414 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xvil 



reached the point when I can cheerfully face anything. 

 I got over the Board of Visitors (two hours and a half) 

 better than I expected, but my deafness was a horrid 

 nuisance. 



I believe the strings of the old fiddle will tighten up 

 a good deal, if I abstain from attempting to play upon 

 the instrument at present but that a few jigs now will 

 probably ruin that chance. 



But I will say my final word at our meeting next 

 week. I would rather step down from the chair than 

 dribble out of it. Even the devil is in the habit of de- 

 parting with a " melodious twang," and I like the 

 precedent. 



So at the Anniversary meeting on November 30, he 

 definitely announced in his last Presidential address 

 his resignation of that " honourable office " which he 

 could no longer retain "with due regard to the 

 interests of the Society, and perhaps, I may add, of 

 self-preservation. " 



I am happy to say (he continued) that I have good 

 reason to believe that, with prolonged rest by which I 

 do not mean idleness, but release from distraction and 

 complete freedom from those lethal agencies which are 

 commonly known as the pleasures of society I may yet 

 regain so much strength as is compatible with advancing 

 years. But in order to do so, I must, for a long time 

 yet, be content to lead a more or less anchoritic life. 

 Now it is not fitting that your President should be a 

 hermit, and it becomes me, who have received so much 

 kindness and consideration from the Society, to be par- 

 ticularly careful that no sense of personal gratification 

 should delude me into holding the office of its representa- 

 tive one moment after reason and conscience have pointed 

 out my incapacity to discharge the serious duties which 



