350 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xill 



glad to be able now and then to give timely aid to tbe 

 industrious and worthy people with whom, as a house- 

 holder, I am brought into personal relation ; and who 

 are so often engaged in a noiseless and unpitied but 

 earnest struggle to do well. 



In my judgment, a domestic servant, who is perhaps 

 giving half her wages to support her old parents, is more 

 worthy of help than half-a-dozen Magdalens. 



Under these circumstances, you will understand that 

 such funds as are at my disposal are already fuUy 

 engaged. 



The following is to a gentleman — an American, I 

 think — who sent him a long manuscript, an extra- 

 ordinary farrago of nonsense, to read and criticise, 

 and help to publish. But as he seemed to have 

 acted in sheer simplicity, he got an answer : — 



HoDESLEA, Jan. 31, 1S95. 



Dear Sir — I should have been glad if you had taken 

 the ordinary, and, I think, convenient course of writing 

 for my permission before you sent the essay which has 

 reached me, and which I return by this post. I should 

 then have had the opportunity of telling you that I do 

 not undertake to read, or take any charge of such matters, 

 and we should both have been spared some trouble. 



I the more regret this, since being unwilling to return 

 your work without examination, I have looked at it, and 

 feel bound to give you the following piece of advice, which 

 I fear may be distasteful, as good counsel generally is. 



Lock up your essay. For two years — if possible, three 

 — read no popular expositions of science, but devote your- 

 self to a course of ?>ovi\i(i practical instruction in elementary 

 physics, chemistry, and biology. 



Then re-read your essay ; do with it as you think 



