one hand and Spencer on the other, increased 

 with the square of the enlargement of the final pages, and I was 

 most anxious for giving no handle to anyone who might like to 

 say I had used the lecture for purposes of attack. Moreover, in 

 spite of all reduction, the lecture is too long already. 



But I think it not improbable that in spite of my meekness 

 and peacefulness, neither the one side nor the other will let me 

 alone. And then you see, I shall have an opportunity of making 

 things plain, under no restriction. You will not be responsible 

 for anything said in the second edition, nor can the Donniest of 

 Dons grumble. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



The double negative is Shakspearian. See Hamlet, act 

 ii. sc. 2. 



Unfortunately for the entire success of the lecture, he 

 was suffering from the results of influenza, more especially 

 a loss of voice. He writes (April 18) : 



After getting through the winter successfully I have had 

 the ill-fortune to be seized with influenza. I believe I must have 

 got it from the microbes haunting some of the three hundred 

 doctors at the Virchow dinner.* 



* On the i6th March. 



