144 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VII 



It was very strange that before leaving London my 

 mother, possessed by a strange whim, as I thought, 

 distributed to many of us little things belonging to her. 

 I laughed at her for what I called her "testament- 

 ary disposition," little dreaming that the words were 

 prophetic. 



[The summons to those of the family in London reached 

 them late, and their arrival was made still later by 

 inconvenient trains and a midnight drive, so that all had 

 long been over when they came to Earning in Kent, where 

 the elder Huxleys had just settled near their son James.] 



Our mother had died at half-past four, falling gradually 

 into a more and more profound insensibility. She was 

 thus happily spared the pain of fruitlessly wishing us 

 round her, in her last moments ; and as the hand of 

 Death was upon her, I know not that it could have fallen 

 more lightly. 



I offer you no consolation, my dearest sister, for I 

 know of none. There are things which each must bear 

 as he best may with the strength that has been allotted 

 to him. Would that I were near you to soften the blow 

 by the sympathy which we should have in common. . . . 



May 3, 1852. 



So much occupation has crowded upon me between the 

 beginning of this letter and the present time that I have 

 been unable to finish it. I had undertaken to give a 

 lecture at the Royal Institution on the 30th April It 

 was on a difficult subject, requiring a good deal of thought ; 

 and as it was my first appearance and before the best 

 audience in London, you may imagine how anxious and 

 nervous I was, and how completely I was obliged to 

 abstract my thoughts from everything else. 



However, I am happy to say it is well over. There 

 was a very good audience Faraday, Prof. Forbes, Dr. 

 Forbes, Wharton Jones, and [a] whole ' lot of " nobs," 

 among my auditors. I had made up my mind all day to 



