440 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xxil 



original work, I should not be a true friend either to 

 science or yourself if I said a word against your leaving 

 us. 



But for all that I am and shall remain very sorry. 

 Ever yours very sincerely, T. H. HUXLEY. 



If you recommend , of course I shall be very glad 



to support him in any way I can. But at present I am 

 rather disposed to d n any one who occupies your 

 place. 



The following extract is from a letter to Haeckel 

 (November 13, 1868), with reference to the proposed 

 translation of his Morphologie by the Ray Society : 



We shall at once look out for a good translator of the 

 text, as the job will be a long and a tough one. My wife 

 (who sends her best wishes and congratulations on your 

 fatherhood) will do the bits of Goethe's poetry, and I will 

 look after the prose citations. 



Next as to the text itself. The council were a little 

 alarmed at the bulk of the book, and it is of the utmost 

 importance that it should be condensed to the uttermost. 



Furthermore, English propriety had taken fright at 

 rumours touching the aggressive heterodoxy of some 

 passages. (We do not much mind heterodoxy here, if it 

 does not openly proclaim itself as such.) 



And on both these points I had not only to give very 

 distinct assurances, such as I thought your letters had 

 entitled me to give ; but in a certain sense to become 

 myself responsible for your behaving yourself like a good 

 boy! 



If I had not known you and understood your nature 

 and disposition as I fancy I do, I should not have allowed 

 myself to be put in this position ; but I have implicit 

 faith in your doing what is wise and right, and so making 

 it tenable, 



