1878 HIS BOOK ON HUME 255 



suit you better, it will do just as well for me. There 

 will be nobody but my wife and daughters, so don't 

 dress. Ever yours very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



P.S. Will you be disgusted if in imitation of the 

 " English Men of Letters " I set agoing an " English Men 

 of Science." Few people have any conception of the 

 part Englishmen have played in science, and I think it 

 would be both useful and interesting to bring the truth 

 home to the English mind. 



I had about three thousand people to hear me on 

 Saturday at Manchester, and it would have done you 

 good to hear how they cheered at my allusion to personal 

 rule. I had to stop and let them ease their souls. 



Behold my P.S. is longer than my letter. It's the 

 strong feminine element in my character oozing out. 

 " Desinit in piscem " though, and a mighty queer fish too. 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, 

 Jan. 12, 1879. 



DEAR LECKY I am very much obliged for your 

 suggestion about the note at p. 9. I am ashamed to say 

 that though the eleven day correction was familiar enough 

 to me, I had never thought about the shifting of the 

 beginning of the year till you mentioned it. It is a law 

 of nature, I believe, that when a man says what he need 

 not say he is sure to blunder. The note shall go out. 



All I know about Sprat is as the author of a dull 

 history of the Royal Society, so I was surprised to meet 

 with Hume's estimate of him. 



No doubt about the general hatred of the Scotch, but 

 you will observe that I make Millar responsible for the 

 peace-making assurance. 



What you said to me in conversation some time ago 

 led me to look at Hume's position as a moralist with 

 some care, and I quoted the passage at p. 206 that no 

 doubt might be left on the matter. 



