224 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, ix 



son was reading it the other night. I said, ' Isn't it 

 better to read a novel before going to bed, instead of 

 worrying your head over a serious book like that 1 ' 

 'Oh/ said he, 'I'm at an awfully interesting part, 

 and I can't leave off.' " It was, Mr. Morley continued, 

 "the way of making Nature, as she comes before 

 us every day, interesting and intelligible to young 

 folks." 



To this he replied on December 14 : 



I shall get as vain as a peacock if discreet folk like 

 you say such pretty things to me as you do about the 

 Physiography. 



But it is very pleasant to me to find that I have 

 succeeded in what I tried to do. I gave the lectures 

 years ago to show what I thought was the right way to 

 lead young people to the study of nature but nobody 

 would follow suit so now I have tried what the book 

 will do. 



Your step-son is a boy of sense, and I hope he may be 

 taken as a type of the British public ! 



A good deal of time was taken up in the first half 

 of the year by the Scottish Universities Commission, 

 which necessitated his attendance in Edinburgh the 

 last week in February, the first week in April, and 

 the last week in July. He had hoped to finish off 

 the necessary business at the first of these meetings, 

 but no sooner had he arrived in Edinburgh, after a 

 pleasant journey down with J. A. Froude, than he 

 learned that "the chief witness we were to have 

 examined to-day, and whose due evisceration was one 

 of the objects of my coming, has telegraphed to say 



