1893 CRITICISMS ON THE ROMANES LECTURE 299 



I do not feel sure of coming to the Harvey affair after 

 alL But if I do, it will be alone, and I think I had 

 better accept the hospitality of the college ; which will by 

 no means be so jolly as Shelford, but probably more 

 prudent, considering the necessity of dining out. 



The fact is, my dear friend, I am getting old. 



I am very sorry to hear you have been doing yoiu- 

 influenza also. It's a beastly thing, as I have it, no 

 symptoms except going flop. — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



Nobody sees that the lecture is a very orthodox 

 production on the text (if there is such a one), " Satan 

 the Prince of this world." 



I think the remnant of influenza microbes must have 

 held a meeting in my corpus after the lecture, and resolved 

 to reconquer the territory. But I mean to beat the 

 brutes. 



" I shall be interested," he writes to Mr. Eomanes, 

 "in the article on the lecture. The papers have 

 been asinine." This was an article which Mr. Eomanes 

 had told him was about to appear in the Oxford 

 Magazine. And on the 30th he writes again : — 



Many thanks for the Oxford Magazine. The writer 

 of the article is about the only critic I have met with yet 

 who understands my drift. My wife says it is a " sensible " 

 article, but her classification is a very simple one — sensible 

 articles are those that contain praise, " stupid " those that 

 show insensibility to my merits ! 



Really I thought it very sensible, without regard to 

 the plums in the pudding. 



But the criticism, " sensible " not merely in the 

 humorous sense, which he most fully appreciated was 



