148 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



I am not going to do that again and you see that I have 

 got out of the School Board. It was an awful incubus ! 

 Oddly enough, I met the Ashtons in the Vatican and heard 

 about your perplexities touching Oxford I should have 

 advised you to do as you have done. I think that you have 

 a great piece of work at Owens College and that you will 

 do it. If you had gone to Oxford you would have sacrificed 

 all the momentum you have gained in Manchester ; and 

 would have had to begin de novo, among conditions which, 

 I imagine, it is very hard for a non-University man to 

 appreciate and adjust himself to. 



I like the look of the " Primers " (of which Macmillan has 

 sent me copies to-day) very much and shall buckle to at 

 mine as soon as possible I am very glad you did not wait 

 for me. I remained in a very shady condition up to the 

 middle of March and could do nothing. 



Ever yours very faithfully, 



24, ABBEY PLACE,! T. H. HUXLEY. 



April i6t/t, 1872. 



MANCHESTER, May $th, 1872. 

 MY DEAR MR. ROSCOE, 



I was highly gratified to hear from Principal Greenwood 

 last night that you had declined an offer of the chair of 

 Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and that you were 

 content to remain where you are and where you think you 

 can render the greatest service to a profession which I 

 entertain hope of your becoming a distinguished leader. 



I am the more convinced that this will be the case from 

 the circumstance that it is a much higher position to be 

 a distinguished chemist in Manchester, where you are sur- 

 rounded by so many practical workers, than to be locked up 

 and end your days as an old Don at either Oxford or 

 Cambridge. 



I may be wrong, but I am clearly of opinion that there is 

 a wide and open field before you in this district for attaining 

 eminence in the profession as a successor to my late old 

 friend Dalton. Allow me therefore to congratulate you on 

 the choice you have made, and in wishing you a long and 

 distinguished career of usefulness, 



I am ever sincerely and truly yours, 

 WM. FAIRBAIRN. 



