2 g6 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xvi 



rest was mental activity without excessive physical fatigue ; 

 and he felt he still had a useful purpose to serve, as a friend 

 put it, in patrolling his beat with a vigilant eye to the loose 

 characters of thought. Thus he writes on September 29 to 

 Sir J. Hooker: — 



I wish quietude of mind were possible to me. But without 

 something to do that amuses me and does not involve too much 

 labour, I become quite unendurable — to myself and everybody 

 else. 



Providence has, I believe, specially devolved on Gladstone, 

 Gore, and Co. the function of keeping " 'ome 'appy " for me. 



I really can't give up tormenting ces droles. 



However, I have been toiling at a tremendously scientific 

 article about the " Aryan question " absolutely devoid of blas- 

 phemy. 



This article appeared in the November number of the 

 Nineteenth Century (Coll. Essays, vii, 271) and treats the 

 question from a biological point of view, with the warning 

 to readers that it is essentially a speculation based upon 

 facts, but not assuredly proved. It starts from the racial 

 characteristics of skull and stature, not from simply philo- 

 logical considerations, and arrives at a form of the " Sar- 

 matian " theory of Aryan origins. And for fear lest he 

 should be supposed to take sides in the question of race 

 and language, or race and civilisation, he remarks : — 



The combination of swarthiness with stature above the aver- 

 age and a long skull, confer upon me the serene impartiality of 

 a mongrel. 



The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, Aug. 12, 1890. 



My dear Evans — I have read your address returned here- 

 with with a great deal of interest, as I happen to have been 

 amusing myself lately with reviewing the " Aryan " question 

 according to the new lights (or darknesses). 



I have only two or three remarks to offer on the places I 

 have marked A and B. 



As to A, I would not state the case so strongly against the 

 probabilities of finding pliocene man. A pliocene Homo skeleton 

 might analogically be expected to differ no more from that of 

 modern men than the CEningen Canis from modern Canes, or 

 pliocene horses from modern horses. If so, he would most 



