1870 . PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 355 



Oxford about it. I suppose this is at the bottom of Jowett's not 

 writing to me. But I hope that he won't fancy that I should be 

 disgusted at the opposition and object to come [i.e. to pay his 

 regular visit to Balliol]. On the contrary, the more complete 

 Pusey's success, the more desirable it is that I should show my 

 face there. Altogether it is an awkward position, as I am sup- 

 posed to know nothing of what is going on. 



The situation is further developed in a letter to Dar- 

 win : — 



Jermyn Street , June 22, 1870. 



My dear Darwin — I sent the books to Queen Anne St. this 

 morning. Pray keep them as long as you like, as I am not using 

 them. 



I am greatly disgusted that you are coming up to London 

 this week, as we shall be out of town next Sunday. It is the 

 rarest thing in the world for us to be away, and you have pitched 

 upon the one day. Cannot we arrange some other day? 



I wish you could have gone to Oxford, not for your sake, 

 but for theirs. There seems to have been a tremendous shindy 

 in the Hebdomadal board about certain persons who were pro- 

 posed; and I am told that Pusey came to London to ascertain 

 from a trustworthy friend who were the blackest heretics out 

 of the list proposed, and that he was glad to assent to your 

 being doctored, when he got back, in order to keep out seven 

 devils worse than that first ! 



Ever, oh Coryphaeus diabolicus, your faithful follower, 



T. H. Huxley. 



The choice of a subject for his Presidential Address at 

 the British Association for 1870, a subject which, as he put 

 it, " has lain chiefly in a land flowing with the abominable, 

 and peopled with mere grubs and mouldiness," was sug- 

 gested by a recent controversy upon the origin of life, in 

 which the experiments of Dr. Bastian, then Professor of 

 Pathological Anatomy at University College, London, which 

 seemed to prove spontaneous generation, were shown by 

 Professor Tyndall to contain a flaw. Huxley had naturally 

 been deeply interested from the first ; he had been consulted 

 by Dr. Bastian, and, I believe, had advised him not to pub- 

 lish until he had made quite sure of his ground. This ques- 

 tion and the preparation of the course of Elementary Biol- 



