i860 letters to SPENCER 



229 



this cause for the falling of wounded birds in one of his lectures 

 at the College of Surgeons. 



14 Waverley Place, Sept. 3, i860. 



My dear Spencer — I return your proofs by this post. To 

 my mind nothing can be better than their contents, whether in 

 matter or in manner, and as my wife arrived, independently, at 

 the same opinion, I think my judgment is not one-sided. 



There is something calm and dignified about the tone of the 

 whole — which eminently befits a philosophical work which 

 means to live — and nothing can be more clear and forcible than 

 the argument. 



I rejoice that you have made a beginning, and such a begin- 

 ning — for the more I think about it the more important it seems 

 to me that somebody should think out into a connected system 

 the loose notions that are floating about more or less distinctly 

 in all the best minds. 



It seems as if all the thoughts in what you have written were 

 my own, and yet I am conscious of the enormous difference your 

 presentation of them makes in my intellectual state. One is 

 thought in the state of hemp yarn, and the other in the state of 

 rope. Work away, then, excellent rope-maker, and make us 

 more ropes to hold on against the devil and the parsons. 



For myself I am absorbed in dogs— gone to the dogs in fact 

 — having been occupied in dissecting them for the last fort- 

 night. You do not say how your health is. — Ever yours faith- 

 fully, T. H. Huxley. 



Sept. 19, i860. 



My dear Spencer — You will forgive the delay which has 

 occurred in forwarding your proof when I tell you that we have 

 lost our poor little son, our pet and hope. You who knew him 

 well, and know how his mother's heart and mine were wrapped 

 up in him, will understand how great is our affliction. He was 

 attacked with a bad form of scarlet fever on Thursday night, 

 and on Saturday night effusion on the brain set in suddenly and 

 carried him ofif in a couple of hours. Jessie was taken ill on 

 Friday, but has had the disease quite lightly, and is doing well. 

 The baby has escaped. So end many hopes and plans — sadly 

 enough, and yet not altogether bitterly. For as the little fellow 

 was our greatest joy so is the recollection of him an enduring 

 consolation. It is a heavy payment, but I would buy the four 

 years of him again at the same price. My wife bears' up bravely. 



I have read your proofs at intervals, and you must not sup- 



