274 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XI 



good big one in Owen's case after all dediictions — which 

 should be alone referred to. If you follow the example 

 of Vanity Fail- and call him "a simple-minded man, who 

 had he been otlierwise, would long ago have adorned a 

 title," some of us may choke. 



Gladstone, Samuel of Oxford, and Owen belong to a 

 very curious type of humanity, with many excellent and 

 even great qualities and one fatal defect — utter untrust- 

 worthiness. Peace be with two of them, and may the 

 political death of the third be speedy and painless ! — 

 With our united best wishes, ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



And on January 22, 1893, he writes of the 

 meeting : — 



My dear Hooker — . . . What queer corners one gets 

 into if one only lives long enough ! The grim humour 

 of the situation when I was seconding the proposal for a 

 statue to Owen yesterday tickled me a good deal. I do 

 not know how they will report me in the Times, but if 

 they do it properly I think you will see that I said no 

 word upon which I could not stand cross-examination. 



I chose the office of seconder in order that I might 

 clearly define my position and stop the mouths of blas- 

 phemers — who would have ascribed silence or absence to 

 all sorts of bad motives. 



Whatever the man might be, he did a lot of first-rate 

 work, and now that he can do no more mischief he has a 

 right to his wages for it. 



If I only live another ten years I expect to be made 

 a saint of myself. " Many a better man has been made 

 a saint of," as old Davie Hume said to his housekeeper 

 when they chalked up " St. David's Street " on his wall. 



We have been jogging along pretty well, but wife has 

 been creaky, and I got done up in a brutal London fog 

 struggling with the worse fog of the New University. 



