dden; others put in an appearance later. There would
be much talk, from grave to gay, in those plainly appointed rooms, or
on a fine summer evening, perhaps, in the garden with its little lawn
behind the house. Some music, too, was almost sure to be performed by
friends or by the daughters of the house, whose progress in the art of
singing was ever a matter of concern to Mr. Herbert Spencer, himself
a great lover of music. Letters and Art were well represented there
as well as Science, intermingled with the friends of the younger
generation. "Here," writes G.W. Smalley,

people from many other worlds than those of abstract science
were bidden; where talk was to be heard of a kind rare in
any world. It was scientific at times, but subdued to the
necessities of the occasion; speculative, yet kept within such
bounds that bishop or archbishop might have listened without
offence; political even, and still not commonplace, and, when
artistic, free from affectation.

There and elsewhere Mr. Huxley easily took the lead if he
cared to, or if challenged. Nobody was more ready in a greater
variety of topics, and if they were scientific it was almost
always another who introduced them. Unlike some of his
comrades of the Royal Society, he was of opinion that man does
not live by science alone, and nothing came amiss to him....
Even in private the alarm of war is sometimes heard, and Mr.
Huxley is not a whit less formidable as a disputant across
the table than with pen in hand. Yet an angry man must be very
angry indeed before he could be angry with this adversary. He
disarmed his enemies with an amiable grace that made defeat
endurable, if not entirely delightful.

If scientific subjects came up in conversation, the luminous style, so
familiar in his written work, reappeared in talk.

Yet it has more than that. You cannot listen to him without
thinking more of the speaker than of his science, more of the
solid beautiful nature than of the intellectual gifts, more of
his manly simplicity and sincerity than of all his knowledge
and his long services.

But in the intermediate period, from about 1860 onwards, the unceasing
rush of occupation rendered it very difficult to keep in touch with
his friends. On his initiative a small dining club of scientific
friends and allies was established. Almost all these close friends
were members of