178 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



to Her Majesty for a Civil List Pension, I can but accept a 

 proposal which is in itself an honour, and which is rendered 

 extremely gratifying to me by the great kindness of the expres- 

 sions in which you have been pleased to embody it " (Lite, ii, 

 p. io8). 



An even bigger wrench was involved in the resigna- 

 tion of the Presidency of the Royal Society on November 

 30, the reasons for the step being given as follows in his 

 last Presidential address : — 



" I am happy to say that I have good reason to believe that, 

 with prolonged rest — by which I do not mean idleness, but 

 release from distraction and complete freedom from those lethal 

 agencies which are commonly known as the pleasures of society 

 — -I may yet regain so much strength as is compatible with 

 advancing years. But in order to do so, I must, for a long time 

 yet, be content to lead a more or less anchoretic life. Now it 

 is not fitting that your President should be a hermit, and it 

 becomes me, who have received so much kindness and considera- 

 tion from the Society, to be particularly careful that no sense of 

 personal gratification should delude me into holding the office of 

 its representative one moment after reason and conscience have 

 pointed out my incapacity to discharge the serious duties which 

 devolve upon the President, with some approach to efficiency. 



" I beg leave, therefore, with much gratitude for the crowning 

 honour of my life which you have conferred upon me, to be per- 

 mitted to vacate the chair of the Society as soon as the business 

 of this meeting is at an end " (Life, ii, p. 107). 



Two other events for 1885 still require mention. One, 

 in May, was the conferment of the degree of D.C.L. 

 {honoris causd) by the University of Oxford. In answer- 

 ing the letter inviting him to accept this honour, he 

 wrote : — 



" It will be a sort of apotheosis coincident with my official 

 death, which is imminent. In fact, I am dead already, only the 

 Treasury Charon has not yet settled the conditions upon which 

 I am to be ferried over to the other side " (Life, ii, p. no). 



