1875-1876.
[Huxley only delivered one address outside his regular work in 1875,
on "Some Results of the 'Challenger' Expedition," given at the Royal
Institution on January 29. For all through the summer he was away from
London, engaged upon the summer course of lectures on Natural History
at Edinburgh. This was due to the fact that Professor (afterwards Sir)
Wyville Thomson was still absent on the "Challenger" expedition, and
Professor Victor Carus, who had acted as his substitute before, was no
longer available. Under these circumstances the Treasury granted
Huxley leave of absence from South Kensington. His course began on May
3, and ended on July 23, and he thought it a considerable feat to deal
with the whole Animal Kingdom in 54 lectures. No doubt both he and his
students worked at high pressure, especially when the latter came
scantily prepared for the task, like the late Joseph Thomson,
afterwards distinguished as an African traveller, who has left an
account of his experience in this class. Thomson's particular weak
point was his Greek, and the terminology of the lectures seems to have
been a thorn in his side. This account, which actually tells of the
1876 course, occurs on pages 36 and 37 of his "Life."
The experience of studying personally under Huxley was a privilege to
which he had been looking forward with eager anticipation; for he had
already been fascinated with the charm of Huxley's writings, and had
received from them no small amount of mental stimulus. Nor were his
expectations disappointed. But he found the work to be unexpectedly
hard, and very soon he had the sense of panting to keep pace with the
demands of the lecturer. It was not merely that the texture of
scientific reasoning in the lectures was so closely knit,--although
that was a very palpable fact,--but the character of Huxley's
terminology was entirely strange to him. It met him on his weakest
side, for it presupposed a knowledge of Greek (being little else than
Greek compounds with English terminations) and of Greek he had none.
Huxley's usual lectures, he writes, are something awful to listen to.
One half of the class, which numbers about four hundred, have given up
in despair from sheer inability to follow him. The strain on the
attention of each lecture is so great as to be equal to any ordinary
day's work. I feel quite exhausted after them. And then to master his
language is something dreadful. But, with all these drawbacks, I would
not miss them, even if they were ten times as difficult. They are
something glorious, sublime!
Again he writes:--
Huxley is still very difficult to follow, and I have been four times
in his lectures completely stuck and utterly helpless. But he has
given us eight or nine beautiful lectures on the frog...If you only
heard a few of the lectures you would be surprised to find that there
were so few missing links in the chain of life, from the amoeba to the
genus homo.
It was a large class, ultimately reaching 353 and breaking the record
of the Edinburgh classes without having recourse to the factitious
assistance proposed in the letter of May 16.
His inaugural lecture was delivered under what ought to have been
rather trying circumstances. On the way from London he stopped a night
with his old friends, John Bruce and his wife (one of the Fannings),
at their home, Barmoor Castle, near Beal. He had to leave at 6 next
morning, reaching Edinburgh at 10, and lecturing at 2.] "Nothing," [he
writes,] "could be much worse, but I am going through it with all the
cheerfulness of a Christian martyr."
[On May 3 he writes to his wife from the Bruce's Edinburgh house,
which they had lent him.]
I know that you will be dying to hear how my lecture went off
to-day--so I sit down to send you a line, though you did hear from me
to-day.
The theatre was crammed. I am told there were 600 auditors, and I
could not have wished for more thorough attention. But I had to
lecture in gown and Doctor's hood and the heat was awful. The
Principal and the chief professors were present, and altogether it was
a state affair. I was in great force, although I did get up at six
this morning and travelled all the way from Barmoor. But I won't do
that sort of thing again, it's tempting Providence.
May 5.
Fanny and her sisters and the Governess flit to Barmoor to-day and I
shall be alone in my glory. I shall be very comfortable and well cared
for, so make your mind easy, and if I fall ill I am to send for Clark.
He expressly told me to do so as I left him!
I gave my second lecture yesterday to an audience filling the theatre.
The reason of this is that everybody who likes--comes for the first
week and then only those who have tickets are admitted. How many will
become regular students I don't know yet, but there is promise of a
big class. The Lord send three extra--to make up for...[(a sudden
claim upon his purse before he left home.)
