1874 LETTERS 135 



if I like, and ou the whole I think that is better, as I 

 shall be able to work up my lectures in peace. . . . 



August 21. Everything is going on very well here. 

 The weather is delightful, and under these circumstances 

 my lodgings here with John Ball for a companion turns 

 out to be a most excellent arrangement I need not say 

 that I was speaking more or less all day long. <^a va 

 sails dire, though, by the way, that is a bull induced by 

 the locality. I am not going on any of the excursions 

 on Sunday. I am going to have a quiet day here when 

 everybody will suppose that I have accepted everybody 

 else's invitation to be somewhere else The Ulster Hall, 

 in which the addresses are delivered, seems to me to be 

 a terrible room to speak in, and I mean to nurse my 

 energies all Monday. I sent you a cutting from one of 

 the papers containing an account of me that will amuse 

 you. The writer is evidently disappointed that I am not 

 a turbulent savage. 



August 25 : 



. . . My work is over and I start for Kingstown, 

 where I mean to sleep to-night, in an hour. I have just 

 sent you a full and excellent report of my lecture. 1 I 

 am glad to say it was a complete success. I never was 

 in better voice in my life, and I spoke for an hour and a 

 half without notes, the people listening as still as mice. 

 There has been a great row about Tyndall's address, and 

 I had some reason to expect that I should have to meet 

 a frantically warlike audience. But it was quite other- 

 wise, and though I spoke my mind with very great 

 plainness, I never had a warmer reception. And I am 

 not without hope that I have done something to allay the 

 storm, though, as you may be sure, I did not sacrifice 

 plain speaking to that end. ... I have been most 

 creditably quiet here, and have gone to no dinners or 



1 " On Animals as Automata " : see above. 



