104 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, vn 



wards. This is all as it should be. I can reverence such a 

 man and yet respect myself. 



I have been aspiring to great honours since I virote to you 

 last, to wit the F.R.S., and found no little to my astonishment 

 that I had a chance of it, and so went in. I must tell you that 

 they have made the admission more difficult than it used to be. 

 Candidates are not elected by the Society alone, but fifteen 

 only a year are selected by a committee, and then elected as a 

 matter of course by the Society. This year there were thirty- 

 eight candidates. I did not expect to come in till next year, but 

 I find I am one of the selected. I fancy I shall be the junior 

 Fellow by some years. Singularly eiiough, among the non- 

 selected candidates were Ward, the man who conducted the 

 Botanical Honours Examination of Apothecaries' Hall nine 

 years ago, and Bryson, the surgeon of the Fisguard, i.e. nomi- 

 nally my immediate superior, and who, as he frequently acts 

 as Sir Wm. Burnett's deputy, will very likely examine me when 

 I pass for Surgeon R.N.! ! That is awkward and must be an- 

 noying to him, but it is not my fault. I did not ask for a single 

 name that appeared upon my certificate. Owen's name and 

 Carpenter's, which were to have been appended, were not added. 

 Forbes, my recommender, told me beforehand not to expect to 

 get in this year, and did not use his influence, and so I have 

 no intriguing to reproach myself with or to be reproached with. 

 The only drawback is that it will cost me £14, which is more 

 than I can very well afford. 



By the way, I have not told you that after staying for about 

 five months with George, I found that if I meant to work in 

 earnest his home was not the place, so, much to my regret, — 

 for they made me very happy there, — I summoned resolution 

 and The Boy's Own Book and took a den of my own, whence 

 I write at present. You had better, however, direct to George, 

 as I am going to move and don't know how long I may remain 

 at my next habitation. At present I am hving in the Park Road, 

 but I find it too noisy and am going to St. Anne's Gardens, St. 

 John's Wood, close to my mother's, against whose forays I 

 shall have to fortify myself. 



It was a minor addition to his many troubles that after a 

 time Huxley found a grudging and jealous spirit exhibited 

 in some quarters towards his success, and influence used to 

 prevent any further advance that might endanger the exist- 

 ing balance of power in the scientific world. But this could 



