484 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxx 



of original work to settle questions which have been hanging 

 vaguely in my mind for years. If Amphibia is clone by the end 

 of January it is as much as it will be. 



In February I must give myself — or at any rate my spare 

 self — up to my Rectorial Address,* which (tell it not in Gath) 

 I wish at the bottom of the Red Sea. And I do not suppose 

 I shall be able to look seriously at either Animal Kingdom or 

 Anthropology before the address is done with. And all depends 

 on the centre of my microcosm— intestinum colon — which plays 

 me a trick every now and then. 



I will do what I can if you like, but if you trust me it is 

 at your proper peril. 



Feb. 8, 1874. — How astonished folks will be if eloquent pas- 

 sages out of the address get among the Amphibia, and comments 

 on Frog anatomy into the address. As I am working at both 

 just now this result is not improbable. 



Meanwhile the address and the ten days' stay at Aber- 

 deen had been " playing havoc with the Amphibia," but on 

 returning home, he went to work upon the latter, and 

 writes on March 12 : — 



I did not care to answer your last letter until I had an instal- 

 ment of Amphibia ready. Said instalment was sent off to you, 

 care of Messrs. Black, yesterday, and now I feel like Dick 

 Swiveller, when happy circumstances having enabled him to 

 pay off an old score he was able to begin running up another. 



June 8. — I have had sundry proofs and returned them. My 

 writing is lamentable when I am in a hurry, but I never pro- 

 voked a strike before ! I declare I think I write as well as the 

 editor, on ordinary occasions. 



He was pleased to find someone who wrote as badly as, 

 or worse than, himself, and several times rallies Baynes on 

 that score. Thus, when Mrs. Baynes had acted as her 

 husband's amanuensis, he writes (February 11, 1878): — 



My respectful compliments to the " mere machine," whose 

 beautiful caligraphy (if that isn't a tautology) leaves no doubt 

 in my mind that whether the writing of your letters by that 

 agency is good for you or not it is admirable for your corre- 

 spondents. 



Why people can't write a plain legible hand I can't imagine.* 



* His Rectorial Address at Aberdeen. (See p. 43O.) 



f N.B. — This sentence is written purposely in a most illegible hand. 



