22 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. I 



founded parsons seem to me to let you say anything, 

 while they bully ine for a word or a phrase. It's the 

 old story, " one man may steal a horse while the other 

 may not look over the wall." 



Tyndall was not to be outdone, and replied : 



The parsons know very well that I mean kindness ; 

 if I correct them I do it in love and not in wrath. 



One more extract from a letter to Dr. Dohrn, 

 under date of November 1 7. The first part is taken 

 up with a long and detailed description of the best 

 English microscopes and their price, for Dr. Dohrn 

 wished to get one ; and my father volunteered to 

 procure it for him. The rest of the letter has a more 

 general interest as giving his views on the great 

 struggle between France and Germany then in pro- 

 gress, his distrust of militarism, and above all, his 

 hatred of lying, political as much as any other : 



This wretched war is doing infinite mischief, but I 

 do not see what Germany can do now but carry it out to 

 the end. 



I began to have some sympathy with the French after 

 Sedan, but the Republic lies harder than the Empire did, 

 and the whole country seems to me to be rotten to the 

 core. The only figure which stands out with anything 

 like nobility or dignity, on the French side, is that of the 

 Empress, and she is only a second-rate Marie- Antoinette. 

 There is no Roland, no Corday, and apparently no man 

 of any description. 



The Russian row is beginning, and the rottenness of 

 English administration will soon, I suppose, have an 

 opportunity of displaying itself. Bad days are, I am 

 afraid, in store for all of us, and the worst for Germany 



