308 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVI 



It seems as if all the thoughts in what you have 

 written were my own, and yet I am conscious of the 

 enormous difference your presentation of them makes in 

 iny intellectual state. One is thought in the state of 

 hemp yarn, and the other in the state of rope. Work 

 away, then, excellent rope-maker, and make us more 

 ropes to hold on against the devil and the parsons. 



For myself, I am absorbed in dogs gone to the dogs 

 in fact having been occupied in dissecting them for the 

 last fortnight. You do not say how your health is. 

 Ever yours faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



Sept. 19, 1860. 



MY DEAR SPENCER You will forgive the delay which 

 has occurred in forwarding your proof when I tell you 

 that we have lost our poor little son, our pet and hope. 

 You who knew him well, and know how his mother's 

 heart and mine were wrapped up in him, will understand 

 how great is our affliction. He was attacked with a bad 

 form of scarlet fever on Thursday night, and on Saturday 

 night effusion on the brain set in suddenly and carried 

 him off in a couple of hours. Jessie was taken ill on 

 Friday, but has had the disease quite lightly, and is doing 

 well. The baby has escaped. So end many hopes and 

 plans sadly enough, and yet not altogether bitterly. 

 For as the little fellow was our greatest joy, so is the 

 recollection of him an enduring consolation. It is a 

 heavy payment, but I would buy the four years of him 

 again at the same price. My wife bears up bravely. 



I have read your proofs at intervals, and you must not 

 suppose they have troubled me. On the contrary they 

 were at times the only things I could attend to. I agree 

 in the spirit of the whole perfectly. On some matters of 

 detail I had doubts which I am not at present clear- 

 headed enough to think out 



The only thing I object to in toto is the illustration 

 which I have marked at p. 24. It is physically im- 



