204 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xh 



This year Huxley was appointed a Trustee of the British 

 Museum, an office which he had held ex officio from 1883 

 to 1885, as President of the Royal Society. 



This is referred to in the following letter of March 9 :— 



My dear Hooker — Having nothing to do plays the devil 

 with doing anything, and I suppose that is why I have been so 

 long about answering your letter. 



There is nothing the matter with me now except want of 

 strength. I am tired out with a three-mile walk, and my voice 

 goes if I talk for any time. I do not suppose I shall do much 

 good till I get into high and dry air, and it is too early for Swit- 

 zerland yet. ... 



You see I was honoured and gloried by a trusteeship of the 

 B.M.* These things, I suppose, normally come when one is 

 worn-out. When Lowe was Chancellor of the Exchequer I had 

 a long talk with him about the affairs of the Nat. Hist. Museum, 

 and I told him that he had better put Flower at the head of it 

 and make me a trustee to back him. Bobby no doubt thought the 

 suggestion cheeky, but it is odd that the thing has come about 

 now that I don't care for it, and desire nothing better than to 

 be out of every description of bother and responsibility. 



Have not Lady Hooker and you yet learned that a large 

 country house is of all places the most detestable in cold 

 weather? The neuralgia was a mild and kindly hint of Provi- 

 dence not to do it again, but I am rejoiced it has vanished. 



Pronouns got mixed somehow. 



With our kindest regards — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



More last words : — What little faculty I have has been be- 

 stowed on the obituary of Darwin for R.S. lately. I have been 

 trying to make it an account of his intellectual progress, and I 

 hope it will have some interest. Among other things I have 

 been trying to set out the argument of the " Origin of Species," 

 and reading the book for the nth time for that purpose. It is 

 one of the hardest books to understand thoroughly that I know 

 of, and I suppose that is the reason why even people like Ro- 

 manes get so hopelessly wrong. 



* Replying on the 2nd to Sir John Evans' congratulations, he says : 

 — " It is some months since Lord Salisbury made the proposal to me, 

 and I was beginning to wonder what had happened — whether Cantuar 

 had put his foot down for example, and objected to bad company." 



