1885 LETTERS FROM ROME 387 



At the same time it would be very important to adopt 

 some arrangement by which the Transactions papers can 

 be printed independently of one another. 



Why should not the papers be paged independently 

 and be numbered for each year. Thus " Huxley. 

 Idleness and Incapacity in Italy. Phil. Trans. 1885. 

 VI." 



People grumble at the delay in publication, and are 

 quite, right in doing so, though it is impossible under the 

 present system to be more expeditious, and it is not every 

 senior secretary who would slave at the work as Stokes 

 does. . . . 



But it is carrying coals to Newcastle to talk of such 

 business arrangements as these to you. 



The only thing I am strong about, is the folly of 

 going on cutting blocks with our Secretarial razors any 

 longer. 



I am afraid I cannot give a very good account of 

 myself. 



The truth of the answer to Mallock's question " Is 

 life worth living ? " that depends on the liver is being 

 strongly enforced upon me in the hepatic sense of liver, 

 and I must confess myself fit for very little. A week 

 hence we shall migrate to Florence and try the effect of 

 the more bracing air. The Pincio is the only part of 

 Eome that is fit to live in, and unfortunately the Govern- 

 ment does not offer to build me a house there. 



However, I have got a great deal of enjoyment out of 

 ancient Rome papal Rome is too brutally pagan (and 

 in the worst possible taste too) for me. 



To HIS DAUGHTER, MRS. ROLLER 



Jan. 11, 1885. 



We have now had nearly three weeks in Rome. I am 

 sick of churches, galleries, and museums, and meanly 



