1887 TECHNICAL EDUCATION 193 



Collected Essays, iii. 427-451, was duly delivered in Man- 

 chester, and produced a considerable effect. 

 He writes to Sir M. Foster, December 1 : — 



I am glad I resisted the strong temptation to shirk the busi- 

 ness. Manchester has gone solid for technical education, and 

 if the idiotic London papers, instead of giving half a dozen lines 

 of my speech, had mentioned the solid contributions to the work 

 announced at the meeting, they would have enabled you to 

 understand its importance. 



... I have the satisfaction of having got through a hard 

 bit of work, and am none the worse physically — rather the better 

 for having to pull myself together. 



And to Sir J. Hooker : — 



85 Marina, St. Leonards, Dec. 4, 1887. 



My dear Hooker — x = 8, 6.30. I meant to have written 

 to you all to put off the x till next Thursday, when I could attend, 

 but I have been so bedevilled I forgot it. I shall ask for a bill 

 of indemnity. 



I was rather used up yesterday, but am picking up. In fact 

 my Manchester journey convinced me that there was more stuff 

 left than I thought for. I travelled 400 miles, and made a speech 

 of fifty minutes in a hot, crowded room, all in about twelve 

 hours, and was none the worse. Manchester, Liverpool, and 

 Newcastle have now gone in for technical education on a grand 

 scale, and the work is practically done. Nunc Dimittis! 



I hear great things of your speech at the dinner. I wish I 

 could have been there to hear it. . . . 



Of the two following letters, one refers to the account 

 of Sir J. D. Hooker's work in connection with the award 

 of the Copley medal ; the other, to Hooker himself, touches 

 a botanical problem in which Huxley was interested. 



St. Leonards, A t ov. 25, 1887. 



My dear Foster — ... I forget whether in the notice of 



Hooker's work you showed me there was any allusion made to 



that remarkable account of the Diatoms in Antarctic ice, to 



which I once drew special attention, but Heaven knows where? 



Dyer perhaps may recollect all about the account in the 



Flora Antarctica, if I mistake not. I have always looked upon 



Hooker's insight into the importance of these things and their 



49 



