i866 LETTER TO CHARLES KINGSLEY 



297 



edged his debt to Carlyle as the teacher who in his youth 

 had inspired him with his undying hatred of shams and 

 humbugs of every kind, and whom he had gratefully come 

 to know in after days, Carlyle did not forgive the publica- 

 tion of Man's Place in Nature. Years after, near the end 

 of his life, my father saw him walking slowly and alone 

 down the opposite side of the street, and touched by his 

 solitary appearance, crossed over and spoke to him. The 

 old man looked at him, and merely remarking, " You're 

 Huxley, aren't you ? the man that says we are all descended 

 from monkeys," went on his way. 



On July 6 he writes to tell Darwin that he has lodged 

 a memorial of his about the fossils at the Gallegos river, 

 which was to be visited by the Nassatt * exploring ship, 

 with the hydrographer direct, instead of sending it in to 

 the Lords of the Admiralty, who would only have sent it 

 on to the hydrographer. This letter he heads " Country 

 orders executed with accuracy and despatch." 



The following letter to Charles Kingsley explains 

 itself— 



Jermyn Street, April 12, 1866. 



My dear Kingsley — I shall certainly do myself the pleasure 

 of listening to you when you preach at the Royal Institution. I 

 wonder if you are going to take the line of showing up the super- 

 stitions of men of science. Their name is legion, and the exploit 

 would be a telling one. I would do it myself only I think I am 

 already sufficiently isolated and unpopular. 



However, whatever you are going to do I am sure you will 

 speak honestly and well, and I shall come and be assistant bottle- 

 holder. 



I am glad you like the working men's lectures. I suspect 

 they are about the best things of that line that I have done, and 

 I only wish I had had the sense to anticipate the run they have 

 had here and abroad, and I would have revised them properly. 



As they stand they are terribly in the rough, from a literary 

 point of view. 



No doubt crib-biting, nurse-biting and original sin in general 

 are all strictly reducible from Darwinian principles ; but don't 

 by misadventure run against any academical facts. 



*Chap. XXn. 



