1852 JEALOUSY OF HIS RISE 141 



ness, and honesty ; then to maintain his principle 

 and defend his position against all attempts at 

 browbeating. 



March 5, 1852. 



I told you I was very busy, and I must tell you what 

 I am about and you will believe me. I have just finished 

 a Memoir for the Royal Society, 1 which has taken me a 

 world of time, thought, and reading, and is, perhaps, the 

 best thing I have done yet. It will not be read till May, 

 and I do not know whether they will print it or not 

 afterwards ; that will require care and a little manoeuvring 

 on my part. You have no notion of the intrigues that 

 go on in this blessed world of science. Science is, I fear, 

 no purer than any other region of human activity ; though 

 it should be. Merit alone is very little good ; it must 

 be backed by tact and knowledge of the world to do very 

 much. 



For instance, I know that the paper I have just sent 

 in is very original and of some importance, and I am 

 equally sure that if it is referred to the judgment of my 



" particular friend " that it will not be published. 



He won't be able to say a word against it, but he will 

 pooh-pooh it to a dead certainty. 



You will ask with some wonderment, Why ? Because 

 for the last twenty years has been regarded as the 

 great authority on these matters, and has had no one to 

 tread on his heels, until at last, I think, he has come to 

 look upon the Natural World as his special preserve, and 

 " no poachers allowed." So I must manoeuvre a little to 

 get my poor memoir kept out of his hands. 



The necessity for these little stratagems utterly disgusts 

 me. I would so willingly reverence and trust any man 

 of high standing and ability. I am so utterly unable to 



1 "On the Morphology of the Cephalous Mollusca," Scientific 

 Memoirs, vol. i. p. 152. 



