Walter Scott - "Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field"

John Lothrop Motley - "The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1573 74"

Edgar Rice Burroughs - "People Out Of Time"

William Morris - "Poems by the Way"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3

L >> Leonard Huxley >> The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3




[I give here the letter sent to the "unknown correspondent" in
question, who had called his attention to the fourth of these sermons.]

4 Marlborough Place, September 30, 1887.

I have but just returned to England after two months' absence, and in
the course of clearing off a vast accumulation of letters, I have come
upon yours.

The Duke of Argyll has been making capital out of the same
circumstances as those referred to by the Bishop. I believe that the
interpretation put upon the facts by both is wholly misleading and
erroneous.

It is quite preposterous to suppose that the men of science of this or
any other country have the slightest disposition to support any view
which may have been enunciated by one of their colleagues, however
distinguished, if good grounds are shown for believing it to be
erroneous.

When Mr. Murray arrived at his conclusions I have no doubt he was
advised to make his ground sure before he attacked a generalisation
which appeared so well founded as that of Mr. Darwin respecting coral
reefs.

If he had consulted me I should have given him that advice myself, for
his own sake. And whoever advised him, in that sense, in my opinion did
wisely.

But the theologians cannot get it out of their heads, that as they have
creeds, to which they must stick at all hazards, so have the men of
science. There is no more ridiculous delusion. We, at any rate, hold
ourselves morally bound to "try all things and hold fast to that which
is good"; and among public benefactors, we reckon him who explodes old
error, as next in rank to him who discovers new truth.

You are at liberty to make any use you please of this letter.

[Two letters on kindred subjects may appropriately follow in this
place. Thanking M. Henri Gadeau de Kerville for his "Causeries sur le
Transformisme," he writes (February 1):--]

Dear Sir,

Accept my best thanks for your interesting "causeries," which seem to
me to give a very clear view of the present state of the evolution
doctrine as applied to biology.

There is a statement on page 87 "Apres sa mort Lamarck fut completement
oublie," which may be true for France but certainly is not so for
England. From 1830 onwards for more than forty years Lyell's
"Principles of Geology" was one of the most widely read scientific
books in this country, and it contains an elaborate criticism of
Lamarck's views. Moreover, they were largely debated during the
controversies which arose out of the publication of the "Vestiges of
Creation" in 1844 or thereabouts. We are certainly not guilty of any
neglect of Lamarck on this side of the Channel.

If I may make another criticism it is that, to my mind, atheism is, on
purely philosophical grounds, untenable. That there is no evidence of
the existence of such a being as the God of the theologians is true
enough; but strictly scientific reasoning can take us no further. Where
we know nothing we can neither affirm nor deny with propriety.

[The other is in answer to the Bishop of Ripon, enclosing a few lines
on the principal representatives of modern science, which he had asked
for.]

4 Marlborough Place, June 16, 1887.

My dear Bishop of Ripon,

I shall be very glad if I can be of any use to you now and always. But
it is not an easy task to put into half-a-dozen sentences, up to the
level of your vigorous English, a statement that shall be unassailable
from the point of view of a scientific fault-finder--which shall be
intelligible to the general public and yet accurate.

I have made several attempts and enclose the final result. I think the
substance is all right, and though the form might certainly be
improved, I leave that to you. When I get to a certain point of
tinkering my phrases I have to put them aside for a day or two.

Will you allow me to suggest that it might be better not to name any
living man? The temple of modern science has been the work of many
labourers not only in our own but in other countries. Some have been
more busy in shaping and laying the stones, some in keeping off the
Sanballats, some prophetwise in indicating the course of the science of
the future. It would be hard to say who has done best service. As
regards Dr. Joule, for example, no doubt he did more than any one to
give the doctrine of the conservation of energy precise expression, but
Mayer and others run him hard.

Of deceased Englishmen who belong to the first half of the Victorian
epoch, I should say that Faraday, Lyell, and Darwin had exerted the
greatest influence, and all three were models of the highest and best
class of physical philosophers.

As for me, in part from force of circumstance and in part from a
conviction I could be of most use in that way, I have played the part
of something between maid-of-all-work and gladiator-general for
Science, and deserve no such prominence as your kindness has assigned
to me.

With our united kind regards to Mrs. Carpenter and yourself, ever yours
very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

[A brief note, also, to Lady Welby, dated July 25, is characteristic of
his attitude towards unverified speculation.]

