64 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. II 



Letters, iii. 148-150). A few of his generous words 

 may be quoted to show the rate at which he valued 

 his friend's championship. 



What a wonderful man you are to grapple with those 

 old metaphysico-divinity books. . . . The pendulum is 

 now swinging against our side, but I feel positive it will 

 soon swing the other way ; and no mortal man will do 

 half as much as you in giving it a start in the right 

 direction, as you did at the first commencement 



And again, after " mounting climax on climax," 

 he continues : "I must tell you what Hooker said 

 to me a few years ago. 'When I read Huxley, I 

 feel quite infantile in intellect.' " 



This sketch of what constituted his holiday 

 and it was not very much busier than many another 

 holiday may possibly suggest what his busy time 

 must have been like. 



Till the end of the year the immense amount of 

 work did not apparently tell upon him. He rejoiced 

 in it. In December he remarked to his wife that 

 with all his different irons in the fire, he had never 

 felt his mind clearer or his vigour greater. Within 

 a week he broke down quite suddenly, and could 

 neither work nor think. He refers to this in the 

 following letter : 



JERMYN STREET, Dee, 22, 1871. 



MY DEAR JOHNNY You are certainly improving. 

 As a practitioner in the use of cold steel myself, I have 

 read your letter in to-day's Nature, " mit Ehrfurcht und 

 Bewunderung." And the best evidence of the greatness 



