CHAPTER XVIII 



DEFENCE OF AGNOSTICISM [i 888- 1 889]. 



The year 1888 started badly with a second attack of 

 pleurisy, and later on heart trouble was diagnosed, 

 proving a cause of marked weakness and depression, until 

 it was possible to get away to Switzerland in June. 

 Three months at Maloja, in the Upper Engadine, effected 

 marvels, but response to the favourable conditions was 

 much slower than on the occasion of previous Swiss 

 visits. 



At the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society, 

 Huxley received the Copley Medal, and his gratification 

 at this mark of appreciation was enhanced by the fact 

 that Hooker had been the recipient the previous year. 



His feelings are expressed in a letter to Flower (dated 

 'November 17): — 



" The Royal Society has dealt very kindly with me. They 

 patted me on the back when I started thirty-seven years ago, 

 and it was a great encouragement. They give me their best, 

 now that my race is run, and it is a great consolation. At the 

 far end of life all one's work looks so uncommonly small, that 

 the good opinion of one's contemporaries acquires a new value " 

 (Life, ii, p. 212). 



Several offices were necessarily abandoned in the 

 autumn, including his position as a Governor of Eton, 

 and also his Examinership at South Kensington, though 

 this had involved little more than nominal responsibility 

 for some time. His last work in the latter capacity was 

 to draw up a new syllabus in General Biology, types 



201 