I have looked through the paper you have sent me, but I cannot
undertake to give any judgment upon it. Speculations such as you deal
with are quite out of my way. I get lost the moment I lose touch of
valid fact and incontrovertible demonstration and find myself wandering
among large propositions, which may be quite true but which would
involve me in months of work if I were to set myself seriously to find
out whether, and in what sense, they are true. Moreover, at present,
what little energy I possess is mortgaged to quite other occupations.

[The following letter was in answer to a request which I was
commissioned to forward him, that he would consent to serve on an
honorary committee of the Societe des Professeurs de Francais en
Angleterre.]

January 17, 1887.

I quite forgot to say anything about the Comite d'honneur, and as you
justly remark in the present strained state of foreign politics the
consequences may be serious. Please tell your colleague that I shall be
"proud an' 'appy." You need not tell him that my pride and happiness
are contingent on having nothing to do for the honour.

[In the meantime, the ups and downs of his health are reflected in
various letters of these six months. Much set up by his stay in the
Isle of Wight, he writes from Shanklin on April 11 to Sir E. Frankland,
describing the last meeting of the x Club, which the latter had not
been able to attend, as he was staying in the Riviera:--]

Hooker, Tyndall, and I alone turned up last Thursday. Lubbock had gone
to High Elms about used up by the House of Commons, and there was no
sign of Hirst.

Tyndall seemed quite himself again. In fact, we three old fogies voted
unanimously that we were ready to pit ourselves against any three
youngsters of the present generation in walking, climbing, or
head-work, and give them odds.

I hope you are in the same comfortable frame of mind.

I had no notion that Mentone had suffered so seriously in the
earthquake of 1887. Moral for architects: read your Bible and build
your house upon the rock.

The sky and sea here may be fairly matched against Mentone or any other
of your Mediterranean places. Also the east wind, which has been
blowing steadily for ten days, and is nearly as keen as the Tramontana.
Only in consequence of the long cold and drought not a leaf is out.

[Shanklin, indeed, suited him so well that he had half a mind to settle
there.] "There are plenty of sites for building," [he writes home in
February,] "but I have not thought of commencing a house yet."
[However, he gave up the idea; Shanklin was too far from town.

But though he was well enough as long as he kept out of London, a
return to his life there was not possible for any considerable time. On
May 19, just before a visit to Mr. F. Darwin at Cambridge, I find that
he went down to St. Albans for a couple of days, to walk; and on the
27th he betook himself, terribly ill and broken down, to the Savernake
Forest Hotel, in hopes of getting] "screwed up." [This] "turned out a
capital speculation, a charming spick-and-span little country hostelry
with great trees in front." [But the weather was persistently bad,]
"the screws got looser rather than tighter," [and again he was
compelled to stay away from the x.

A week later, however, he writes:--]

The weather has been detestable, and I got no good till yesterday,
which was happily fine. Ditto to-day, so I am picking up, and shall
return to-morrow, as, like an idiot as I am, I promised to take the
chair at a public meeting about a Free Library for Marylebone on
Tuesday evening.

I wonder if you know this country. I find it charming.

[On the same day as that which was fixed for the meeting in favour of
the Free Library, he had a very interesting interview with the Premier,
of which he left the following notes, written at the Athenaeum
immediately after:--]

June 7, 1887.

Called on Lord Salisbury by appointment at 3 p.m., and had twenty
minutes' talk with him about the "matter of some public interest"
mentioned in his letter of the [29th].

This turned out to be a proposal for the formal recognition of
distinguished services in Science, Letters, and Art by the institution
of some sort of order analogous to the Pour le Merite. Lord Salisbury
spoke of the anomalous present mode of distributing honours, intimated
that the Queen desired to establish a better system, and asked my
opinion.

I said that I should like to separate my personal opinion from that
which I believed to obtain among the majority of scientific men; that I
thought many of the latter were much discontented with the present
state of affairs, and would highly approve of such a proposal as Lord
Salisbury shadowed forth.

That, so far as my own personal feeling was concerned, it was opposed
to anything of the kind for Science. I said that in Science we had two
advantages--first, that a man's work is demonstrably either good or
bad; and secondly, that the "contemporary posterity" of foreigners
judges us, and rewards good work by membership of Academies and so
forth.

