2o6 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



the inspectorship of salmon fisheries, which office he 

 accepted in 1881, complete the list of Huxley's more 

 important public appointments. He surrendered 

 them all in 1885, having reached the age at which, 

 as he jocosely remarked to the writer, " Every sci- 

 entific man ought to be poleaxed." Perhaps he 

 dreaded the conservatism of attitude, the non-recep- 

 tivity to new ideas, which often accompany old age. 

 But for himself such fears were needless. He was 

 never of robust constitution; in addition to the last- 

 ing effects of an illness in boyhood, Carlyle's " ac- 

 cursed Hag," dyspepsia, which troubled both Dar- 

 win and Bates for the rest of their lives after their 

 return from abroad, troubled him. Therefore, con- 

 siderations of health mainly prompted the surrender 

 of his varied official responsibilities, the loyal dis- 

 charge of which met with becoming recognition in 

 the grant of a pension. This secured a modest com- 

 petence in the evening of life to one who had never 

 been wealthy, and who had never coveted wealth. 

 To Huxley may fitly be applied what Faraday said 

 of himself, that he had " no time to make money." 

 And yet, to his abiding discredit, the present editor 

 of Punch allowed his theological animus, which had 

 already been shown in abortive attempts in the pages 

 of that " facetious " journal to appraise a Roman 

 Catholic biologist at the expense of Huxley, to fur- 

 ther degrade itself by affixing the letters " L. S. D." 

 to his name in a character-sketch. 



His public life may be said to date from 1854. 