And he writes of this custom to Professor Baynes on June 12:--]
My class is over 350 and I find some good working material among them.
Parsons mustered strong in the first week, but I fear they came to
curse and didn't remain to pay.
[He was still Lord Rector of Aberdeen University, and on May 10 writes
how he attended a business meeting there:--]
I have had my run to Aberdeen and back--got up at 5, started from
Edinburgh at 6.25, attended the meeting of the Court at 1. Then drove
out with Webster to Edgehill in a great storm of rain and was received
with their usual kindness. I did not get back till near 8 o'clock last
night and, thanks to "The Virginians" and a good deal of Virginia, I
passed the time pleasantly enough...There are 270 tickets gone up to
this date, so I suppose I may expect a class of 300 men. 300 x 4 =
1200. Hooray.
To his eldest daughter:--]
Edinburgh, May 16, 1875.
My dearest Jess,
Your mother's letter received this morning reminds me that I have not
written to "Cordelia" (I suppose she means Goneril) by a message from
that young person--so here is reparation.
I have 330 students, and my class is the biggest in the
University--but I am quite cast down and discontented because it is
not 351,--being one more than the Botany Class last year--which was
never so big before or since.
I am thinking of paying 21 street boys to come and take the extra
tickets so that I may crow over all my colleagues.
Fanny Bruce is going to town next week to her grandmother's and I want
you girls to make friends with her. It seems to me that she is very
nice--but that is only a fallible man's judgment, and Heaven forbid
that I should attempt to forestall Miss Cudberry's decision on such a
question. Anyhow she has plenty of energy and, among other things,
works very hard at German.
M-- says that the Roottle-Tootles have a bigger drawing-room than
ours. I should be sorry to believe these young beginners guilty of so
much presumption, and perhaps you will tell them to have it made
smaller before I visit them.
A Scotch gentleman has just been telling me that May is the worst
month in the year, here; so pleasant! but the air is soft and warm
to-day, and I look out over the foliage to the castle and don't care.
Love to all, and specially M--. Mind you don't tell her that I dine
out to-day and to-morrow--positively for the first and last times.
Ever your loving father,
T.H. Huxley.
[However, the class grew without such adventitious aid, and he writes
to Mr. Herbert Spencer on June 15:--]
...I have a class of 353, and instruct them in dry facts--particularly
warning them to keep free of the infidel speculations which are
current under the name of evolution.
I expect an "examiner's call" from a Presbytery before the course is
over, but I am afraid that the pay is not enough to induce me to
forsake my "larger sphere of influence" in London.
[In the same letter he speaks of a flying visit to town which he was
about to make on the following Thursday, returning on the Saturday for
lack of a good Sunday train:--]
May hap I may chance to see you at the club--but I shall be torn to
pieces with things to do during my two days' stay.
If Moses had not existed I should have had three days in town, which
is a curious concatenation of circumstances.
[As for health during this period, it maintained, on the whole, a
satisfactory level, thanks to the regime of which he writes to
Professor Baynes:--]
I am very sorry to hear that you have been so seriously ill. You will
have to take to my way of living--a mutton chop a day and no grog, but
much baccy. Don't begin to pick up your threads too fast.
No wonder you are uneasy if you have crabs on your conscience. [I.e.
an article for the "Encyclopaedia Britannica."] Thank Heaven they are
not on mine!
I am glad to hear you are getting better, and I sincerely trust that
you may find all the good you seek in the baths.
As to coming back a "new man," who knows what that might be? Let us
rather hope for the old man in a state of complete repair--A1 copper
bottomed.
Excuse my nautical language.
[The following letters also touch on his Edinburgh lectures:--]
Cragside, Morpeth, August 11, 1875.
My dear Foster,
We are staying here with Sir W. Armstrong--the whole brood--Miss
Matthaei and the majority of the chickens being camped at a farm-house
belonging to our host about three miles off. It is wetter than it need
be, otherwise we are very jolly.
