Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3Huxley, Thomas Henry
History
Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895; Naturalists -- England -- Biography
rather Aino-ish about the body, small in the calf, and cheese-cutting
in the shins. Le voici!
CHAPTER 3.14.
1895.
Two months of almost continuous frost, during which the thermometer
fell below zero, marked the winter of 1894-95. Tough, if not strong, as
Huxley's constitution was, this exceptional cold, so lowering to the
vitality of age, accentuated the severity of the illness which followed
in the train of influenza, and at last undermined even his powers of
resistance.
But until the influenza seized him, he was more than usually vigorous
and brilliant. He was fatigued, but not more so than he expected, by
attending a deputation to the Prime Minister in the depth of January,
and delivering a speech on the London University question; and in
February he was induced to write a reply to the attack upon agnosticism
contained in Mr. Arthur Balfour's "Foundations of Belief". Into this he
threw himself with great energy, all the more because the notices in
the daily press were likely to give the reading public a wrong
impression as to its polemic against his own position. Mr. Wilfrid Ward
gives an account of a conversation with him on this subject:--
Some one had sent me Mr. A.J. Balfour's book on the "Foundations of
Belief" early in February 1895. We were very full of it, and it was the
theme of discussion on the 17th of February, when two friends were
lunching with us. Not long after luncheon, Huxley came in, and seemed
in extraordinary spirits, he began talking of Erasmus and Luther,
expressing a great preference for Erasmus, who would, he said, have
impregnated the Church with culture, and brought it abreast of the
thought of the times, while Luther concentrated attention on individual
mystical doctrines. "It was very trying for Erasmus to be identified
with Luther, from whom he differed absolutely. A man ought to be ready
to endure persecution for what he does hold; but it is hard to be
persecuted for what you don't hold." I said that I thought his estimate
of Erasmus's attitude towards the Papacy coincided with Professor R.C.
Jebb's. He asked if I could lend him Jebb's Rede Lecture on the
subject. I said that I had not got it at hand, but I added, "I can lend
you another book, which I think you ought to read--Balfour's
'Foundations of Belief'."
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