BIOGRAPHICAL (1870-1896) 41 



spondents who were opposed to the new scientific 

 thought. His article on " Science and Pseudo- 

 Scientifio Realism " in the Nineteenth Century is an 

 example of tliis, and was the commencement of the 

 well-known correspondence between Huxley and the 

 Duke of Argyll — a correspondence wliich only ceased 

 by Huxley declining to continue it, since the Duke 

 did not withdraw certain statements which Huxley 

 thought should have been withdrawn. 



In spite of himself, he was drawn into conflicts which 

 involved political matters, and he was strongly op- 

 posed to the President of the Royal Society being 

 a Member of Parliament, on the grounds that the 

 supreme representative of science should not have 

 the remotest connection with party politics. Huxley 

 himself was a staimch Unionist in jjolitics, principally 

 on the grounds of the betrayal of trust which would 

 be involved in a measure of Home Rule, so many 

 people having invested money in Ireland on the 

 strength of the existing circumstances. 



In November of tliis year (1887) he was profoundly 

 distressed by the death of his second daughter, but, 

 nevertheless, fulfilled some important engagements 

 in connection with technical education in Man- 

 chester. At the end of this year, too, Huxley was 

 devoting some time to reading the proofs of Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer's autobiography. 



His health was still very unsatisfactory in 1888 — 

 a year which is marked by a good deal of correspond- 

 ence between Huxley and Spencer on the subject 

 of the struggle for existence. During this year, 

 eilso, he wrote the obituary notice of Charles Darwin 

 for the Royal Society. His ovm health was so bad 

 aft/jT April that all work had to be put on one side 



