12 , LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, vn 



To Lord Farrer 



4 Marlborough Place, Dec. 6, 1885. 



My dear Farrer — From a scientific point of view Glad- 

 stone's article was undoubtedly not worth powder and shot. 

 But, on personal grounds, the perusal of it sent me blaspheming 

 about the house with the first healthy expression of wrath known 

 for a couple of years — to my wife's great alarm — and I should 

 have " busted up " if I had not given vent to my indignation ; 

 and secondly, all orthodoxy was gloating over the slap in the 

 face which the G.O.M. had administered to science in the person 

 of Reville. 



The ignorance of the so-called educated classes in this 

 country is stupendous, and in the hands of people like Gladstone 

 it is a political force. Since I became an official of the Royal 

 Society, good taste seemed to me to dictate silence about matters 

 on which there is " great division among us." But now I have 

 recovered my freedom, and I am greatly minded to begin stirring 

 the fire afresh. 



Within the last month I have picked up wonderfully. If 

 dear old Darwin were alive he would say it is because I have 

 had a fight, but in truth the fight is consequence and not cause. 

 I am infinitely relieved by getting rid of the eternal strain of 

 the past thirty years, and hope to get some good work done yet 

 before I die, so make ready for the part of the judicious bottle- 

 holder which I have always found you. — Ever yours very faith- 

 fully, T. H. Huxley. 



4 Marlborough Place, Jan. 13, 1886. 



My dear Farrer — My contribution to the next round was 

 finished and sent to Knowles a week ago. I confess it to have 

 been a work of supererogation ; but the extreme shiftiness of my 

 antagonist provoked me, and I was tempted to pin him and dis- 

 sect him as an anatomico-psychological exercise. May it be 

 accounted unto me for righteousness, though I laughed so much 

 over the operation that I deserve no credit. 



I think your notion is a very good one, and I am not sure 

 that I shall not try to carry it out some day. In the meanwhile, 

 however, I am bent upon an enterprise which I think still more 

 important. 



After I have done with the reconcilers, I will see whether 

 theology cannot be told her place rather more plainly than she 

 has yet been dealt with. 



