26 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



our return to Sydney took me within reach of his hospitality, I 

 know not wiicthcr I should have had the courage to continue 

 labours which might, so far as 1 knew, be valueless. 



*' On reaching England, however, I found not only that the 

 Royal Society had thought my Memoir on the Medusce worthy 

 of publication, but helping hands were stretched out to me on 

 all sides ; and among the men of science, 1 met with many 

 generous friends whose sympathy and appreciation were bestowed 

 in a measure, far beyond my deserts. Among these, the genial, 

 and noble-minded Edward Forbes supported me with all that 

 energy which he was wont to throw into his advocacy of the 

 cause of a young man ; and now that I have succeeded (though, 

 alas ! not replaced) him in the professorial chair he then held, 

 and have some personal experience of an analogous variety of 

 occupations and weight of responsibilities, I cannot reflect with- 

 out emotion on the patient attention which he bestowed upon 

 me, and the self-sacrificing zeal with which he exerted all his 

 ' power, amity, and authority ' in my favour." 



After narrating the unsuccessful attempts of his friends 

 and himself to obtain the grant which the Admiralty 

 minute seemed to warrant, he continues : — 



" It would be wearisome were I to narrate the history of 

 their other efforts at length. In vain the Presidents of the Royal 

 Society and of the British Association, separately and conjointly, 

 officially and unofficially, solicited the Treasury ; in vain did I 

 visit and write to, and I fear, bore, numerous persons in authority 

 about this unfortunate grant. It must be confessed the business 

 was troublesome enough while it lasted ; but, in looking back, 

 I would fain only remember with gratitude the zeal of the 

 friends who aided me, and the long-suffi£ring courtesy of the 

 various Government officials, who listened so attentively to the 

 claims of that Natural Science about which, unless I am greatly 

 mistaken, they neither knew nor cared very much. 



'• During the three years the contest lasted, I reckon that the 

 Admiralty was good enough to give me, in the form of pay, 

 rather more than fifty pounds over the sum required, although, 

 with steady consistency, their Lordships from the first refused 

 to enable me to publish the work which they paid me for 

 publishing. I by no means quarrel with an arrangement, which, 



