CHAPTEK XIV 



1895 



Two montlis of almost continuous frost, during which 

 the thermometer fell below zero, marked the winter 

 of 1894-95. Tough, if not strong, as Huxley's con- 

 stitution was, this exceptional cold, so lowering to 

 the vitality of age, accentuated the severity of the 

 illness which followed in the train of influenza, 

 and at last undermined even his powers of resist- 

 ance. 



But until the influenza seized him, he was more 

 than usually vigorous and brilliant. He was fatigued, 

 but not more so than he expected, by attending a 

 deputation to the Prime Minister in the depth of 

 January, and delivering a speech on the London 

 University question ; and in February he was induced 

 to write a reply to the attack upon agnosticism con- 

 tained in Mr. Arthur Balfour's Foundations of Belief. 

 Into this he threw himself with great energy, all the 

 more because the notices in the daily press were likely 

 to give the reading public a wrong impression as to 

 its polemic against his own position. Mr. Wilfrid 



352 



