CARLYLE MEMORIAL 161 



religious views imposed on him the duty of living the most 

 upright of lives, and I am very much of the opinion of a little 

 child, now grown into an accomplished woman, who, when she 

 was told that Professor Huxley had no hope of future rewards, 

 and no fear of future punishments, emphatically declared : ' Then 

 I think Professor Huxley is the best man I have ever known.' " 



The recognition accorded by Cambridge during the 

 preceding year was now followed by still more decided' 

 marks of appreciation from Oxford. For not only was 

 Huxley asked if he would stand for the Linacre Pro- 

 fessorship in succession to Rolleston, but also whether 

 he would consent to be nominated for the Mastership of 

 University College. In both cases the reply was in the 

 negative, for to say nothing of the pecuniary loss in- 

 volved, and his reluctance to quit London, with its 

 absolute freedom, Huxley doubted whether the "psychical 

 atmosphere of Oxford " would suit him, and thought he 

 was not " cut out for a Don." 



An earlier event of the year was the death of Carlyle 

 (in February), whose influence upon Huxley has already 

 been mentioned (cf. p. 3). A direct acknowledgment 

 of this is to be found in a letter (dated March 9), to 

 Lord Stanley of Alderley, in answer to one asking him to 

 support the movement for a Carlyle Memorial : — 



" Anything I can do to help in raising a memorial to Carlyle 

 shall be most willingly done. Few men can have dissented 

 more strongly from his way of looking at things than I, but I 

 should not yield to the most devoted of his followers in gratitude 

 for the bracing wholesome influence of his writings when, as a 

 very young man, I was essaying without rudder or compass to 

 strike out a course for myself" (Life, ii, p. 34). 



A National Fishery Exhibition was held at Norwich in 

 the spring, and here (on April 21), he delivered a lecture 

 on "The Herring" (Nature, xxiii, 1881, pp. 607-13. 



