1879 "TENAX PROPOSITI" 5 



Horatian phrase, " Propositi tenax." Now this was the 

 family motto ; and Huxley wrote to point out the coin- 

 cidence : — 



Science and Art Department, 

 South Kensington, June 11, 1879. 



My dear Mr. Sandys — I beg your acceptance of the inclosed 

 photograph, which is certainly the best ever executed of me. 



And by way of a memento of the claim which you established 

 not only to the eloquence but also the insight of a prophet, I have 

 added an impression of the seal with " Tenax propositi " writ 

 plain, if not large. As I mentioned to you, it belonged to my 

 eldest brother, who has been dead for many years. I trust that 

 the Heralds' College may be as well satisfied as he was about 

 his right to the coat of arms and crest. 



My own genealogical inquiries have taken me so far back 

 that I confess the later stages do not interest me. — Ever yours 

 very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



The British Association met at Sheffield in 1879, and 

 Huxley took this occasion to " eat the leek " in the matter 

 of Bathybius (see vol. i. p. 318). It must be remembered 

 that his original interpretation of the phenomenon did not 

 involve any new theory of the origin of life, and was not 

 put forward because of its supposed harmony with Darwin's 

 speculations.* 



mutuemur a Cartesio illo cujus laudes ipse in hac urbe quondam 

 praedicavit) etiam " metaphysica " honore debito prosecutus est. 

 Ilium demum liberaliter educatum esse existimat qui cum ceteris 

 animi et corporis dotibus instructus sit, turn praesertim quicquid turpe 

 sit oderit, quicquid sive in arte sive in rerum natura pulchrum sit 

 diligat ; neque tamen ipse (ut ait Aristoteles) " animalium parum 

 pulchrorum contemplationem fastidio puerili reformidat" ; sed in per- 

 petua animantium serie hominis vestigia perscrutari conatus, satis 

 ampla liberalitate in universa rerum natura "humani nihil a se alie- 

 num putat." Duco ad vos virum intrepidum, facundum, propositi 

 tenacem, Thomam Henricum Huxley. 



* "That which interested me in the matter was the apparent anal- 

 ogy of Bathybius with other well-known forms of lower life, such as 

 the plasmodia of the Myxomycetes and the Rhizopods. Speculative 

 hopes or fears had nothing to do with the matter ; and if Bathybius 

 were brought up alive from the bottom of the Atlantic to-morrow, the 

 fact would not have the slightest bearing, that I can discern, upon 

 Mr. Darwin's speculations, or upon any of the disputed problems of 



