304 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XII 



witnesses who stuck firmly to views about fish which 

 had long been exploded by careful observation. But 

 on the whole he enjoyed it, although it took him 

 away from research in other departments. This 

 summer, on the death of Professor Eolleston, he was 

 sounded on the question whether he would consent 

 to accept the Linacre Professorship of Physiology at 

 Oxford. He wrote to the Warden of Merton : 



4 MARLBOROTJGH PLACE, 

 June 22, 1881. 



MY DEAR BRODRICK Many thanks for your letter. 

 I can give you my reply at once, as my attention has 

 already been called to the question you ask ; and it is 

 that I do not see my way to leaving London for Oxford. 

 My reasons for arriving at this conclusion are various. 

 I am getting old, and you should have a man in full 

 vigour. I doubt whether the psychical atmosphere of 

 Oxford would suit me, and still more, whether I should 

 suit it after a life spent in the absolute freedom of London. 

 And last, but by no means least, for a man with five 

 children to launch into the world, the change would 

 involve a most serious loss of income. No doubt there 

 are great attractions on the other side ; and, if I had been 

 ten years younger, I should have been sorely tempted to 

 go to Oxford, if the University would have had me. But 

 things being as they are, I do not see my way to any 

 other conclusion than that which I have reached. 



The same feeling finds expression in a letter to 

 Professor (afterwards Sir William) Flower, who was 

 also approached on the same subject, and similarly 

 determined to remain in London. 



