INTRODUCTION XT 



of Cambridge, which had honored him four years earlier 

 with the degree LL.D. Oxford University wanted to 

 make him the head of one of its great colleges. These 

 are signally noteworthy honors and clearly show the rank 

 the man had achieved, for Huxley himself was not a Uni- 

 versity man. Heavy personal losses came to Huxley in 

 these years in the death of Spottiswoode, Francis Maitland 

 Balfour, and Darwin. His own health was breaking 

 again, for his life-long foe, dyspepsia, would not yield to 

 the usual treatment. A visit to Italy gave only partial 

 relief, so on the advice of his physician, he resigned on his 

 sixtieth birthday, in 1885, all his positions demanding 

 active work. 



Retiring in feeble health upon a government pension 

 by no means meant a life of inactivity for Huxley. He 

 still had important committee work to do. He was en- 

 gaged in a controversy with Gladstone over the evolution 

 of religion, an intellectual contest which he enjoyed rarely. 

 Other similar discussions occupied part of his time. His 

 health did not improve, but with his removal from London 

 to Eastbourne in 1889, he gained more freedom from 

 illness. Here he lived quietly, occasionally publishing 

 a volume of essays or delivering a lecture. In 1893-94 

 he revised and reissued in nine volumes, under the title 

 Collected Essays, his previously published articles and 

 essays. More honors came to him, for in 1892 he was 

 made a privy councillor, and the Copley and Darwin medals 

 of the Royal Society were awarded him. 



In the quietness of Eastbourne with better health, sur- 

 rounded by all the accompaniments of well-spent years, 

 ''honor, love, obedience, troops of friends," Huxley hoped 

 to pass the Indian Summer of his life. His happiness, 

 however, was sadly m.arred hy the death of friends like 



