1867 LETTER TO TYNDALL 421 



working-men's lecture, a step important as tending 

 towards his own ideal of what science should be : 

 not the province of the few, but the possession of 

 the many. 



This first lecture was delivered by Professor 

 Tyndall, who wrote him an account of the meeting, 

 and in particular of his reconciliation with Professors 

 Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and Tait, with whom he had 

 had a somewhat embittered controversy. 



In his reply, Huxley writes : 



To J. TYNDALL 



Thanks also for a copy of the Dundee Advertiser con- 

 taining your lecture. It seemed to me that the report 

 must be a very good one, and the lecture reads exceedingly 

 well. You have inaugurated the working-men's lectures 

 of the Association in a way that cannot be improved. 

 And it was worth the trouble, for I suspect they will 

 become a great and noble feature in the meetings. 



Everything seems to have gone well at the meeting, 

 the educational business carried \i.e. a recommendation 

 that natural science be made a part of the curriculum in 

 the public schools], and the antbropologers making fools 

 of themselves in a most effectual way. So that I do not 

 feel I have anything to reproach myself with for being 

 absent. 



I am very pleased to hear of the reconciliation with 

 Thomson and Tait. The mode of it speaks well for 

 them, and the fact will remove a certain source of friction 

 from amongst the cogs of your mental machinery. 



The following gives the reason for his resigning 

 the Fullerian lectureship : 



