140 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VII 



to reproach myself with or to be reproached with. The 

 only drawback is that it will cost me 14, which is 

 more than I can very well afford. 



By the way, I have not told you that after staying 

 for about five months with George, I found that if I 

 meant to work in earnest his home was not the place, 

 so, much to my regret, for they made me very happy 

 there, I summoned resolution and The Boy's Own Book 

 and took a den of my own, whence I write at present. 

 You had better, however, direct to George, as I am going 

 to move and don't know how long I may remain at my 

 next habitation. At present I am living in the Park 

 Road, but I find it too noisy and am going to St. Anne's 

 Gardens, .St. John's Wood, close to my mother's, against 

 whose forays I shall have to fortify myself. 



It was a minor addition to his many troubles 

 that after a time Huxley found a grudging and 

 jealous spirit exhibited in some quarters towards 

 his success, and influence used to prevent any further 

 advance that might endanger the existing balance 

 of power in the scientific world. But this could be 

 battled with directly ; indeed it was rather a relief 

 to have an opportunity for action instead of sitting 

 still to wait the results of uncertain elections. The 

 qualities requisite for such a contest he possessed, 

 in a high ideal of the dignity of science as an 

 instrument of truth; a standard of veracity in 

 scientific workers to which all should subordinate 

 their personal ambitions ; a disregard of authority 

 as such unless its claims were verified by indisputable 

 fact ; and as a beginning, the will to subject himself 

 to his own most rigid canons of accuracy, thorough- 



