38 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. II 



I may add tlaat as you are quite certain to vote in 

 the way that I think right on the only political questions 

 which greatly interest me, my action has not been, and 

 cannot be, in any way affected by political feeling. 



And as there is no one of whom I have a higher 

 opinion as a man of science — ^no one whom I should be 

 more glad to serve under, and to support year after year 

 in the Chair of the Society, and no one for whom I 

 entertain feelings of more sincere friendship — I trust you 

 will believe that, if there is a word in the article which 

 appears inconsistent with these feelings, it is there by 

 oversight, and is sincerely regretted. 



During the thirty odd years we have known one 

 another, we have often had stout battles without loss of 

 mutual kindness. My chief object in troubling you with 

 this letter is to express the hope that, whatever happens, 

 this state of things may continue. — I am, yours very 

 faithfully, T. H. Huxley, 



P,S. I am still of opinion that it is better that my 



authorship should not be officially recognised, but you 

 are, of course, free to use the information I have given 

 you in any way you may think fit. 



To this the President returned a very frank and 



friendly reply ; saying he had never dreamed of any 



incompatibility existing between the two offices, and 



urging that the Presidency ought not to constrain a 



man to give up his ordinary duties as a citizen. He 



concludes : — 



And now I have stated my case as it appears to 

 myself ; let me assure you that nothing that has passed 

 tends at all to diminish my friendship towards you. My 

 wife heard last night that the article was yours, and told 

 me so. I rather thought it must have been written by 

 some hot Gladstonian. It seems, however, that her 



