350 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XIV 



my sins before that), as he is anxious to come. Science 

 ought to be in league with the Radicals. . . . Ever yours, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



He had made prompt confession as soon as he 

 discovered his mistake, to Tyndall himself, who 

 ultimately came to the dinner and proposed the 

 health of his old friend Hirst. 



4 MARLBOROTJGH PLACE, Nov. 9, 1883. 



MY DEAR TYNDALL I have been going to write to you 

 for two or three days to ask you to propose Hirst's health 

 as Royal Medallist on the 30th November. I am sure 

 your doing so would give an extra value to the medal to 

 him. 



But now I realise the position of those poor devils 

 I have seen in lunatic asylums and who believed they 

 have committed the unforgivable sin. It came upon me 

 suddenly in Waterloo Place this evening, that I had done 

 so ; and I went straight to the Royal Institution to make 

 confession, and if possible get absolution. But I heard 

 you had gone to Hindhead, and so I write. 



Yesterday I was sending some invitations to the dinner 

 on the 30th, and thinking to please the Society I made 

 a shot at some ministers. The only two I know much 

 about are Harcourt and Chamberlain, and the devil (in 

 whom I now firmly believe) put it into my head to write 

 to both. 



The enormous stupidity of which I had been guilty in 

 asking Chamberlain under the circumstances, and the sort 

 of construction you and others might put upon it, never 

 entered my head till this afternoon. It really made me 

 ill, and I went straight to find you. If Providence is good 

 to me the letter will miscarry and he won't come. But 

 anyhow I want you to know that I have been idiotically 

 stupid, and that I shall wish the Presidency and the 



