370 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xv 



matters. Not that we are either of us " impatient and 

 irritable listeners " oh dear, no ! "I have my faults," 

 as the miser said, " but avarice is not one of them " and 

 we have our faults too, but notoriously they lie in the 

 direction of long-suffering and apathy. 



Nevertheless there is a good deal to be said for writing. 

 Mine is itself a discipline in patience for my corre- 

 spondent. 



Imprimis. I scorn all your chaff about Society. My 

 great object for years has been to keep out of it, not to go 

 into it Just you wait till the Misses Donnelly grow up 

 I trust there may be five or ten of them and see 

 what will happen to you. But apart from this, so long 

 as I live in London, so long will it be practically im- 

 possible for me to keep out of dining and giving of 

 dinners and you know that just as well as I do. 



2nd. I mean to give up the Presidency, but don't see 

 my way to doing so next St. Andrew's Day. I wish I 

 could but I must deal fairly by the Society. 



3rd. The suggestion of the holiday at Christmas is 

 the most sensible thing you have said. I could get six 

 weeks under the new arrangement (Botany, January and 

 half February) without interfering with my lectures at all 

 But then there is the blessed Home Office to consider. 

 There might be civil war between the net men and the 

 rod men in six weeks, all over the country, without my 

 mild influence. 



4th. I must give up my Inspectorship. The mere 

 thought of having to occupy myself with the squabbles 

 of these idiots of country squireens and poachers makes 

 me sick and is, I believe, the chief cause of the morbid 

 state of my mucous membranes. 



All this week shall I be occupied in hearing one 

 Jackass contradict another Jackass about questions which 

 are of no importance. 



I would almost as soon be in the House of Commons. 



Now see how reasonable I am. I agree with you (a) 



