534 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cha?. xxxin 



4 Marlborough Place, N.W., Nov. 5, 1878. 



My dear Morley — " Davie's " philosophy is now all in print, 

 and all but a few final pages of his biography. 



So I think the time has come when that little critical sym- 

 posium may take place. 



Can you come and dine on Tuesday next (12) at 7, or if 

 any day except Wednesday 15th, next week, will suit you better, 

 it will do just as well for me. There will be nobody but my wife 

 and daughters, so don't dress. — Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



P.S. — Will you be disgusted if in imitation of the " English 

 Men of Letters " I set a-going an " English Men of Science." 

 Few people have any conception of the part Englishmen have 

 played in science, and I think it would be both useful and in- 

 teresting to bring the truth home to the English mind. 



I had about three thousand people to hear me on Saturday 

 at Manchester, and it would have done you good to hear how 

 they cheered at my allusion to personal rule. I had to stop and 

 let them ease their souls. 



Behold my P.S. is longer than my letter. It's the strong 

 feminine element in my character oozing out. " Desinit in 

 piscem " though, and a mighty queer fish too. 



4 Marlborough Place, Jan. 12, 1879. 



Dear Lecky — I am very much obliged for your suggestion 

 about the note at p. 9. I am ashamed to say that though the 

 eleven day correction was familiar enough to me, I had never 

 thought about the shifting of the beginning of the year till you 

 mentioned it. It is a law of nature, I believe, that when a man 

 says what he need not say he is sure to blunder. The note shall 

 go out. 



All I know about Sprat is as the author of a dull history of 

 the Royal Society, so I was surprised to meet with Hume's esti- 

 mate of him. 



No doubt about the general hatred of the Scotch, but you 

 will observe that I make Millar responsible for the peace-making 

 assurance. 



What you said to me in conversation some time ago led me 

 to look at Hume's position as a moralist with some care, and 

 I quoted the passage at p. 206 that no doubt might be left on the 

 matter. 



The little book threatened to grow to an undue length, and 



