1889 CONTROVERSY WITH BISHOP MAGEE 113 



4 Marlborough Place, N.W., 

 May 6, 1889. 



My dear Knowles — If I had not gone to the 

 Academy dinner I might have kept my promise about 

 sending you my paper to-day. I indulged in no gastro- 

 nomic indiscretions, and came away after H.E.H.'s speech, 

 but I was dead beat all yesterday, nevertheless. 



We are off to Eastbourne, and I will send the MS. 

 from there ; there is very little to do. 



Such a waste ! I shall have to omit a paragraph that 

 was really a masterpiece. 



For who should I come upon in one of the rooms but 

 the Bishop ! As we shook hands, he asked whether that 

 was before the fight or after ; and I answered, " A little 

 of both." Then we spoke our minds pretty plainly ; and 

 then we agreed to bury the hatchet.^ 



So yesterday I tore up the paragraph. It was so 

 api^ropriate I could not even save it up for somebody 

 else ! — Ever yoiu's, T. H. Huxley. 



3 Jevington Gardens, Eastbourne, 



May 22, 1889. 



My dear Knowles — I sent back my proof last 

 evening. I shall be in town Friday afternoon to 

 Monday morning next, having a lot of things to do. So 

 you may as well let me see a revise of the whole. Did 

 you not say to me, " sitting by a sea-coal fire " (I say 

 nothing about a " parcel gilt goblet "), that this screed 

 was to be the " last word " ? I don't mind how long it 

 goes on so long as I have the last word. But you must 

 expect nothing from me for the next three or four months. 

 We shall be off abroad, not later than the 8th June, and 



^ As lie says (Coll. Ess. v. 210), this cbaQce meeting ended "a 

 temporary misunderstanding with a man of rare ability, candour, 

 and wit, for whom I entertained a great liking and no less 

 respect." 



VOL. Ill I 



