66 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, iv 



He had made prompt confession as soon as he discovered 

 his mistake, to Tyndall himself, who ultimately came to 

 the dinner and proposed the health of his old friend Hirst. 



4 Marlborough Place, Nov. 9, 1883. 



My dear Tyndall — I have been going to write to you for 

 two or three days to ask you to propose Hirst's health as Royal 

 Medallist on the 30th November. I am sure your doing so 

 would give an extra value to the medal to him. 



But now I realise the position of those poor devils I have 

 seen in lunatic asylums and who believed they have committed 

 the unforgivable sin. It came upon me suddenly in Waterloo 

 Place this evening, that I had done so; and I went straight to 

 the Royal Institution to make confession, and if possible get 

 absolution. But I heard you had gone to Hindhead, and so I 

 write. 



Yesterday I was sending some invitations to the dinner on 

 the 30th, and thinking to please the Society I made a shot at 

 some ministers. The only two I know much about are Harcourt 

 and Chamberlain, and the devil (in whom I now firmly believe) 

 put it into my head to write to both. 



The enormous stupidity of which I had been guilty in asking 

 Chamberlain under the circumstances, and the sort of construc- 

 tion you and others might put upon it, never entered my head 

 till this afternoon. It really made me ill, and I went straight 

 to find you. If Providence is good to me the letter will mis- 

 carry and he won't come. But anyhow I want you to know that 

 I have been idiotically stupid, and that I wish the Presidency 

 and the dinner and everything connected with it at the bottom 

 of the sea, if you are as much disgusted with me as you have 

 a perfect right to be. — Ever yours faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



The following refers to a newly-founded society at 

 Newcastle, which had invited him to become one of its 

 vice-presidents : — 



4 Marlborough Place, N.W., Dec. 30, 1883. 



My dear Morley — The Newcastle people wrote to me some 

 time ago telling me that Sir W. Armstrong was going to be their 

 President. Armstrong is an old friend of mine, so I wrote to 

 him to make inquiries. He told me that he was not going to 

 be President, and knew nothing about the people who were 



