1881 FORGETFULNESS 311 



4 MABLBOKOUGH PLACE, March 25, 1881. 



MY DEAR MRS. TYNDALL But where is his last note to 

 me ? That is the question on which I have been anxiously 

 hoping for light since I received yours and the enclosure, 

 which contains such a very sensible proposition that I 

 should like to know how it came into existence, abio- 

 genetically or otherwise. 



Aa I am by way of forgetting everything myself just 

 now, it is a comfort to me to believe that Tyndall has 

 forgotten he forgot to send the letter of which he forgot 

 the inclosure. The force of disremembering could no 

 further go. In affectionate bewilderment, ever yours, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



His general view of his health, however, was much 

 more optimistic, as appears from a letter to Mrs. May 

 (wife of the friend of his boyhood) about her son, 

 whose strength had been sapped by typhoid fever, and 

 who had gone out to the Cape to recruit. 



4 MARYBOROUGH PLACE, June 10, 1881. 



MY DEAR MRS. MAY I promised your daughter the 

 other day that I would send you the Bishop of Natal's 

 letter to me. Unfortunately I had mislaid it, and it only 

 turned up just now when I was making one of my 

 periodical clearances in the chaos of papers that ac- 

 cumulates on my table. 



You will be pleased to see how fully the good Bishop 

 appreciates Stuart's excellent qualities, and as to the 

 physical part of the business, though it is sad enough that 

 a young man should be impeded in this way, I think you 

 should be hopeful. Delicate young people often turn out 

 strong old people I was a thread paper of a boy myself, 

 and now I am an extremely tough old personage. . . . 



