306 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XII 



This letter refers to the death of his old friend 

 Dean Stanley. The Dean had long kept in touch 

 with the leaders of scientific thought, and it is deeply 

 interesting to know that on her death-bed, five years 

 before, his wife said to him as one of her parting 

 counsels, " Do not lose sight of the men of science, 

 and do not let them lose sight of you." " And then," 

 writes Stanley to Tyndall, " she named yourself and 

 Huxley." 



Strangely enough, the death of the Dean involved 

 another invitation to Huxley to quit London for 

 Oxford. By the appointment of Dean Bradley to 

 Westminster, the Mastership of University College 

 was left vacant. Huxley, who was so far connected 

 with the college that he had examined there for a 

 science Fellowship, was asked if he would accept it, 

 but after careful consideration declined. He writes 

 to his son, who had heard rumours of the affair in 

 Oxford : 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, Nov. 4, 1881. 



MY DEAR LENS There is truth in the rumour ; in so 

 far as this that I was asked if I would allow myself to 

 be nominated for the Mastership of University, that I 

 took the question into serious consideration and finally 

 declined. 



But I was asked to consider the communication made 

 to me confidential, and I observed the condition strictly. 

 The leakage must have taken place among my Oxford 

 friends, and is their responsibility, but at the same time 

 I would rather you did not contribute to rumour on the 

 subject. Of course I should have told you if I had not 

 been bound to reticence. 



