I have been aspiring to great honours since I wrote to you last, to wit the F.R.S., and found no little to my astonishment that I had a chance of it, and so went in.  I must tell you that they have made the admission more difficult than it used to be.  Candidates are not elected by the Society alone, but fifteen only a year are selected by a committee, and then elected as a matter of course by the Society.  This year there were thirty-eight candidates.  I did not expect to come in till next year, but I find I am one of the selected.  I fancy I shall be the junior Fellow by some years.  Singularly enough, among the non-selected candidates were Ward, the man who conducted the Botanical Honours Examination of Apothecaries’ Hall nine years ago, and Bryson, the surgeon of the “Fisguard,” i.e. nominally my immediate superior, and who, as he frequently acts as Sir William Burnett’s deputy, will very likely examine me when I pass for surgeon R.N.!!  That is awkward and must be annoying to him, but it is not my fault.  I did not ask for a single name that appeared upon my certificate.  Owen’s name and Carpenter’s, which were to have been appended, were not added.  Forbes, my recommender, told me beforehand not to expect to get in this year, and did not use his influence, and so I have no intriguing to reproach myself with or to be reproached with.  The only drawback is that it will cost me 14 pounds sterling, which is more than I can very well afford.

By the way, I have not told you that after staying for about five months with George, I found that if I meant to work in earnest his home was not the place, so, much to my regret,—­for they made me very happy there,—­I summoned resolution and “The Boy’s Own Book” and took a den of my own, whence I write at present.  You had better, anyhow, direct to George, as I am going to move and don’t know how long I may remain at my next habitation.  At present I am living in the Park Road, but I find it too noisy and am going to St. Anne’s Gardens, St. John’s Wood, close to my mother’s, against whose forays I shall have to fortify myself.

[It was a minor addition to his many troubles that after a time Huxley found a grudging and jealous spirit exhibited in some quarters towards his success, and influence used to prevent any further advance that might endanger the existing balance of power in the scientific world.  But this could be battled with directly; indeed it was rather a relief to have an opportunity for action instead of sitting still to wait the results of uncertain elections.  The qualities requisite for such a contest he possessed, in a high ideal of the dignity of science as an instrument of truth; a standard of veracity in scientific workers to which all should subordinate their personal ambitions; a disregard of authority as such unless its claims were verified by indisputable fact; and as a beginning, the will to subject himself to his own most rigid canons of accuracy, thoroughness, and honesty; then to maintain his principle and defend his position against all attempts at browbeating.]