1863.] MR. HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 3 



" I am very glad you like Huxley's lectures. I have been 

 very much struck with them, especially with the ' Philosophy 

 of Induction.' I have quarrelled with him for overdoing 

 sterility and ignoring cases from Gartner and Kolreuter about 

 sterile varieties. His geology is obscure ; and I rather doubt 

 about man's mind and language. But it seems to me ad- 

 mirably done, and, as you say, " Oh my ! " about the praise of 

 the ' Origin.' I can't help liking it, which makes me rather 

 ashamed of myself." 



My father admired the clearness of exposition shown in the 

 lectures, and in the following letter urges their author to 

 make use of his powers for the advantage of students :] 



C. Darwin to T. H. Huxley. 



Nov. 5 [1864]. 



I want to make a suggestion to you, but which may pro- 

 bably have occurred to. you. was reading your Lectures- 



and ended by saying, " I wish he would write a book." I 

 answered, " he has just written a great book on the skull." " I 

 don't call that a book," she replied, and added, " I want 

 something that people can read ; he does write so well." 

 Now, with your ease in writing, and with knowledge at your 

 fingers' ends, do you not think you could write a popular 

 Treatise on Zoology ? Of course it would be some waste of 

 time, but I have been asked more than a dozen times to 

 recommend something for a beginner and could only think of 

 Carpenter's Zoology. I am sure that a striking Treatise 

 would do real service to science by educating naturalists. If 

 you were to keep a portfolio open for a couple of years, and 

 throw in slips of paper as subjects crossed your mind, you 

 would soon have a skeleton (and that seems to me the diffi- 

 culty) on which to put the flesh and colours in your inimitable 

 manner. I believe such a book might have a brilliant success, 

 but I did not intend to scribble so much about it. 



Give my kindest remembrance to Mrs. Huxley, and tell 



B 2 