In Art, if a man chooses to call Raphael a dauber, you can't prove he
is wrong; and literary work is just as hard to judge.

I then spoke of the dangers to which science is exposed by the undue
prominence and weight of men who successfully apply scientific
knowledge to practical purposes--engineers, chemical inventors, etc.,
etc.; said it appeared to me that a Minister having such order at his
disposal would find it very difficult to resist the pressure brought by
such people as against the man of high science who had not happened to
have done anything to strike the popular mind.

Discussed the possibility of submission of names by somebody for the
approval and choice of the Crown. For Science, I thought the Royal
Society Council might discharge that duty very fairly. I thought that
the Academy of Berlin presented people for the Pour le Merite, but Lord
Salisbury thought not.

In the course of conversation I spoke of Hooker's case as a glaring
example of the wrong way of treating distinguished men. Observed that
though I did not personally care for or desire the institution of such
honorary order, yet I thought it was a mistake in policy for the Crown
as the fountain of honour to fail in recognition of that which deserves
honour in the world of Science, Letters, and Art.

Lord Salisbury smilingly summed up. "Well, it seems that you don't
desire the establishment of such an order, but that if you were in my
place you would establish it," to which I assented.

Said he had spoken to Leighton, who thought well of the project.

[It was not long, however, before he received imperative notice to quit
town with all celerity. He fell ill with what turned out to be
pleurisy; and after recruiting at Ilkley, went again to Switzerland.]

4 Marlborough Place, June 27, 1887.

My dear Foster,

...I am very sorry that it will be impossible for me to attend [the
meeting of committee down for the following Wednesday]. If I am well
enough to leave the house I must go into the country that day to attend
the funeral of my wife's brother-in-law and my very old friend Fanning,
of whom I may have spoken to you. He has been slowly sinking for some
time, and this morning we had news of his death.

Things have been very crooked for me lately. I had a conglomerate of
engagements of various degrees of importance in the latter half of last
week, and had to forgo them all, by reason of a devil in the shape of
muscular rheumatism of one side, which entered me last Wednesday, and
refuses to be wholly exorcised (I believe it is my Jubilee Honour).
[(On the same day he describes this to Sir J. Evans:--] "I have hardly
been out of the house as far as my garden, and not much off my bed or
sofa since I saw you last. I have had an affection of the muscles of
one side of my body, the proper name of which I do not know, but the
similitude thereof is a bird of prey periodically digging in his claws
and stopping your breath in a playful way.") Along with it, and I
suppose the cause of it, a regular liver upset. I am very seedy yet,
and even if Fanning's death had not occurred I doubt if I should have
been ready to face the Tyndall dinner.

[The reference to this "Tyndall dinner" is explained in the following
letters, which also refer to a meeting of the London University, in
which the projects of reform which he himself supported met with a
smart rebuff.]

4 Marlborough Place, May 13, 1887.

My dear Tyndall,

I am very sorry to hear of your gout, but they say when it comes out at
the toes it flies from the better parts, and that is to the good.

There is no sort of reason why unsatisfied curiosity should continue to
disturb your domestic hearth; your wife will have the gout too if it
goes on. "They" can't bear the strain.

The history of the whole business is this. A day or two before I spoke
to you, Lockyer told me that various people had been talking about the
propriety of recognising your life-long work in some way or other;
that, as you would not have anything else, a dinner had been suggested,
and finally asked me to inquire whether you would accept that
expression of goodwill. Of course I said I would, and I asked
accordingly.

After you had assented I spoke to several of our friends who were at
the Athenaeum, and wrote to Lockyer. I believe a strong committee is
forming, and that we shall have a scientific jubilation on a large
scale; but I have purposely kept in the background, and confined
myself, like Bismarck, to the business of "honest broker."

But of course nothing (beyond preliminaries) can be done till you name
the day, and at this time of year it is needful to look well ahead if a
big room is to be secured. So if you can possibly settle that point,
pray do.

There seems to have been some oversight on my wife's part about the
invitation, but she is stating her own case. We go on a visit to Mrs.
Darwin to Cambridge on Saturday week, and the Saturday after that I am
bound to be at Eton.

Moreover, I have sacrificed to the public Moloch so far as to promise
to take the chair at a public meeting in favour of a Free Library for
Marylebone on the 7th. As Wednesday's work at the Geological Society
and the soiree knocked me up all yesterday, I shall be about finished I
expect on the 8th. If you are going to be at Hindhead after that, and
would have us for a day, it would be jolly; but I cannot be away long,
as I have some work to finish before I go abroad.

