i877 LETTERS TO BAYNES 487 



Though he refused to undertake the article on Distri- 

 bution, he managed to write that on Evolution (republished 

 in Collected Essays, ii. 187). Thus on July 28, 1877, he 

 writes ; — 



/ ought to do " Evolution," but I mightn't and I shouldn't. 

 Don't see how it is practicable to do justice to it with the time 

 at my disposal, though I really should like to do it, and I am 

 at my wits' end to think of anybody who can be trusted with it. 



Perhaps something may turn up, and if so I will let you 

 know. 



The something in the way of more time did turn up by 

 dint of extra pressure, and the article got written in the 

 course of the autumn, as appears from the following of 

 December 29, 1877 : — 



I send you the promised skeleton (with a good deal of the 

 flesh) of Evolution. It is costing me infinite labour in the way 

 of reading, but I am glad to be obliged to do the work, which 

 will be a curious and instructive chapter in the history of Sci- 

 ence. 



The lawyer-like faculty of putting aside a subject when 

 done with, which is indicated in the letter of March 16, 

 187s, reappears in the following : — 



4 Marlborough Place, N.W., Jl^arc/i 18, 1878. 



My dear Baynes — Your printers are the worst species of 

 that diabolic genus I know of. It is at least a month since I 

 sent them a revise of " Evolution " by no means finished, and 

 from that time to this I have had nothing from them. 



I shall forget all about the subject, and then at the last 

 moment they will send me a revise in a great hurry, and expect 

 it back by return of post. 



But if they get it, may I go to their Father ! — Ever yours 

 very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



Later on, the pressure of work again forbade him to 

 undertake further articles on Harvey, Hunter, and Instinct. 



I am sorry to say that my hands are full, and I have sworn 

 by as many gods as Hume has left me, to undertake nothing 

 more for a long while beyond what I am already pledged to do, 

 a small book anent Harvey being one of these things. 

 32 



