342 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XIII 



I return Howes' letter in case you want it. I see I 

 need not write to him again after all. Three cheers ! 



Please give Lady Donnelly this. A number of estim- 

 able members of her sex have flown at me for writing 

 what I thought was a highly complimentary letter. But 

 she will be just, I know. 



" The best of women are apt to be a little weak in the 

 great practical arts of give-and-take, and putting up with 

 a beating, and a little too strong in their belief in the 

 efficacy of government. Men learn about these things in 

 the ordinary course of their business ; women have no 

 chance in home life, and the boards and councils will be 

 capital schools for them. Again, in the public interest 

 it wiU be well ; women are more naturally economical 

 than men, and have none of our false shame about looking 

 after pence. Moreover, they don't job for any but their 

 lovers, husbands, and children, so that we know the 

 worst." 



The speech at the Royal Society Anniversary 

 dinner — which he evidently enjoyed making — was a 

 fine piece of speaking, and quite carried away the 

 audience, whether in the gentle depreciation of his 

 services to science, or in his profession of faith in the 

 methods of science and the final triumph of the 

 doctrine of evolution, whatever theories of its opera- 

 tion might be adopted or discarded in the course of 

 further investigation. 



I quote from the Times report of the speech : — 



But the most difficult task that remains is that which 

 concerns myself. It is 43 years ago this day since the 

 Eoyal Society did me the honour to award me a Royal 

 medal, and thereby determined my career. But, having 

 long retired into the position of a veteran, I confess that 



