66 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. IV 



have looked upon our return with unmixed joy ; but so 

 many new and strong ties have arisen to unite me with 

 Sydney, that now when the anchor is getting up for 

 England, I scarcely know whether to rejoice or to grieve. 

 You must not be angry, my dear Mother ; I have none 

 the less affection for you or any other of those whom I 

 love in England only a very great deal for a certain 

 little lassie whom I must leave behind me without clearly 

 seeing when we are to meet again. You must remember 

 the Scripture as my excuse, " A man shall leave his father 

 and mother and cleave unto his " (I wish I could add) 

 wife. Our long cruises are fine times for reflection, and 

 during the last I determined that we would be terribly 

 prudent and get married about 1870, or the Greek 

 Kalends, or, what is about the same thing, whenever I am 

 afflicted with the malheur de richesse. 



People talk about the satisfaction of an approving con- 

 science. Mine approves me intensely ; but I'll be hanged 

 if I see the satisfaction of it. I feel much more inclined 

 to swear " worse than our armies in Flanders." ... So 

 far as my private doings are concerned, I hear very satis- 

 factory news of them. I heard from an old messmate of 

 mine at Haslar the other day that Dr. Mac William, F.R.S., 

 one of our deputy-inspectors, had been talking about one 

 of my papers, and gave him to understand that it was to 

 be printed. Furthermore, he is a great advocate for the 

 claims of assistant surgeons to ward-room rank, and all 

 that sort of stuff, and, I am told, quoted me as an 

 example ! Henceforward I look upon the learned doctor 

 as a man of sound sense and discrimination ! Without 

 joking, however, I am glad to have come under his notice, 

 as he may be of essential use to me. I find myself getting 

 horribly selfish, looking at everything with regard to the 

 influence it may have on my grand objects. 



Further descriptions of the voyage are to be 

 drawn from an article in the Westminster Review for 



