But the whole affair shall be sent by a morning's post to-morrow. I have the proofs. I have found the thing getting too long for one paper, and requiring far more care than I could put into the next two days--so I propose to divide it, if you see no objection. And there is another reason for this course. Influenza is raging here. I hear of hundreds of cases, and if it comes my way, as it did before, I go to bed and stop there--"the world forgetting and by the world forgot"--until I am killed or cured. So you would not get your article. As it stands, it is not a bad gambit. We will play the rest of the game afterwards, D.V. and K.V. Hope mother and baby are doing well. Ever yours, T.H. Huxley. Hodeslea, Eastbourne, February 23, 1895, 12.30 P.M. My dear Knowles, I have just played and won as hard a match against time as I ever knew in the days of my youth. The proofs, happily, arrived by the first post, so I got to work at them before 9, polished them off by 12, and put them into the post (myself) by 12.5. So you ought to have them by 6 P.M. And, to make your mind easy, I have just telegraphed to you to say so. But, Lord's sake! let some careful eye run over the part of which I have had no revise--for I am "capable de tout" in the way of overlooking errors. I am very glad you like the thing. The second instalment shall be no worse. I grieve to say that my estimation of Balfour, as a thinker, sinks lower and lower, the further I go. God help the people who think his book an important contribution to thought! The Gigadibsians who say so are past divine assistance! We are very glad to hear the grandchild and mother are getting on so well. Ever yours very truly, T.H. Huxley. Hodeslea, Eastbourne, March 8, 1895. My dear Knowles, The proofs have just arrived, but I am sorry to say that (I believe for the first time in our transactions) I shall have to disappoint you. Just after I had sent off the manuscript influenza came down upon me with a swoop. I went to bed and am there still, with no chance of quitting it in a hurry. My wife is in the same case; item one of the maids. The house is a hospital, and by great good fortune we have a capital nurse. Doctor says its a mild type, in which case I wonder what severe types may be like. ("But in the matter of aches and pains, restless paroxysms of coughing and general incapacity, I can give it a high character for efficiency." [To M. Foster, March 7.]) I find coughing continuously for fourteen hours or so a queer kind of mildness. Could you put in an excuse on account of influenza? Can't write any more. Ever yours, T.H. Huxley. Hodeslea, Eastbourne, March 19, 1895. My dear Knowles, I am making use of the pen of my dear daughter and good nurse, in the first place to thank you for your cheque, in the second place to say that you must not look for the article this month. I haven't been out of bed since the 1st, but they are fighting a battle with bronchitis over my body.