40 HUXLEY 



Treasury voted him a pension of £1200 on his re- 

 tirement, in spite of the fact that his own educa- 

 tion department wished him to retire upon full pay 

 (£1500). 



In November 1885 came the article by Mr. Glad- 

 stone in the Nineteenth Century, which purported to 

 show that the description of Creation given in the 

 first chapter of Genesis was supported by scientific 

 evidence. This was the commencement of what 

 afterwards was known as the " Genesis Controversy," 

 into which Huxley, at a time of somewhat better 

 health, threw himself with something of his old 

 vigour. For some months the controversy raged. 

 Possibly his freedom from official appointments 

 allowed him to speak out even more freely than was 

 his habit, and certainly, in the controversy with Mr. 

 Gladstone, Huxley made himself particularly plain. 

 He concluded this particular duel with his article in 

 the Nineteenth Century of February 1886, when he 

 would have been glad to retire from what he called 

 the " atmosphere of contention." 



The year 1887 was occupied, in the intervals from 

 bad health and work, at the Council of the Royal 

 Society, examining committee work in connection 

 with London University, and the Marine Bio- 

 logical Association, as well as by a strenuous advo- 

 cacy on behalf of tecluiical education in England. 

 It was in this year that the proposal to establish the 

 Imperial Institute, in connection with the jubilee, 

 came forward, and to this Huxley gave his warm 

 support. His mind, however, was getting more and 

 more directed towards philosophy, and from now 

 onwards we find him entering the lists on behalf 

 of science with various more or less famous corre- 



