early date: it was formed during the Antarctic
voyage, out of love for your own "Journal," and has never deserted me
since; nor would it, I think, had I never known more of you than by
report and as the author of the said "Naturalist's Journal." Short of
the gratification I felt in getting the book out, I know no greater than
your kind, hearty acceptation of the dedication; and, had the reviewers
gibbeted me, the dedication would alone have given me real pain. I have
no wish to assume a stoical indifference to public opinion, for I am
well alive to it, and the critics might have irritated me sorely, but
they could never have caused me the regret that the association of your
name with a bad book of mine would have.

You will laugh when I tell you that, my book out, I feel past the
meridian of life! But you do not know how from my earliest childhood I
nourished and cherished the desire to make a creditable journey in a new
country, and write such a respectable account of its natural features as
should give me a niche amongst the scientific explorers of the globe
I inhabit, and hand my name down as a useful contributor of original
matter. A combination of most rare advantages has enabled me to gain
as much of my object as contents me, for I never wished to be greatest
amongst you, nor did rivalry ever enter my thoughts. No ulterior object
has ever been present to me in this pursuit. My ambition is fully
gratified by the satisfactory completion of my task, and I am now happy
to go on jog-trot at Botany till the end of my days--downhill, in one
sense, all the way. I shall never have such another object to work for,
nor shall I feel the want of it...As it is, the craving of thirty
years is satisfied, and I now look back on life in a way I never could
previously. There never was a past hitherto to me. The phantom was
always in view; mayhap it is only a "ridiculus mus" after all, but it is
big enough for me...

(PLATE: T.H. HUXLEY, 1857. Maull & Polyblank photo., Walker & Cockerell
ph. sc.)

(32/1. The story of Huxley's life has been fully given in the
interesting biography edited by Mr. Leonard Huxley. (32/2. "Life and
Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley." London 1900.) Readers of this book and
of the "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin" gain an insight into the
relationship between this pair of friends to which any words of ours can
add but little. Darwin realised to the full the essential strength of
Mr. Huxley's nature; he