290 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xix 



dren, the first time I have had a holiday of any extent with 

 them for years. 



We are all flourishing — the babies particularly so — and I 

 find myself rather loth to begin grinding at the mill again. 

 There is a vein of laziness in me which crops out uncommonly 

 strong in your godson, who is about the idlest, jolliest young 

 four year old I know. 



You will have been as much grieved as I have been about 

 dear old Hooker. According to the last accounts, however, he 

 is mending, and I hope to see him in the pristine vigour again 

 before long. 



My wife is gone to bed or she would join me in the kindest 

 regards and remembrances to Mrs. Darwin and your family. — 

 Ever yours faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



The sound judgment and nice sense of honour for which 

 Huxley was known among his friends often led those who 

 were in difficulties to appeal to him for advice. About this 

 time a dispute arose over an alleged case of unacknowledged 

 " conveyance " of information. Writing to Hooker, he says 

 the one party to the quarrel failed to " set the affair straight 

 with half a dozen words of frank explanation as he might 

 have done ; " as to the other, " like all quiet and mild men 

 who do get a grievance, he became about twice as ' wud ' 

 as Berserks like you and me." Both came to him, so that 

 he says, " I have found it very difficult to deal honestly with 

 both sides without betraying the confidence of either or 

 making matters worse." Happily, with his help, matters 

 reached a peaceful solution, and his final comment is — 



I don't mind fighting to the death in a good big row, but 

 when A and B are supplying themselves from C's orchard, I 

 don't think it is very much worth while to dispute whether B 

 filled his pockets directly from the trees or indirectly helped 

 himself to the contents of A's basket. H B has so helped him- 

 self, he certainly ought to say so like a man, but if I were A, 

 I would not much care whether he did or not. 



has been horribly disgusted about it, but I am not sure 



the discipline may not have opened his eyes to new and useful 

 aspects of nature. 



The summer of 1865 saw the inception of an educational 

 experiment — an International Education Society — to which 



