472 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xxv 



retirement he had at length won for himself. His latter 

 days were fruitful and happy in their unflagging intellectual 

 interests, set off by the new delights of the succidia alter a, 

 that second resource of hale old age for many a century. 



All through his last and prolonged illness, from earliest 

 spring until midsummer, he loved to hear how the garden 

 was getting on, and would ask after certain flowers and 

 plants. When the bitter cold spring was over and the 

 warm weather came, he spent most of the day outside, and 

 even recovered so far as to be able to walk once into the 

 lower garden and visit his favourite flowers. These chil- 

 dren of his old age helped to cheer him to the last. 



