288 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xix 



lowing reply. The expected book of Darwin's was the 

 Pangenesis, and this is also referred to in the three succeed- 

 ing letters to Darwin himself. 



The Royal School of Mines, 

 Jermyn Street, London, June 7, 1865. 



My dear Sir — Many thanks for your letter, and for the wel- 

 come present of your portrait, which I shall value greatly, and 

 in exchange for which I enclose my own. Indeed I have delayed 

 writing to you in order to be able to send the last " new and im- 

 proved " edition of myself. 



I wish it were in my power to help you to any such appoint- 

 ment as that you wish for. But I do not think our government 

 is likely to send out any scientific expedition to the South Seas. 

 There is a talk about a new Arctic expedition, but I doubt if 

 it will come to much, and even if it should be organised I could 

 not recommend your throwing yourself away in an undertaking 

 which promises more frost-bites than anything else to a natu- 

 ralist. 



In truth, though I have felt and can still feel the attraction of 

 foreign travel in all its strength, I would counsel you to stop at 

 home, and as Goethe says, find your America here. There are 

 plenty of people who can observe and whose places, if they are 

 expended by fever or shipwreck, can be well enough filled up. 

 But there are very few who can grapple with the higher prob- 

 lems of science as you have done and are doing, and we cannot 

 afford to lose you. It is the organisation of knowledge rather 

 than its increase which is wanted just now. And I think you 

 can help in this great undertaking better in Germany than in 

 New Zealand. 



Darwin ha,s been very ill for more than a year past, so ill, in 

 fact, that his recovery was at one time doubtful. But he con- 

 trives to work in spite of fate, and I hope that before long we 

 shall have a new book from him. 



By way of consolation I sent him an extract from your letter 

 touching the progress of his views. 



I am glad that you did not think my critique of Kolliker too 

 severe. He is an old friend of mine, and I desired to be as 

 gentle as possible, while performing the unpleasant duty of 

 showing how thoroughly he had misunderstood the question. 



I shall look with great interest for your promised book. 

 Lately I have [been] busy with Ethnological questions, and I 

 fear I shall not altogether please your able friend Professor 