I never was so uncomfortable in my life, I think, as on Wednesday when
L-- was speaking, just in front of me, at the University. Of course I
was in entire sympathy with the tenor of his speech, but I was no less
certain of the impolicy of giving a chance to such a master of polished
putting-down as the Chancellor. You know Mrs. Carlyle said that Owen's
sweetness reminded her of sugar of lead. Granville's was that plus
butter of antimony!

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

N.B.--Don't swear, but get Mrs. Tyndall, who is patient and
good-tempered, to read this long screed.

May 18, 1887.

My dear Tyndall,

I was very glad to get your letter yesterday morning, and I conveyed
your alteration at once to Rucker, who is acting as secretary. I asked
him to communicate with you directly to save time.

I hear that the proposal has been received very warmly by all sorts and
conditions of men, and that is quite apart from any action of your
closer personal friends. Personally I am rather of your mind about the
"dozen or score" of the faithful. But as that was by no means to the
mind of those who started the project, and, moreover, might have given
rise to some heartburning, I have not thought it desirable to meddle
with the process of spontaneous combustion. So look out for a big
bonfire somewhere in the middle of June! I have a hideous cold, and can
only hope that the bracing air of Cambridge, where we go on Saturday,
may set me right.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

[To recover from his pleuritic "Jubilee Honour" he went for a fortnight
(July 11-25) to Ilkley, which had done him so much good before,
intending to proceed to Switzerland as soon as he conveniently could.]

Ilkley, July 15, 1887.

My dear Foster,

I was very much fatigued by the journey here, but the move was good,
and I am certainly mending, though not so fast as I could wish. I
expect some adhesions are interfering with my bellows. As soon as I am
fit to travel I am thinking of going to Lugano, and thence to Monte
Generoso. The travelling is easy to Lugano, and I know the latter place.

My notion is I had better for the present avoid the chances of a wet,
cold week in the high places.

M.B.A. [Marine Biological Association]...As to the employment of the
Grant, I think it ought to be on something definite and limited. The
Pilchard question would be an excellent one to take up.

-- seems to have a notion of employing it on some geological survey of
Plymouth Sound, work that would take years and years to do properly,
and nothing in the way of clear result to show.

I hope to be in London on my way abroad in less than ten days' time,
and will let you know.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

[And on the same day to Sir J. Donnelly:--]

I expect...that I shall have a slow convalescence. Lucky it is no worse!

Much fighting I am likely to do for the Unionist cause or any other!
But don't take me for one of the enrages. If anybody will show me a way
by which the Irish may attain all they want without playing the devil
with us, I am ready to give them their own talking-shop or anything
else.

But that is as much writing as I can sit up and do all at once.


CHAPTER 3.2.

1887.

[On the last day of July he left England for Switzerland, and did not
return till the end of September. A second visit to Arolla worked a
great change in him. He renewed his Gentian studies also, with
unflagging ardour. The following letters give some idea of his doings
and interests:--]

Hotel du Mont Collon, Arolla, Switzerland, August 28, 1887.

My dear Foster,

I know you will be glad to hear that I consider myself completely set
up again. We went to the Maderaner Thal and stayed a week there. But I
got no good out of it. It is charmingly pretty, but damp; and,
moreover, the hotel was 50 per cent too full of people, mainly
Deutschers, and we had to turn out into the open air after dinner
because the salon and fumoir were full of beds. So, in spite of all
prudential considerations, I made up my mind to come here. We travelled
over the Furca, and had a capital journey to Evolena. Thence I came on
muleback (to my great disgust, but I could not walk a bit uphill) here.
I began to get better at once; and in spite of a heavy snowfall and
arctic weather a week ago, I have done nothing but mend. We have
glorious weather now, and I can take almost as long walks as last year.

We have some Cambridge people here: Dr. Peile of Christ's and his
family. Also Nettleship of Oxford. What is the myth about the Darwin
tree in the "Pall Mall"? ["A tree planted yesterday in the centre of
the circular grass plot in the first court of Christ's College, in
Darwin's honour, was 'spirited' away at night."--"Pall Mall Gazette"
August 23, 1887.] Dr. Peile believes it to be all a flam.

