312 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XII 



Kensington, but preferred not to enter into the 

 bonds of an unaccustomed office. 



Meanwhile, through Sir John Donnelly, Huxley 

 was placed in communication Math the Rev. Montague 

 Powell, who, at his request, called upon the docker ; 

 and finding him a man who had read and thought 

 to an astonishing extent upon scientific problems, 

 and had a considerable acquaintance with English 

 literature, soon took more than a vicarious interest 

 in him. Mr. Powell, who kept Huxley informed of 

 his talks and correspondence with G. S., gives a full 

 account of the circumstances in a letter to the 

 Spectator of July 13, 1895, from which I quote the 

 following words : — 



The Professor's object in writing was to ask me how 

 best such a man could be helped, I being at his special 

 request the intermediary. So I suggested in the mean- 

 while a microscope and a few scientific books. In the 

 course of a few days I received a splendid achromatic 

 compound microscope and some books, which I duly 

 handed over to my friend, telling bim it was from an 

 unknown band. " Ah," he said, " I know who that must 

 be ; it can be no other than the greatest of living scientists ; 

 it is just like him to help a tyro." 



One small incident of this afiair is perhaps worth 

 preserving as an example of Huxley's love of a 

 bantering repartee. In the midst of the correspond- 

 ence Mr, Powell seems suddenly to have been seized 

 by an uneasy recollection that Huxley had lately 

 received some honour or title, so he next addressed 

 him as "My dear Sir Thomas." The latter, not to 



