I am sorry not to have a better account of your health.  With kind remembrances to Mrs. Darwin and the rest of your circle.

Ever yours faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

Jermyn Street, May 1, 1865.

My dear Darwin,

I send you by this post a booklet none of which is much worth your reading, while of nine-tenths of it you may say as the man did who had been trying to read Johnson’s “Dictionary,” “that the words were fine, but he couldn’t make much of the story.” [Probably “A Catalogue of the Collection of Fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology,” etc.]

But perhaps the young lady who has been kind enough to act as taster of my books heretofore will read the explanatory notice, and give me her ideas thereupon (always recollecting that almost the whole of it was written in the pre-Darwinian epoch.)

I do not hear very good accounts of you—­to my sorrow—­though rumours have reached me that the opus magnum is completely developed though not yet born. [On “Pangenesis.”]

I am grinding at the mill and getting a little tired.  My belongings flourishing as I hope you are.

Ever yours faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

Jermyn Street, May 29, 1865.

My dear Darwin,

I meant to have written to you yesterday to say how glad I shall be to read whatever you like to send me.

I have to lecture at the Royal Institution this week, but after Friday, my time will be more at my own disposal than usual; and as always I shall be most particularly glad to be of any use to you.

Any glimmer of light on the question you speak of is of the utmost importance, and I shall be immensely interested in learning your views.  And of course I need not add I will do my best to upset them.  That is the nature of the beast.

I had a letter from one of the ablest of the younger zoologists of Germany, Haeckel, the other day, in which this passage occurs:—­

“The Darwinian Theory, the establishment and development of which is the object [of] all my scientific labours, has gained ground immensely in Germany (where it was at first so misunderstood) during the last two years, and I entertain no doubt that it will before long be everywhere victorious.”  And he adds that I dealt far too mildly with Kolliker.

With kindest remembrances to Mrs. Darwin and your family.

Ever yours faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

[This year, as is seen from the foregoing, he was again in direct communication with Professor Ernst Haeckel of Jena, the earliest and strongest champion of Darwinian ideas in Germany.  The latter wished to enlarge his observations by joining some English scientific expedition, if any such were in preparation, but was dissuaded by the following reply.  The expected book of Darwin’s was the “Pangenesis,” and this is also referred to in the three succeeding letters to Darwin himself.]