Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume III Part 9

("Collected Essays" 2 223.) A whale does not tend to vary in the direction of producing feathers, nor a bird in the direction of producing whalebone. (In "Mr. Darwin's Critics" 1871 "Collected Essays"

2 181.)

"On the strength of these extracts" (writes Mr. Romanes), "Schurman represents you 'to presuppose design, since development takes place along certain predetermined lines of modification.' But as he does not give references, and as I do not remember the pa.s.sages, I cannot consult the context, which I fancy must give a different colouring to the extracts."

4 Marlborough Place, January 5, 1888.

My dear Romanes,

They say that liars ought to have long memories. I am sure authors ought to. I could not at first remember where the pa.s.sage Schurman quotes occurs, but I did find it in the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on "Evolution" ["Collected Essays" 2 223.], reprinted in "Science and Culture," page 307.

But I do not find anything about the "whale" here. Nevertheless I have a consciousness of having said something of the kind somewhere. [In "Mr. Darwin's Critics" 1871 "Collected Essays" 2 181.]

If you look at the whole pa.s.sage, you will see that there is not the least intention on my part to presuppose design.

If you break a piece of Iceland spar with a hammer, all the pieces will have shapes of a certain kind, but that does not imply that the Iceland spar was constructed for the purpose of breaking up in this way when struck. The atomic theory implies that of all possible compounds of A and B only those will actually exist in which the proportions of A and B by weight bear a certain numerical ratio. But it is mere arguing in a circle to say that the fact being so is evidence that it was designed to be so.

I am not going to take any more notice of the everlasting D--, as you appropriately call him, until he has withdrawn his slanders....

Pray give him a dressing--it will be one of those rare combinations of duty and pleasure.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

[He was, moreover, constantly interested in schemes for the reform of the scientific work of the London University, and for the enlargement of the scope and usefulness of the Royal Society. As for the latter, a proposal had been made for federation with colonial scientific societies, which was opposed by some of his friends in the x Club; and he writes to Sir E. Frankland on February 3:--]

I am very sorry you are all against Evans' scheme. I am for it. I think it a very good proposal, and after all the talk, I do not want to see the Society look foolish by doing nothing.

You are a lot of obstructive old Tories, and want routing out. If I were only younger and less indisposed to any sort of exertion, I would rout you out finely!

[With respect to the former, it had been proposed that medical degrees should be conferred, not by the university, but by a union of the several colleges concerned. He writes:--]

4 Marlborough Place, January 11, 1888.

My dear Foster,

I send back the "Heathen Deutscheree's" (whose ways are dark) letter lest I forget it to-morrow.

Meanwhile perpend these two things:--

1. United Colleges propose to give just as good an examination and require as much qualification as the Scotch Universities. Why then give their degree a distinguis.h.i.+ng mark?

2. "Academical distinctions" in medicine are all humbug. You are making a medical technical school at Cambridge--and quite right too. The United Colleges, if they do their business properly, will confer just as much, or as little "academical distinction" as Cambridge by their degree.

3. The Fellows.h.i.+p of the College of Surgeons is in every sense as much an "academical distinction" as the Masters.h.i.+ps in Surgery or Doctorate of Medicine of the Scotch and English Universities.

4. You may as well cry for the moon as ask my colleagues in the Senate to meddle seriously with the Matriculation. They are possessed by the devil that cries continually, "There is only the Liberal education, and Greek and Latin are his prophets."

[At Bournemouth he also applied himself to writing the Darwin obituary notice for the Royal Society, a labour of love which he had long felt unequal to undertaking. The ma.n.u.script was finally sent off to the printer's on April 6, unlike the still longer unfinished memoir on Spirula, to which allusion is made here, among other business of the "Challenger" Committee, of which he was a member.

On February 12 he writes to Sir J. Evans:--]

Spirula is a horrid burden on my conscience--but n.o.body could make head or tail of the business but myself.

That and Darwin's obituary are the chief subjects of my meditations when I wake in the night. But I do not get much "forrarder," and I am afraid I shall not until I get back to London.

Bournemouth, February 14, 1888.

My dear Foster,

No doubt the Treasury will jump at any proposition which relieves them from further expense--but I cannot say I like the notion of leaving some of the most important results of the "Challenger" voyage to be published elsewhere than in the official record....

Evans made a deft allusion to Spirula, like a powder between two dabs of jam. At present I have no moral sense, but it may awake as the days get longer.

I have been reading the "Origin" slowly again for the nth time, with the view of picking out the essentials of the argument, for the obituary notice. Nothing entertains me more than to hear people call it easy reading.

Exposition was not Darwin's forte--and his English is sometimes wonderful. But there is a marvellous dumb sagacity about him--like that of a sort of miraculous dog--and he gets to the truth by ways as dark as those of the Heathen Chinee.

I am getting quite sick of all the "paper philosophers," as old Galileo called them, who are trying to stand upon Darwin's shoulders and look bigger than he, when in point of real knowledge they are not fit to black his shoes. It is just as well I am collapsed or I believe I should break out with a final "Fur Darwin."

I will think of you when I get as far as the fossils. At present I am poking over P. sylvestris and P. pinnata in the intervals of weariness.

My wife joins with me in love to you both.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

Snow and cold winds here. Hope you are as badly off at Cambridge.

Bournemouth, February 21, 1888.

My dear Foster,

We have had nothing but frost and snow here lately, and at present half a gale of the bitterest north-easter I have felt since we were at Florence is raging. [Similarly to Sir J. Evans on the 28th]--"I get my strength back but slowly, and think of migrating to Greenland or Spitzbergen for a milder climate."]

I believe I am getting better, as I have noticed that at a particular stage of my convalescence from any sort of illness I pa.s.s through a condition in which things in general appear d.a.m.nable and I myself an entire failure. If that is a sign of returning health you may look upon my restoration as certain.

If it is only Murray's speculations he wants to publish separately, I should say by all means let him. But the facts, whether advanced by him or other people, ought all to be in the official record. I agree we can't stir.

I scented the "goak." How confoundedly proud you are of it. In former days I have been known to joke myself.

I will look after the questions if you like. In my present state of mind I shall be a capital critic--on Dizzy's views of critics...

Ever yours,

T.H. Huxley.

[This year Huxley was appointed a Trustee of the British Museum, an office which he had held ex officio from 1883 to 1885, as President of the Royal Society.