270 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xviii 



please him much if you will ; and I go bail for his being a thor- 

 oughly good man in all senses of the word — which, as you know, 

 is more than I would say for everybody. 



Don't write any reply; but Mrs. Darwin perhaps will do 

 me the kindness to send the thing on to Lyell as per enclosed 

 envelope. I will write him a note about it. 



We are all well, barring customary colds and various forms 

 of infantile pip. As for myself, I am flourishing like a green 

 bay tree (appropriate comparison. Soapy Sam would observe), 

 in consequence of having utterly renounced societies and society 

 since October. 



I have been working like a horse, however, and shall work 

 " horser " as my college lectures begin in February. — Tout a 

 vous, T. H. Huxley. 



Royal School of Mines, 

 Jermyn Street, Apri/ 18, 1864. 



My dear Darwin — I was rejoiced to see your handwriting 

 again, so much so that I shall not scold you for undertaking the 

 needless exertion (as it's my duty to do) of writing to thank me 

 for my book.* 



I thought the last lecture would be nuts for you, but it is 

 really shocking. There is not the smallest question that Owen 

 wrote both the article " Oken " and the Archetype Book, which 

 appeared in its second edition in French — why, I know not. I 

 think that if you will look at what I say again, there will not 

 be much doubt left in your mind as to the identity of the writer 

 of the two. 



The news you give of yourself is most encouraging ; but pray 

 don't think of doing any work again yet. Careful as I have beexi 

 during this last winter not to burn the candle at both ends, I 

 have found myself, since the pressure of my lectures ceased, in 

 considerable need of quiet, and I have been lazy accordingly. 



I don't know that I fear, with you, caring too much for sci- 

 ence — for there are lots of other things I should like to go into 

 as well, but I do lament more and more as time goes on, the 

 necessity of becoming more and more absorbed in one kind of 

 work, a necessity which is created for any one in my position, 

 partly by one's reputation, and partly by one's children. For 

 directly a man gets the smallest repute in any branch of science, 

 the world immediately credits him with knowing about ten 



* Hunterian Lectures on Anatomy. 



