394 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxii 



artist, a born lover of form, a character which others rec- 

 ognise in him though he does not himself set it down in his 

 analysis. 



The essay on "Animal Automatism" suggested a 

 reminiscence of Professor Lankester's as to the way in 

 which it was delivered, and this in turn led to Huxley's 

 own account of the incident in the letter given in Vol. I. 

 p. 444. 



About the same time there is a letter acknowledging 

 Mr. Bateson's book On Variation, which is interesting as 

 touching on the latter-day habit of speculation apart from 

 fact which had begun to prevail in biology : — ■ 



Hodeslea, Feb. 20, 1894. 



My dear Mr. Bateson — I have put off thanking you for the 

 volume On Variation which you have been so good as to send 

 me in the hope that I should be able to look into it before 

 doing so. 



But as I find that impossible, beyond a hasty glance, at pres- 

 ent, I must content myself with saying how glad I am to see 

 from that glance that we are getting back from the region of 

 speculation into that of fact again. 



There have been threatenings of late that the field of battle 

 of Evolution was being transferred to Nephelococcygia. 



I see you are inclined to advocate the possibility of consider- 

 able " saltus " on the part of Dame Nature in her variations. 

 I always took the same view, much to Mr. Darwin's disgust, 

 and we used often to debate it. 



If you should come across my article in the Westminster 

 (i860) you will find a paragraph on that question near the end. 

 I am writing to Macmillan to send you the volume. — Yours very 

 faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



By the way, have you ever considered this point, that the 

 variations of which breeders avail themselves are exactly those 

 which occur when the previously wild stocks are subjected to 

 exactly the same conditions? 



The rest of the first half of the year is not eventful. As 

 illustrating the sort of communications which constantly 

 came to him, I quote from a letter to Sir J. Donnelly, of 

 January 11: — 



