1861 DEATH OF HENSLOW 327 



You know all these things as well as I do, and I 

 know as well as you do that such thoughts do not cure 

 heartache or assuage grief. Such maladies, when men 

 are as old as you and I ai'e, are apt to hang about one a 

 long time, but I find that if they are faced and accepted 

 as part of our fair share of life, a great deal of good 

 is to be got out of them. You will find that too, but 

 in the meanwhile don't go and break yourself down 

 with over wear and tear. The heaviest pull comes 

 after the excitement of a catastrophe of this kind ia 

 over. 



Believe in my affectionate sympathy with you, and 

 that I am, my dear old fellow, yours ever, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 

 And again on the 18th : 



Many thanks for your two letters. It would be sad 

 to hear of life dragging itself out so painfully and slowly, 

 if it were not for what you tell me of the calmness and 

 wisdom with which the poor sufferer uses such strength 

 as is left him. 



One can express neither wish nor hope in such a case. 

 With such a man what is will be well. All I have to 

 repeat is, don't knock yourself up. I wish to God I 

 could help you in some way or other beyond repeating 

 the parrot cry. If I can, of course you will let me 

 know. 



In June 1861 a jotting in his notebook records 

 that he is at work on the chick's skull, part of the 

 embryological work which he took up vigorously at 

 this time, and at once the continuation of his 

 researches on the Vertebrate Skull, embodied in his 

 Croonian lecture of 1858, and the beginning of a long 



