256 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XIV 



The article appeared on December 26. Only 

 Hooker was admitted into the secret. In an undated 

 note Huxley writes to him : 



I have written the other review you wot of, and have 

 handed it over to my friend to deal as he likes with 

 it. ... Darwin will laugh over a letter that I sent him 

 this morning with a vignette of the Jermyn Street u pet " 

 ready to fight his battle, and the "judicious Hooker" 

 holding the bottle. 



And on December 31 he writes again : 



JERMYN STREET, December 31, 1859. 



MY DEAR HOOKER I have not the least objection to 

 my share in the Times article being known, only I should 

 not like to have anything stated on my authority. The 

 fact is, that the first quarter of the first column (down to 

 " what is a species," etc.) is not mine, but belongs to the 

 man who is the official reviewer for the Times (my 

 " Temporal " godfather I might call him). 



The rest is in my ipsissima verba, and I only wonder 

 that it turns out as well as it does for I wrote it faster 

 than ever I wrote anything in my life. The last column 

 nearly as fast as my wife could read the sheets. But I 

 was thoroughly in the humour and full of the subject. 

 Of course as a scientific review the thing is worth nothing, 

 but I earnestly hope it may have made some of the 

 educated mob, who derive their ideas from the Times, 

 reflect. And whatever they do, they shall respect 

 Darwin. 



Pray give my kindest regards and best wishes for the 

 New Year to Mrs. Hooker, and tell her that if she, of 

 her own natural sagacity and knowledge of the naughti- 

 ness of my heart, affirms that I wrote the article, I shall 

 not contradict her but that for reasons of state I must 

 not be supposed to say anything. I am pretty certain 



