72 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. V 



him the greatest kindness throughout this period of strug- 

 gle, and the sympathy and intellectual stimulus he received 

 from their society were of the utmost help. They were al- 

 ways ready to welcome him at Greenwich, and he not only 

 often ran down there for a week-end, but would spend part 

 of his vacations with them at Lowestoft or Tenby, where 

 naturalists could find plenty of occupation. 



But from a worldly point of view, it was too soon clear 

 that science was sadly unprofitable. There seemed no 

 speedy prospect of making enough to marry on. As early 

 as March 1851 he writes : — 



The difficulties of obtaining a decent position in England in 

 anything like a reasonable time seem to me greater than ever 

 they were. To attempt to live by any scientific pursuit is a 

 farce. Nothing but what is absolutely practical will go down 

 in England. A man of science may earn great distinction, but 

 not bread. He will get invitations to all sorts of dinners and 

 conversaziones, but not enough income to pay his cab fare. A 

 man of science in these times is like an Esau who sells his birth- 

 right for a mess of pottage. Again, if one turns to practice, 

 it is still the old story — wait; and only after years of working 

 like a galley-slave and intriguing like a courtier is there any 

 chance of getting a decent livelihood. I am not at all sure 

 if ... it would not be the most prudent thing to stick by the 

 Service : there at any rate is certainty in health and in sickness. 



Nevertheless he was mightily encouraged in the work of 

 bringing out his Rattlesnake papers by a notable success in 

 a quarter where he scarcely dared to hope for it. The 

 Royal Society had for some time set itself to become a body 

 of working men of science ; to exclude for the future all 

 mere dilettanti, and to admit a limited number of men whose 

 work was such as to deserve recognition. Thanks to the 

 initiative of Forbes, he now found this recognition accorded 

 to him on the strength of his " Medusa " paper. He writes 

 in February : — 



The F.R.S. that you tell me you dream of being appended to 

 my nam& is nearer than one might think, to my no small sur- 

 prise. ... I had no idea that it was at all within my reach, until 

 I found out the other day, talking with Mr. Bell, that my having 

 a paper in the Transactions was one of the best of qualifications. 



