1885 LETTERS FROM FLORENCE 403 



I shall probably have sufficient strength to open the gate 

 and touch my hat to the Dons as they drive up. I am 

 afraid E. is not steady enough for waiting-maid or I 

 would offer her services. 



... I am rejoiced to hear that the lessons 1 and the 

 questions are launched. They loom large to me as 

 gigantic undertakings, in which a dim and speculative 

 memory suggests I once took part, but probably it is a 

 solar myth, and I am too sluggish to feel much com- 

 punction for the extra trouble you have had. 



Perhaps I shall revive when my foot is on my native 

 heath in the shady groves of the Evangelist. 2 



My wife is out photograph hunting nothing dimin- 

 ishes her activity otherwise she would join in love and 

 good wishes to Mrs. Foster and yourself. Ever yours, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



The two worst and most depressing periods of 

 this vain pilgrimage in pursuit of health were the 

 stay at Rome and at Florence. At the latter town 

 he was inexpressibly ill and weak ; but his daily life 

 was brightened by the sympathy and active kindness 

 of Sir Spencer Walpole, who would take him out 

 for short walks, talking as little as possible, and 

 shield him from the well-meant but tactless attentions 

 of visitors who would try to " rouse him and do him 

 good " by long talks on scientific questions. 



His physical condition, indeed, was little improved. 



As for my unsatisfactory carcase (he writes on March 

 6, to Sir J. Donnelly), there seems nothing the matter 

 with it now except that the brute objects to work. I 

 eat well, drink well, sleep well, and have no earthly ache, 



1 The new edition of the Elementary Physiology. 

 2 St. John's Wood. 



