Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895; Naturalists -- England -- Biography
I cannot but accept your kind offer to send me Fanny Lewald's works,
though it is a shame to rob you of them. In return my wife insists on
your studying a copy of Tennyson, which we shall send you as soon as we
return to civilisation, which will be next Friday. If you are in London
after that date we shall hope to see you once more before you return to
the bosom of the "Fatherland."
I did my best to give the children your message, but I fear I failed
ignominiously in giving the proper bovine vocalisation to "Mroo."
That small curly-headed boy Harry, struck, I suppose by the kindness you
both show to children, has effected a synthesis between you and Tyndall,
and gravely observed the other day, "Doctor Dohrn-Tyndall do say Mroo."
My wife...Sends her kind regards. The "seven" are not here or they would
vote love by acclamation.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[He did not this year attend the British Association, which was held in
Dundee. This was the first occasion on which an evening was devoted to a
working men's lecture, a step important as tending towards his own ideal
of what science should be:--not the province of a few, but the
possession of the many.
This first lecture was delivered by Professor Tyndall, who wrote him an
account of the meeting, and in particular of his reconciliation with
Professors Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and Tait, with whom he had had a
somewhat embittered controversy.
In his reply, Huxley writes:--]
To J. Tyndall.
Thanks also for a copy of the "Dundee Advertiser" containing your
lecture. It seemed to me that the report must be a very good one, and
the lecture reads exceedingly well. You have inaugurated the working
men's lectures of the Association in a way that cannot be improved. And
it was worth the trouble, for I suspect they will become a great and
noble feature in the meetings.
Everything seems to have gone well at the meeting, the educational
business carried [i.e. a recommendation that natural science be made a
part of the curriculum in the public schools], and the anthropologers
making fools of themselves in a most effectual way. So that I do not
feel that I have anything to reproach myself with for being absent.
I am very pleased to hear of the reconciliation with Thomson and Tait.
The mode of it speaks well for them, and the fact will remove a certain
source of friction from amongst the cogs of your mental machinery.
[The following gives the reason for his resigning the Fullerian
lectureship:--]
Athenaeum Club, May, 1867.
My dear Tyndall,
A conversation I had with Bence Jones yesterday reminded me that I ought
to have communicated with you. But we do not meet so often as we used to
do, being, I suppose, both very busy, and I forget to write.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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