316 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. Xlll 



And again on March 27 : 



Your most kind letter has been a real cordial to me. 

 . . . Once again accept my cordial thanks, my dear old 

 friend. I wish to God there were more automata in the 

 world like you 



Darwin died on April 19, and a brief notice being 

 required for the forthcoming number of Nature on 

 the 27th, Huxley made shift to write a brief article, 

 which is printed in the Collected Essays, ii. p. 244. 

 But as neither he nor Sir Joseph Hooker could at 

 the moment undertake a regular obituary notice, this 

 was entrusted to Professor Romanes, to whom the 

 following letters were written. 



4 MARLBOBOTTGH PLACE, April 26, 1882. 



MY DEAR ROMANES Thank you for your hearty 

 letter. I spent many hours over the few paragraphs I 

 sent to Nature, in trying to express what all who 

 thoroughly knew and therefore loved Darwin, must feel 

 in language which should be absolutely free from rhetoric 

 or exaggeration. 



I have done my best, and the sad thing is that I 

 cannot look for those cheery notes he used to send me 

 in old times, when I had written anything that pleased 

 him. 



In case we should miss one another to-day, let me 

 say that it is impossible for me to undertake the obituary 

 in Nature. I have a conglomeration of business of various 

 kinds upon my hands just now. I am sure it will be 

 very safe in your hands. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



Pray do what you will with what I have written in 

 Nature. 



