II2 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, va 



some people would call dreary. I could go and roll in the mud 

 with satisfaction that it is English mud. 



It will be jolly to see you again. Wife unites in love. — Ever 

 yours, T. H. Huxley. 



To return home was not only a great pleasure ; it gave 

 him a fillip for the time, and he writes to Sir M. Foster, 

 April 12 : — 



It is very jolly to be home, and I feel better already. Clark 

 has just been here overhauling me, and feels very confident that 

 he shall screw me up. 



I have renounced dining out and smoking (!!!) by way of 

 preliminaries. God only knows whether I shall be permitted 

 more than the smell of a mutton chop for dinner. But I have 

 great faith in Andrew, who set me straight before when other 

 " physicians' aid was vain." 



But his energy was fitful ; lassitude and depression again 

 invaded him. He was warned by Sir Andrew Clark to lay 

 aside all the burden of his work. Accordingly, early in 

 May, just after his sixtieth birthday, he sent in his formal 

 resignation of the Professorship of Biology, and the In- 

 spectorship of Salmon Fisheries ; while a few days later he 

 laid his resignation of the Presidency before the Council of 

 the Royal Society. By the latter he was begged to defer 

 his final decision, but his health gave no promise of suffi- 

 cient amendment before the decisive Council meeting in 

 October. 



He writes on Alay 27 : — 



I am convinced that what with my perennial weariness and 

 my deafness I ought to go, whatever my kind friends may say. 



A curious effect of his illness was that for the first time 

 in his life he began to shrink involuntarily from assuming 

 responsibilities and from appearing on public occasions ; thus 

 he writes on June 16: — 



I am sorry to say that the perkiness of last week * was only 



a spurt, and I have been in a disgusting state of blue devils lately. 



r" Can't make out what it is, for I really have nothing the matter, 



* i.e. at the unveiling of the Darwin statue at South Kensington. 

 See p. 120. 



