[But these words conjured up terrible possibilities, and Mr. Romanes wrote back in great alarm to ask the exact state of the case. The two following letters show that the alarm was groundless:--] Hodeslea, April 26, 1893. My dear Romanes, I fear, or rather hope, that I have given you a very unnecessary scare. You may be quite sure, I think, that, while I should have refused to give the lecture if any pledge of a special character had been proposed to me, I have felt very strongly bound to you to take the utmost care that no shadow of a just cause for offence should be given, even to the most orthodox of Dons. It seems to me that the best thing I can do is to send you the lecture as it stands, notes and all. But please return it within two days at furthest, and consider it STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL between us two (I am not excluding Mrs. Romanes, if she cares to look at the paper). No consideration would induce me to give any ground for the notion that I had submitted the lecture to any one but yourself. If there is any phrase in the lecture which you think likely to get you into trouble, out it shall come or be modified in form. If the whole thing is too much for the Dons' nerves--I am no judge of their delicacy--I am quite ready to give up the lecture. In fact I do not know whether I shall be able to make myself heard three weeks hence, as the influenza has left its mark in hoarseness and pain in the throat after speaking. So you see if the thing is altogether too wicked there is an easy way out of it. Ever yours very faithfully, T.H. Huxley. Hodeslea, April 28, 1893. My dear Romanes, My mind is made easy by such a handsome acquittal from you and the Lady Abbess, your coadjutor in the Holy Office. My wife, who is my inquisitor and confessor in ordinary, has gone over the lecture twice, without scenting a heresy, and if she and Mrs. Romanes fail--a fico for a mere male don's nose! From the point of view of the complete argument, I agree with you about note 19. But the dangers of open collision with orthodoxy on the one hand and Spencer on the other, increased with the square of the enlargement of the final pages, and I was most anxious for giving no handle to any one who might like to say I had used the lecture for purposes of attack. Moreover, in spite of all reduction, the lecture is too long already. But I think it not improbable that in spite of my meekness and peacefulness, neither the one side nor the other will let me alone. And then you see, I shall have an opportunity of making things plain, under no restriction. You will not be responsible for anything said in the second edition, nor can the Donniest of Dons grumble. Ever yours very faithfully, T.H. Huxley. The double negative is Shakspearian. See Hamlet, act 2 scene 2. [Unfortunately for the entire success of the lecture, he was suffering from the results of influenza, more especially a loss of voice. He writes (April 18):--]