162 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VIII 



when asleep. If it ever comes I shall be pleased and 

 thankful ; if it does not, it is not the sort of thing to 

 break my equanimity. Indeed, I would always like to 

 see it given not as a mere honour, but as a help to a good 

 man, and this it is assuredly in Hooker's case. Govern- 

 ment people are so ignorant that they require to have 

 merits drummed into their heads by all possible means, 

 and Hooker's getting the medal may be of real service to 

 him before long. I am in a snug, though not an idle, 

 nest, he has not got his resting-place yet. And so, my 

 dear Huxley, I trust that you know me too well to think 

 that I am either grieved or envious, and you, Hooker, 

 and I are much of the same way of thinking. 



It is interesting to record the same scrupulosity over 

 the election to the Registrarship of the University of 

 London in 1856, when, having begun to canvass for 

 Dr. Latham before his friend Dr. W. B. Carpenter 

 entered the field, he writes to Hooker : 



I at once, of course, told Carpenter precisely what I 

 had done. Had I known of his candidature earlier, I 

 should certainly have taken no active part on either side 

 not for Latham, because I would not oppose Carpenter, 

 and not for Carpenter, because his getting the Registrarship 

 would probably be an advantage for me, as I should have 

 a good chance of obtaining the Examinership in Physiology 

 and Comparative Anatomy which he would vacate. Indeed, 

 I refused to act for Carpenter in a case in which he asked 

 me to do so, partly for this reason and partly because I 

 felt thoroughly committed to Latham. Under these circum- 

 stances I think you are quite absolved from any pledge 

 to me. It's deuced hard to keep straight in this wicked 

 world, but as you say the only chance is to out with it, 

 and I thank you much for writing so frankly about the 

 matter. I hope it will be as fine as to-day at Down. 1 



1 Charles Darwin's home in Kent. 



