yo LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, v 



could not get her the bird with the long tail, but that some day 

 I will send her some pictures of copper-coloured gentlemen with 

 great big wigs and no trousers, and tell her her old uncle loves 

 her very much and never forgets her nor anybody else. 



God bless you, dearest Lizzie. Write soon. — Ever your 

 brother, Tom. 



Thus within a month of landing in England, Huxley 

 had secured his footing in the scientific world. He was 

 freed for the time from the more irksome part of his pro- 

 fession ; his service in the navy had become a stepping- 

 stone to the pursuits in which his heart really was. He had 

 long been half in despair over the work which he had sent 

 out like the dove from the ark, if haply it might find him 

 some standing ground in the world; no news of it had 

 reached him till he was about to start on his homeward 

 voyage, but he returned to discover that at a single stroke 

 it had placed him in the front rank of naturalists. 



41 North Bank, Regent's Park, 

 Jan. 3, 1851. 

 My progress (he writes),* must necessarily be slow and un- 

 certain. I cannot see two steps forwards. Much depends upon 

 myself, much upon circumstances. Hitherto all has gone as well 

 as I could wish. I have gained each object that I had set before 

 myself — that is, I have my shore appointment, I have found a 

 means of publishing what I have done creditably, and I have 

 continued to come into communication with some of the first 

 men in England in my department of science. But, as I have 

 found to be the case in all things that are gained, from moneys 

 to friendship, it is not so much getting as keeping. It is by no) 

 means difficult if you are decently introduced, have tolerably 

 agreeable manners, and some smattering of science, to take a 

 position among these folks, but it is a mighty different affair to 

 keep it and turn it to account. Not like the man who, at the 

 Enchanted Castle, had the courage to blow the horn but not to 

 draw the sword, and was consequently shot forth from the 

 mouth of the cave by which he entered with most ignominious 

 haste, — one must be ready to fight immediately after one's 

 arrival has been announced, or be blown into oblivion. 



* When not otherwise specified, the extracts in this chapter are from 

 letters to his future wife. 



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