1883 LETTERS ON ROYAL SOCIETY BUSINESS 349 



done here by and by. Up to the present I have oeen 

 filing away at the Eede Lecture. I believe that getting 

 things into shape takes me more and more trouble as I get 

 older whether it is a loss of faculty or an increase of 

 fastidiousness I can't say but at any rate it costs me 

 more time and trouble to get things finished and when 

 they are done I should prefer burning to piiblishing them. 



Haven't you any suggestions to offer for Anniversary 

 address ? I think the Secretaries ought to draw it up, 

 like a Queen's speech. 



Mind we have a talk some day about University of 

 London. I suppose you want an English Sorbonne. I 

 have thought of it at times, but the Philistines are strong. 



Weather jolly, but altogether too hot for anything but 

 lying on the grass " under the tegmination of the patulous 

 fage," as the poet observes. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



The remaining letters of this year are for the most 

 part on Royal Society business, some of which, touch- 

 ing the anniversary dinner, may be quoted : 



4 MARLBOROUQH PLACE, Nov. 10, 1883. 



MY DEAR FOSTER . . . I have been trying to get 

 some political and other swells to come to the dinner. Lord 

 Mayor is coming thought I would ask him on account 

 of City and Guilds business Lord Chancellor, probably, 

 Courtney, M.P., promised, and I made the greatest blunder 

 I ever made in all my life by thoughtlessly writing to 

 ask Chamberlain (!!!) utterly forgetting the row with 

 Tyndall. 1 



By the mercy of Providence he can't come this year, 

 though I must ask him next (if I am not kicked out for 



1 Concerning the Lighthouses. 