Forel has just been paying a visit to the Arolla glacier for the
purpose of ascertaining the internal temperature. He told me he much
desired to have a copy of the Report of the Krakatoa Committee. If it
is published, will you have a copy sent to him? He is Professor at
Lausanne, and a very good man.

Our stay here will depend on the weather. At present it is perfect. I
do not suppose we shall leave before 7th or 8th of September, and we
shall get home by easy stages not much before the end of the month.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

Madder than ever on Gentians.

[The following is in reply to Sir E. Frankland's inquiries with
reference to the reported presence of fish in the reservoirs of one of
the water-companies.]

Hotel Righi Vaudois, Glion, September 16, 1887.

We left Arolla about ten days ago, and after staying a day at St.
Maurice in consequence of my wife's indisposition, came on here where
your letter just received has followed me. I am happy to say I am quite
set up again, and as I can manage my 1500 or 2000 feet as well as ever,
I may be pretty clear that my pleurisy has not left my lung sticking
anywhere.

I will take your inquiries seriatim. (1) The faith of your small
boyhood is justified. Eels do wander overland, especially in the wet
stormy nights they prefer for migration. But so far as I know this is
the habit only of good-sized, downwardly-moving eels. I am not aware
that the minute fry take to the land on their journey upwards.

(2) Male eels are now well known. I have gone over the evidence myself
and examined many. But the reproductive organs of both sexes remain
undeveloped in fresh water--just the contrary of salmon, in which they
remain undeveloped in salt water.

(3) So far as I know, no eel with fully-developed reproductive organs
has yet been seen. Their matrimonial operations go on in the sea where
they spend their honeymoon, and we only know the result in the shape of
the myriads of thread-like eel-lets, which migrate up in the well-known
"eel-fare."

(4) On general principles of eel-life I think it is possible that the
Inspector's theory MAY be correct. But your story about the roach is a
poser. They certainly do not take to walking abroad. It reminds me of
the story of the Irish milk-woman who was confronted with a stickleback
found in the milk. "Sure, then, it must have been bad for the poor cow
when that came through her teat."

Surely the Inspector cannot have overlooked such a crucial fact as the
presence of other fish in the reservoirs?

We shall be here another week, and then move slowly back to London. I
am loth to leave this place, which is very beautiful with splendid air
and charming walks in all directions--two or three thousand feet up if
you like.

Hotel Righi Vaudois, Glion, Switzerland, September 16, 1887.

My dear Donnelly,

We left Arolla for this place ten days ago, but my wife fell ill, and
we had to stay a day at St. Maurice. She has been more or less out of
sorts ever since until to-day. However, I hope now she is all right
again.

This is a very charming place at the east end of the Lake of
Geneva--1500 feet above the lake--and you can walk 3000 feet higher up
if you like.

What they call a "funicular railway" hauls you up a gradient of 1 in 1
3/4 from the station on the shore in ten minutes. At first the
sensation on looking down is queer, but you soon think nothing of it.
The air is very fine, the weather lovely, the feeding unexceptionable,
and the only drawback consists in the "javelins," as old Francis Head
used to call them--stinks of such wonderful crusted flavour that they
must have been many years in bottle. But this is a speciality of all
furrin parts that I have ever visited.

I am very well and extremely lazy so far as my head goes--legs I am
willing to use to any extent up hill or down dale. They wanted me to go
and speechify at Keighley in the middle of October, but I could not get
permission from the authorities. Moreover, I really mean to keep quiet
and abstain even from good words (few or many) next session. My wife
joins with me in love to Mrs. Donnelly and yourself.

She thought she had written, but doubts whether in the multitude of her
letters she did not forget.

Ever yours,

T.H. Huxley.

[From Glion also he writes to Sir M. Foster:--]

I have been doing some very good work on the Gentians in the interests
of the business of being idle.

[The same subject recurs in the next letter:--]

Hotel Righi Vaudois, Glion, Switzerland, September 21, 1887.

My dear Hooker,

I saw in the "Times" yesterday the announcement of Mr. Symond's death.
I suppose the deliverance from so painful a malady as heart-disease is
hardly to be lamented in one sense; but these increasing gaps in one's
intimate circle are very saddening, and we feel for Lady Hooker and
you. My wife has been greatly depressed in hearing of Mrs. Carpenter's
fatal disorder. One cannot go away for a few weeks without finding some
one gone on one's return.