I finished off my work in Edinburgh on the 23rd and positively
polished off the Animal Kingdom in 54 lectures. French without a
master in twelve lessons is nothing to this feat. The men worked very
well on the whole, and sent in some creditable examination papers. I
stayed a few days to finish up the abstracts of my lectures for the
"Medical Times"; then picked up the two elder girls who were at
Barmoor and brought them on here to join the wife and the rest.
How is it that Dohrn has been and gone? I have been meditating a
letter to him for an age. He wanted to see me, and I did not know how
to manage to bring about a meeting.
Edinburgh is greatly exercised in its mind about the vivisection
business and "Vagus" "swells wisibly" whenever the subject is
mentioned. I think there is an inclination to regard those who are
ready to consent to legislation of any kind as traitors, or at any
rate, trimmers. It sickens me to reflect on the quantity of time and
worry I shall have to give to that subject when I get back.
I see that -- has been blowing the trumpet at the Medical Association.
He has about as much tact as a flyblown bull.
I have just had a long letter from Wyville Thomson. The "Challenger"
inclines to think that Bathybius is a mineral precipitate! in which
case some enemy will probably say that it is a product of my
precipitation. So mind, I was the first to make that "goak." Old
Ehrenberg suggested something of the kind to me, but I have not his
letter here. I shall eat my leek handsomely, if any eating has to be
done. They have found pseudopodia in Globerigina.
With all good wishes from ours to yours.
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
Cragside, Morpeth, August 13, 1875.
My dear Tyndall,
I find that in the midst of my work in Edinburgh I omitted to write to
De Vrij, so I have just sent him a letter expressing my pleasure in
being able to co-operate in any plan for doing honour to old Benedict
[Spinoza, a memorial to whom was being raised in Holland.], for whom I
have a most especial respect.
I am not sure that I won't write something about him to stir up the
Philistines.
My work at Edinburgh got itself done very satisfactorily, and I
cleared about 1000 pounds by the transaction, being one of the few
examples known of a Southron coming north and pillaging the Scots.
However, I was not sorry when it was all over, as I had been hard at
work since October and began to get tired.
The wife and babies from the south, and I from the north, met here a
fortnight ago and we have been idling very pleasantly ever since. The
place is very pretty and our host kindness itself. Miss Matthaei and
five of the bairns are at Cartington--a moorland farmhouse three miles
off--and in point of rosy cheeks and appetites might compete with any
five children of their age and weight. Jess and Mady are here with us
and have been doing great execution at a ball at Newcastle. I really
don't know myself when I look at these young women, and my hatred of
possible sons-in-law is deadly. All send their love.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
Wish you joy of Bristol.
[The following letter to Darwin was written when the Polar Expedition
under Sir George Nares was in preparation. It illustrates the range of
observation which his friends had learned to expect in him:--]
Athenaeum Club, January 22, 1875.
My dear Darwin,
I write on behalf of the Polar Committee of the Royal Society to ask
for any suggestions you may be inclined to offer us as instructions to
the naturalists who are to accompany the new expedition.
The task of drawing up detailed instructions is divided among a lot of
us; but you are as full of ideas as an egg is full of meat, and are
shrewdly suspected of having, somewhere in your capacious cranium, a
store of notions which would be of great value to the naturalists.
All I can say is, that if you have not already "collated facts" on
this topic, it will be the first subject I ever suggested to you on
which you had not.
Of course we do not expect you to put yourself to any great
trouble--nor ask for such a thing--but if you will jot down any notes
that occur to you we shall be thankful.
We must have everything in hand for printing by March 15.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[The following letter dates from soon after the death of Charles
Kingsley:--]
Science Schools, South Kensington, October 22, 1875.
Dear Miss Kingsley,
I sincerely trust that you believe I have been abroad and prostrated
by illness, and have thereby accounted for receiving no reply to your
letter of a fortnight back.
The fact is that it has only just reached me, owing to the neglect of
the people in Jermyn Street, who ought to have sent it on here.
