28o LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xvm 



men with such opportunities of mutual understanding and 

 such ideals of action could not fail to have some influence 

 on the progress of scientific organization — it was assuredly 

 not sectarian nor exerted for party purposes during the 

 twenty-eight years of the club's existence. 



I believe that the x (continues Huxley) had the credit of 

 being a sort of scientific caucus, or ring, with some people. In 

 fact, two distinguished scientific colleagues of mine once car- 

 ried on a conversation (which I gravely ignored) across me, 

 in the smoking-room of the Athenaeum, to this effect, " I say, 

 A., do you know anything about the x Club ? " " Oh yes, B., 

 I have heard of it. What do they do ? " " Well, they govern 

 scientific affairs, and really, on the whole, they don't do it badly." 

 If my good friends could only have been present at a few of our 

 meetings, they would have formed a much less exalted idea of 

 us, and would, I fear, have been much shocked at the sadly 

 frivolous tone of our ordinary conversation. 



The X club is probably unique in the smallness of its 

 numbers, the intellectual eminence of its members, and the 

 length of its unchanged existence. The nearest parallel is to 

 be found in " The Club." * Like the x, " The Club " began 

 with eight members at its first meeting, and of the original 

 members Johnson lived twenty years, Reynolds twenty- 

 eight, Burke thirty-three, and Bennet Langton thirty-seven. 

 But the ranks were earher broken. Within ten years Gold- 

 smith died, and he was followed in a twelvemonth by 

 Nugent, and five years later by Beauclerk and Chamier. 

 Moreover, the eight were soon increased to twelve ; then to 

 twenty and finally to forty, while the gaps were filled up as 

 they occurred. 



In the X, on the contrary, nearly nineteen years passed 

 before the original circle was broken by the death of Spottis- 

 woode. From 1864 to Spottiswoode's death in 1883 the 

 original circle remained unbroken ; the meetings " were 

 steadily continued for some twenty years, before our ranks 

 began to thin ; and one by one, geistige Naturen such as 



* Of which Huxley was elected a member in 1884. Tyndall and 

 Hooker were also members. 



