128 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, v 



delivered at Belfast before the British Association 

 under Tyndall's presidency. It appears that only 

 a month before, he had not so much as decided upon 

 his subject indeed, was thinking of something quite 

 different. 



The first allusion in these letters is to a conclud- 

 ing phase of Tyndall's controversy upon the claims of 

 the late Principal Forbes in the matter of Glacier 

 theory : 



4 MARLBO ROUGH PLACE, LONDON, N.W., 

 June 24, 1874. 



MY DEAR TYNDALL I quite agree with your Scotch 

 friend in his estimate of Forbes, and if he were alive and 

 the controversy beginning, I should say draw your picture 

 in your best sepia or lampblack. But I have been 

 thinking over this matter a good deal since I received 

 your letter, and my verdict is, leave that tempting piece 

 of portraiture alone. 



The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up 

 for all its folly and injustice by being damnably senti- 

 mental, and the more severely true your portrait might 

 be the more loud would be the outcry against it. I 

 should say publish a new edition of your Glaciers of the 

 Alps, make a clear historical statement of all tbe facts 

 showing Forbes's relations to Rendu and Agassiz, and 

 leave tbe matter to the judgment of your contemporaries. 

 That will sink in and remain wben all the hurly-burly 

 is over. 



I wonder if tbat address is begun, and if you are 

 going to be as wise and prudent as I was at Liverpool 

 When I think of the temptation I resisted on tbat occa- 

 sion, like Olive when be was charged with peculation, 

 " I marvel at my own forbearance ! " Let my example 

 be a burning and a shining ligbt to you. I declare I 



