94 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, v 



41 NORTH BANK, REGENT'S PARK, 

 Jan. 3, 1851. 



My progress (he writes) 1 must necessarily be slow 

 and uncertain. I cannot see two steps forwards. Much 

 depends upon myself, much upon circumstances. Hitherto 

 all has gone as well as I could wish. I have gained each 

 object that I had set before myself that is, I have my 

 shore appointment, I have found a means of publishing 

 what I have done creditably, and I have continued to 

 come into communication with some of the first men in 

 England in my department of science. But, as I have 

 found to be the case in all things that are gained, from 

 money to friendship, it is not so much getting as keeping. 

 It is by no means difficult if you are decently introduced, 

 have tolerably agreeable manners, and some smattering of 

 science, to take a position among these folks, but it is a 

 mighty different affair to keep it and turn it to account. 

 Not like the man who, at the Enchanted Castle, had the 

 courage to blow the horn but not to draw the sword, and 

 was consequently shot forth from the mouth of the cave 

 by which he entered with most ignominious haste, one 

 must be ready to fight immediately after one's arrival has 

 been announced, or be blown into oblivion. 



I have drawn the sword, but whether I am in truth to 

 beat the giants and deliver my princess from the enchanted 

 castle is yet to be seen. 



For several months he lived with his brother 

 George and his wife at North Bank, St. John's Wood 

 (the house was pulled down in 1896 for the Great 

 Central Railway), but the surroundings were too 

 easy, and not conducive to hard work 



I must, I fear, emigrate to some "two pair back," 

 which shall have the feel and manner of a workshop, 



1 When not otherwise specified, the extracts in this chapter are 

 from letters to his future wife. 



