Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1Huxley, Thomas Henry
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Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895; Naturalists -- England -- Biography
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[The same experience is attested and enforced in the correspondence with
Dr. Anton Dohrn, which begins this year. Genial, enthusiastic, as
pungent as he was eager in conversation, the future founder of the
Marine Biological Station at Naples, on his first visit to England, made
my father's acquaintance by accepting his invitation to stay with him]
"for as long as you can make it convenient to stay" [at Swanage,] "a
little country town with no sort of amusement except what is to be got
by walking about a rather pretty country. But having warned you of this,
I repeat that it will give me much pleasure to see you if you think it
worthwhile to come so far."
[Dr. Dohrn came, and came into the midst of the family--seven children,
ranging from ten years to babyhood, with whom he made himself as popular
by his farmyard repertory, as he did with the elders by other qualities.
The impression left upon him appears from a letter written soon after:--
"Ich habe heute mehrere Capitel in Mill's 'Utilitarianism' gelesen and
das Wort happiness mehr als einmal gefunden: hatte ich eine Definition
dieses vielumworbenen Wortes irgend Jemand zu geben, ich wurde sagen (I
have been reading several chapters of Mill's 'Utilitarianism' to-day,
and met with the word 'happiness' more than once; if _I_ had to give
anybody a definition of this much debated word, in other say): go and
see the Huxley family at Swanage; and if you would enjoy the same I
enjoyed, you would feel what is happiness, and never more ask for a
definition of this sentiment."]
Swanage, September 22, 1867.
My dear Dohrn,
Thanks to my acquaintance with the "Microskopische Anatomie," and to the
fact that you employ our manuscript characters, and not the
hieroglyphics of what I venture to call the "cursed" and not "cursiv"
Schrift, your letter was as easy as it was pleasant to read. We are all
glad to have news of you, though it was really very unnecessary to thank
us for trying to make your brief visit a pleasant one. Your conscience
must be more "pungent" than your talk, if it pricks you with so little
cause. My wife rejoices saucily to find that phrase of hers has stuck so
strongly in your mind, but you must remember her fondness for "Tusch."
You must certainly marry. In my bachelor days, it was unsafe for anyone
to approach me before mid-day, and for all intellectual purposes I was
barren till the evening. Breakfast at six would have upset me for the
day. You and the lobster noted the difference the other day.
Whether it is matrimony or whether it is middle age I don't know, but as
time goes on you can combine both.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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