136 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, viii 



April 9, 1855. 



My dear Dyster — I didn't by any means mean to be so 

 sphinx-like in my letter, though you have turned out an CEdipus 

 of the first water. True it is that I mean to " range myself," 

 " live cleanly and leave off sack," vi^ithin the next few months 

 — that is to say, if nothing happen to the good ship which is at 

 present bearing my fiancee homewards. 



So far as a restless mortal — more or less aweary of most 

 things — like myself can be made happy by any other human 

 being, I believe your good wishes are safe of realisation; at any 

 rate, it will be my fault if they are not, and I beg you never to 

 imagine that I could confound the piety of friendship with the 

 " efflorescent '' variety. 



I hope to marry in July, and make my way down to Tenby 

 shortly afterwards, and I am ready to lay you a wager that your 

 vaticinations touching the amount of work that won't be done 

 don't come true. 



So much for wives — now for worms — (I could not for the 

 life of me help the alliteration). I, as right reverend father in 

 worms and Bishop of Annelidae, do not think I ought to inter- 

 fere with my most promising son, when a channel opens itself 

 for the publication of his labours. So do what you will apropos 



of J . If he does not do the worms any better than he did 



the zoophytes, he won't interfere with my plans. 



I shall be glad to see Mrs. Buckland's Echinoderm. I think 

 it must be a novelty by what you say. She is a very jolly 

 person, but I have an unutterable fear of scientific women. — 

 Ever yours, T. H. Huxley. 



May 6, 1855. 



My ship is not come home but is coming, and I have been 

 in a state of desperation at the continuous east winds. How- 

 ever, to-day there is a westerly gale, and if it lasts I shall 

 have news soon. You may imagine that I am in an unsat- 

 isfactory state of mind between this and lecturing five times 

 a week. 



I beg to say that the " goods " I expect are home produce 

 transplanted (or sent a voyage as you do Madeira), and not 

 foreign growth by any means. But it is five years since we met, 

 I am another man altogether, and if my wife be as much altered, 

 we shall need a new introduction. Correspondence, however 

 active, is a poor substitute for personal communication and tells 

 one but httle of the inner life. 



