538 THE JOUENEY TO PALESTINE 
It was this engrossing pressure, common to Hooker and his 
closest scientific friends, that led to the foundation of the 
famous X Club. This has already been described at some 
length in the ' Life and Letters of T. H. Huxley,' i. 368 seq., 
and in ' Sketches from the Life of Edward Frankland,' p. 148 
seq. A further account may be added here, for the club was 
not only a unique constellation of intellects, but a notable 
factor in the personal life of its members. All were keen 
workers in science and progressive thought ; all were friends of 
long standing. The growing pressure of work made meeting 
difficult save casually, perhaps dining at the Athenaeum before 
important lectures at the Eoyal Institution or the regular 
gatherings of the Royal and other societies. These unpre- 
meditated encounters suggested something more definite. ' I 
wonder if we are ever to meet again in this world,' Huxley 
had written to Hooker in his ' remote provmce ' of Kew. 
Now in January 1864 Huxley proposed to him that they should 
organise some sort of a regular meeting. All the friends, 
with the exception of Herbert Spencer, being Fellows of the 
Royal Society, the date chosen for dining together was the 
first Thursday in each month (except July, August, and 
September) before the Society's meeting. The usual hour 
was six o'clock, so that they should be in good time for the 
meeting at eight. On December 5, 1885, Huxley, who was 
treasurer, notes in the minutes, ' Got scolded for dining at 
6.30. Had to prove we have dined at 6.30 for a long time 
by evidence of waiter.' However, at the February meeting, 
* agreed to fix dinner hour six hereafter.' 
Eight members met at the first meeting, November 3, 1864 ; 
at the second, a ninth member was added in William Spottis- 
woode, but a proposal to add a tenth was never carried out. 
On the principle of lucus a non lucendo, this gave point to the 
symbol x for the name of the club, the origin of which is 
described as follows by Huxley in his reminiscences of John 
Tyndall in the Nineteenth Century for January 1894 : 
' At starting, our minds were terribly exercised over the 
name and constitution of our society. As opinions on this 
grave matter were no less numerous than the members — indeed 