I assure you I have not forgotten the brief interview to which you
refer, and I have often regretted that the hurry and worry of life
(which increases with the square of your distance from youth) never
allowed me to take advantage of your kind father's invitation to
become better acquainted with him and his. I found his card in Jermyn
Street when I returned last year, with a pencilled request that I
would call on him at Westminster.
I meant to do so, but the whirl of things delayed me until, as I
bitterly regret, it was too late.
I am not sure that I have any important letter of your father's but
one, written to me some fifteen years ago, on the occasion of the
death of a child who was then my only son. It was in reply to a letter
of my own written in a humour of savage grief. Most likely he burned
the letter, and his reply would be hardly intelligible without it.
Moreover, I am not at all sure that I can lay my hands upon your
father's letter in a certain chaos of papers which I have never had
the courage to face for years. But if you wish I will try.
I am very grieved to hear of Mrs. Kingsley's indisposition. Pray make
my kindest remembrances to her, and believe me your very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
P.S.--By the way, letters addressed to my private residence,
4 Marlborough Place, N.W.,
are sure not to be delayed. And I have another reason for giving the
address--the hope that when you come to Town you will let my wife and
daughters make your acquaintance.
[His continued interest in the germ-theory and the question of the
origin of life ("Address at the British Association" 1870 see 2 page
14, sq.), appears from the following:--]
4 Marlborough Place, October 15, 1875.
My dear Tyndall,
Will you bring with you to the x to-morrow a little bottle full of
fluid containing the bacteria you have found developed in your
infusions? I mean a good characteristic specimen. It will be useful to
you, I think, if I determine the forms with my own microscope, and
make drawings of them which you can use.
Ever yours,
T.H. Huxley.
I can't tell you how delighted I was with the experiments.
[Throughout this period, and for some time later, he was in frequent
communication with Thomas Spencer Baynes, Professor of Logic and
English Literature at St. Andrews University, the editor of the new
"Encyclopaedia Britannica," work upon which was begun at the end of
1873. From the first Huxley was an active helper, both in classifying
the biological subjects which ought to be treated of, suggesting the
right men to undertake the work, and himself writing several articles,
notably that on Evolution. (Others were "Actinozoa," "Amphibia,"
"Animal Kingdom," and "Biology.")
Extracts from his letters to Professor Baynes between the years 1873
and 1884, serve to illustrate the work which he did and the relations
he maintained with the genial and learned editor.]
November 2, 1873.
I have been spending my Sunday morning in drawing up a list of
headings, which will I think exhaust biology from the Animal point of
view, and each of which does not involve more than you are likely to
get from one man. In many cases, i.e. "Insecta," "Entomology," I have
subdivided the subjects, because, by an unlucky peculiarity of workers
in these subjects, men who understand zoology from its systematic side
are often ignorant of anatomy, and those who know fossils are often
weak in recent forms.
But of course the subdivision does not imply that one man should not
take the whole if he is competent to do so. And if separate
contributors supply articles on these several subdivisions, somebody
must see that they work in harmony.
[But with all the good will in the world, he was too hard pressed to
get his quota done as quickly as he wished. He suggests at once that
"Hydrozoa" and "Actinozoa," in his list, should be dealt with by the
writer of the article "Coelenterata."]
Shunting "Actinozoa" to "Coelenterata" would do no harm, and would
have the great merit of letting me breathe a little. But if you think
better that "Actinozoa" should come in its place under A, I will try
what I can do.
December 30, 1873.
As to "Anthropology," I really am afraid to promise. At present I am
plunged in "Amphibia," doing a lot of original work to settle
questions which have been hanging vaguely in my mind for years. If
"Amphibia" is done by the end of January it is as much as it will be.
In February I must give myself--or at any rate my spare self--up to my
Rectorial Address [His Rectorial Address at Aberdeen, see above.],
which (tell it not in Gath) I wish at the bottom of the Red Sea. And I
do not suppose I shall be able to look seriously at either "Animal
Kingdom" or "Anthropology" before the address is done with. And all
depends on the centre of my microcosm--intestinum colon--which plays
me a trick every now and then.
