142 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VII 



comprehend this petty greediness. And yet withal you 

 will smile at my perversity. I have a certain pleasure 

 in overcoming these obstacles, and fighting these folks 

 with their own weapons. I do so long to be able to 

 trust men implicitly. I have such a horror of all this 

 literary pettifogging. I could be so content myself, if 

 the necessity of making a position would allow it, to 



work on anonymously, but I see is determined not 



to let either me or any one else rise if he can help it. 

 Let him beware. On my own subjects I am his master, 

 and am quite ready to fight half a dozen dragons. And 

 although he has a bitter pen, I flatter myself that on 

 occasions I can match him in that department also. 



But I was telling you how busy I am. I am getting 

 a memoir ready for the Zoological Society, and working 

 at my lecture for the Royal Institution, which I want to 

 make striking and original, as it is a good opportunity, 

 besides doing a translation now and then for one of the 

 Journals. Besides this, I am working at the British 

 Museum to make a catalogue of some creatures there. 

 All these things take a world of time and labour, and 

 yield next to no direct profit ; but they bring me into 

 contact with all sorts of men, in a very independent 

 position, and I am told, and indeed hope, that something 

 must arise from it. So fair a prospect opens out before 

 me if I can only wait. I am beginning to know what 

 work means, and see how much more may be done by 

 steady, unceasing, and well - directed efforts. I thrive 

 upon it too. I am as well as ever I was in my life, 

 and the more I work the better my temper seems to be. 



April 30, 1852, 11 P.M. 



I have just returned from giving my lecture x at the 

 Royal Institution, of which I told you in my last letter. 



1 " On Animal Individuality," Scientific Memoirs, vol. i. p. 146, 

 cp. p. 134, supra. 



