LETTERS 



257 



The next letter shows once more the value he set upon 

 Dotanical evidence in the question of the influence of con- 

 ditions in the process of evolution. 



3 Jevington Gardens, Eastbourne, 

 Sept. 29, 1889. 



My dear Hooker — I hope to be with you at the Athenaeum 

 Dn Thursday. It does one good to hear of your being in such 

 good working order. My knowledge of orchids is infinitesimally 

 small, but there were some eight or nine species plentiful in the 

 Engadine, and I learned enough to appreciate the difficulties. 

 Why do not some of these people who talk about the direct 

 influence of conditions try to explain the structure of orchids on 

 that tack ? Orchids at any rate can't try to improve themselves 

 in taking shots at insects' heads with pollen bags — as Lamarck's 

 Giraffes tried to stretch their necks ! 



Balfour's ballon d'essai* (I do not believe it could have 

 been anything more) is the only big blunder he has made, and 

 it passes my comprehension why he should have made it. But 

 he seems to have dropped it again like the proverbial hot potato. 

 If he had not, he would have hopelessly destroyed the Unionist 

 party. — Ever yours, T. H. Huxley. 



At the end of the year he thanks Lord Tennyson for 

 his gift of " Demeter." 



Dec. 2b, 1889. 



My dear Tennyson — Accept my best thanks for your very 

 kind present of " Demeter." I have not had a Christmas Box 

 I valued so much for many a long year. I envy your vigour, and 

 am ashamed of myself beside you for being turned out to grass. 

 I kick up my heels now and then, and have a gallop round the 

 paddock, but it does not come to much. 



With best wishes to you, and, if Lady Tennyson has not 

 forgotten me altogether, to her also — Believe me, yours very 

 faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



A discussion in the Times this autumn, in which he 

 joined, was of unexpected moment to him, inasmuch as it 

 was the starting-point for no fewer than four essays in 

 political philosophy, which appeared the following year in 

 the Nineteenth Century. 



* i.e. touching a proposed Roman Catholic University for Ireland. 

 53 