I will do what I can if you like, but if you trust me it is at your
proper peril.
February 8, 1874.
How astonished folks will be if eloquent passages out of the address
get among the "Amphibia," and comments on Frog anatomy into the
address. As I am working at both just now this result is not
improbable.
[Meanwhile the address and the ten days' stay at Aberdeen had been]
"playing havoc with the "Amphibia," [but on returning home, he went to
work upon the latter, and writes on March 12:--]
I did not care to answer your last letter until I had an instalment of
"Amphibia" ready. Said instalment was sent off to you, care of Messrs.
Black, yesterday, and now I feel like Dick Swiveller, when happy
circumstances having enabled him to pay off an old score he was able
to begin running up another.
June 8.
I have had sundry proofs and returned them. My writing is lamentable
when I am in a hurry, but I never provoked a strike before! I declare
I think I write as well as the editor, on ordinary occasions.
[He was pleased to find someone who wrote as badly as, or worse than,
himself, and several times rallies Baynes on that score. Thus, when
Mrs. Baynes had acted as her husband's amanuensis, he writes (February
11, 1878):--]
My respectful compliments to the "mere machine," whose beautiful
calligraphy (if that isn't a tautology) leaves no doubt in my mind
that whether the writing of your letters by that agency is good for
you or not it is admirable for your correspondents.
Why people can't write a plain legible hand I can't imagine.
[(NB.--This sentence is written purposely in a most illegible hand.)
And on another occasion he adds a postcript to say,] "You write worse
than ever. So do I."
[However, the article got finished in course of time:--]
August 5.
I have seen and done with all "Amphibia" but the last sheet, and that
only waits revise. Considering it was to be done in May, I think I am
pretty punctual.
[The next year, immediately before taking Sir Wyville Thomson's
lectures at Edinburgh, he writes about another article which he had in
hand:--]
4 Marlborough Place, N.W., March 16, 1875.
My dear Baynes,
I am working against time to get a lot of things done--amongst others
BIOLOGY--before I go north. I have written a large part of said
article, and it would facilitate my operation immensely if what is
done were set up and I had two or three proofs, one for Dyer, who is
to do part of the article.
Now, if I send the manuscript to North Bridge will you swear by your
gods (0--1--3--1 or any greater number as the case may be) that I
shall have a proof swiftly and not be kept waiting for weeks till the
whole thing has got cold, and I am at something else a hundred miles
away from Biology?
If not I will keep the manuscript till it is all done, and you know
what that means.
Ever yours very truly,
T.H. Huxley.
Cragside, Morpeth, August 12, 1875.
My dear Baynes,
The remainder of the proof of "Biology" is posted to-day--"Praise de
Lor'."
I have a dim recollection of having been led by your soft and
insinuating ways to say that I would think (only THINK) about some
other article. What the deuce was it?
I have told the Royal Society people to send you a list of Fellows,
addressed to Black's.
We have had here what may be called bad weather for England, but it
has been far better than the best Edinburgh weather known to my
experience.
All my friends are out committing grouse-murder. As a vivisection
Commissioner I did not think I could properly accompany them.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
Cragside, Morpeth, August 24, 1875.
My dear Baynes,
I think -- is like enough to do the "Coelenterata" well if you can
make sure of his doing it at all. He is a man of really great
knowledge of the literature of Zoology, and if it had not been for the
accident of being a procrastinating impracticable ass, he could have
been a distinguished man. But he is a sort of Balaam-Centaur with the
asinine stronger than the prophetic moiety.
I should be disposed to try him, nevertheless.
I don't think I have had final revise of Biology yet.
I do not know that "Coelenterata" is Lankester's speciality. However,
he is sure to do it well if he takes it up.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
4 Marlborough Place, N.W., October 12, 1875.
My dear Baynes,
Do you remember my telling you that I should before long be publishing
a book, of which general considerations on Biology would form a part,
and that I should have to go over the same ground as in the article
for the Encyclopaedia?
