270 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XI 



told me of one long talk he had had with Tennyson, and 

 added that immortality was the one dogma to which 

 Tennyson was passionately devoted. 



Of Browning, Huxley said : " He really has music in 

 him. Read his poem The Thrush and you will see it. 

 Tennyson said to me," he added, " that Browning had 

 plenty of music in him, but he could not get it out" 



Eastbourne, Oct. 15, 1892. 



My dear Ttndall — I think you will like to hear 

 that the funeral yesterday lacked nothing to make it 

 worthy of the dead or the living. 



Bright sunshine streamed through the windows of the 

 nave, while the choir was in half gloom, and as each shaft 

 of light illuminated the flower-covered bier as it slowly 

 travelled on, one thought of the bright succession of his 

 works between the darkness before and the darkness after. 

 I am glad to say that the Royal Society was represented 

 by four of its chief officers, and nine of the commonalty, 

 including myself. Tennyson has a right to that, as the 

 first poet since Lucretius who has understood the drift of 

 science. 



We have heard nothing of you and your wife for ages. 

 Ask her to give us news, good news I hope, of both. 



My wife is better than she was, and joins with me in 

 lova — Ever yours affectionately, T. H. Huxley. 



On his way home from the funeral in Westminster 

 Abbey, Huxley passed the time in the train by 

 shaping out some lines on the dead poet, the form of 

 them suggested partly by some verses of his wife's, 

 partly by Schiller's 



Gib diesen Tod ten mir heraus, 

 Ich muss ihn wieder haben,^ 



^ Don Carlos, Sc. ix. 



