340 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XIII 



number an introductory article called "Past and 

 Present," comparing the state of scientific thought of 

 the day with that of twenty-five years before, when 

 the journal was first started. To celebrate the 

 occasion, a dinner was to be held this same month of 

 all who had been associated with Nature, and this 

 Huxley meant to attend, as well as the more import- 

 ant anniversary dinner of the Royal Society on St. 

 AndreVs Day. 



I have promised (he writes on November 6 to Sir M. 

 Foster) to go to the Nature dinner if I possibly can. 

 Indeed I should be sorry to be away. As to the RS. 

 nothing short of being confined to bed will stop me. And 

 I shall be good for a few words after dinner. 



Thereafter I hope not to appear again on any stage. 



His letter about the medal expresses his feelings 

 as to the award. 



HoDESLEA, Nov. 2, 1894. 



My dear Foster — Didn't I tell the P.R.S., Secretaries, 

 Treasurer, and all the Fellows thereof, when I spake 

 about Hooker years ago, that thenceforth the Darwin 

 Medal was to be given to the young, and not to useless 

 old extinct volcanoes ? I ought to be very angry with 

 you all for coolly ignoring my wise counsels. 



But whether it is vanity or something a good deal 

 better, I am not. One gets chill old age, and it is very 

 pleasant to be warmed up unexpectedly even against one's 

 injunctions. Moreover, my wife is very pleased, not to 

 say jubilant ; and if I were made Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury I should not be able to convince her that my services 

 to Theology were hardly of the sort to be rewarded in 

 that fashion. 