Well, that prediction is about to be verified, and I want to know what
I am to do.
You see, as I am neither dealing with Theology, nor History, nor
Criticism, I can't take a fresh departure and say something entirely
different from what I have just written.
On the other hand, if I republish what stands in the article, the
Encyclopaedia very naturally growls.
What do the sweetest of Editors and the most liberal of Proprietors
say ought to be done under the circumstances?
I pause for a reply.
I have carried about Stanley's note in my pocket-book until I am sorry
to say the flyleaf has become hideously stained. [The Dean's
handwriting was proverbial.]
The wife and daughters could make nothing of it, but I, accustomed to
the manuscript of certain correspondents, have no doubt as to the
fourth word of the second sentence. It is "Canterbury." [The writing
of this word is carefully slurred until it is almost as illegible as
the original.] Nothing can be plainer.
Hoping the solution is entirely satisfactory,
Believe me, ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[Though he refused to undertake the article on "Distribution," he
managed to write that on "Evolution" (republished in "Collected
Essays" 2 187). Thus on July 28, 1877, he writes:--]
_I_ ought to do "Evolution," but I mightn't and I shouldn't. Don't see
how it is practicable to do justice to it with the time at my
disposal, though I really should like to do it, and I am at my wits'
end to think of anybody who can be trusted with it.
Perhaps something may turn up, and if so I will let you know.
[The something in the world of more time did turn up by dint of extra
pressure, and the article got written in the course of the autumn, as
appears from the following of December 29, 1877:--]
I send you the promised skeleton (with a good deal of the flesh) of
Evolution. It is costing me infinite labour in the way of reading, but
I am glad to be obliged to do the work, which will be a curious and
instructive chapter in the history of Science.
[The lawyer-like faculty of putting aside a subject when done with,
which is indicated in the letter of March 16, 1875, reappears in the
following:--]
4 Marlborough Place, N.W., March 18, 1878.
My dear Baynes,
Your printers are the worst species of that diabolic genus I know of.
It is at least a month since I sent them a revise of "Evolution" by no
means finished, and from that time to this I have had nothing from
them.
I shall forget all about the subject, and then at the last moment they
will send me a revise in a great hurry, and expect it back by return
of post.
But if they get it, may I go to their Father!
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[Later on, the pressure of work again forbade him to undertake further
articles on "Harvey," "Hunter," and "Instinct."]
I am sorry to say that my hands are full, and I have sworn by as many
gods as Hume has left me, to undertake nothing more for a long while
beyond what I am already pledged to do, a small book anent Harvey
being one of these things.
[And on June 9:--]
After nine days' meditation (directed exclusively to the Harvey and
Hunter question) I am not any "forrarder," as the farmer said after
his third bottle of Gladstone claret. So perhaps I had better mention
the fact. I am very glad you have limed Flower for "Mammalia" and
"Horse"--nobody could be better.
4 Marlborough Place, N.W., July 1, 1879.
My dear Baynes,
On Thursday last I sought for you at the Athenaeum in the middle of
the day, and told them to let me know if you came in the evening when
I was there again. But I doubt not you were plunged in dissipation.
My demonstrator Parker showed me to-day a letter he had received from
Black's, asking him to do anything in the small Zoology way between H
and L.
He is a modest man, and so didn't ask what the H--L he was to do, but
he looked it.
Will you enlighten him or me, and I will convey the information on?
I had another daughter married yesterday. She was a great pet and it
is very hard lines on father and mother. The only consolation is that
she has married a right good fellow, John Collier the artist.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
July 19, 1879.
Many thanks for your and Mrs. Baynes' congratulations. I am very well
content with my son-in-law, and have almost forgiven him for carrying
off one of my pets, which shows a Christian spirit hardly to be
expected of me.
South Kensington, July 2, 1880.
My dear Baynes,
I have been thinking over the matter of Instinct, and have come to the
conclusion that I dare not undertake anything fresh.
There is an address at Birmingham in the autumn looming large, and
ghosts of unfinished work flitter threateningly.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.