All my beautiful Swiss plans are knocked on the head--at any rate for the present--in favour of horizontality and Digitalis here. The journey up on Monday demonstrated that travelling, at present, was impracticable. Hames is sanguine I shall get right with rest, and I am quite satisfied with his opinion, but for the sake of my belongings he thinks it right to have Clark's opinion to fortify him. It is a bore to be converted into a troublesome invalid even for a few weeks, but I comfort myself with my usual reflection on the chances of life, "Lucky it is no worse." Any impatience would have been checked by what I heard about Moseley this morning--that he has sunk into hopeless idiocy. A man in the prime of life! Ever yours, T.H. Huxley. 4 Marlborough Place, May 4, 1888. My dear Hooker, Best thanks for your note and queries. I remember hearing what you say about Darwin's father long ago, I am not sure from what source. But if you look at page 20 of the "Life and Letters" you will see that Darwin himself says his father's mind "was not scientific." I have altered the passage so as to use these exact words. I used "malice" rather in the French sense, which is more innocent than ours, but "irony" would be better if "malice" in any way suggests malignity. "Chaff" is unfortunately beneath the dignity of a Royal Society obituary. I am going to add a short note about Erasmus Darwin's views. It is a great comfort to me that you like the thing. I am getting nervous over possible senility--63 to-day, and nothing of your evergreen ways about me. I am decidedly mending, chiefly to all appearance by allowing myself to be stuffed with meat and drink like a Strasburg goose. I am also very much afraid that abolishing tobacco has had something to do with my amendment. But I am mindful of your maxim--keep a tight hold over your doctor. Ever yours very faithfully, T.H. Huxley. P.S. 1.--Can't say I have sacrificed anything to penmanship, and am not at all sure about lucidity! P.S. 2.--It is "Friday"--there is a dot over the i--reopened my letter to crow! [The following letter to Mr. Spencer is in answer to a note of condolence on his illness, in which the following passage occurs:--] I was grieved to hear of so serious an evil as that which [Hirst] named. It is very depressing to find one's friends as well as one's self passing more and more into invalid life. Well, we always have one consolation, such as it is, that we have made our lives of some service in the world, and that, in fact, we are suffering from doing too much for our fellows. Such thoughts do not go far in the way of mitigation, but they are better than nothing. 4 Marlborough Place, May 8, 1888. My dear Spencer, I have been on the point of writing to you, but put it off for lack of anything cheerful to say.