So I have come out in the new character of a defender of Catholic orthodoxy, and upset Mivart out of the mouth of his own prophet.

[Darwin himself was more than pleased with the article, and wrote enthusiastically (see “Life and Letters” 3 148-150).  A few of his generous words may be quoted to show the rate at which he valued his friend’s championship.

What a wonderful man you are to grapple with those old metaphysical-divinity books...The pendulum is now swinging against our side, but I feel positive it will soon swing the other way; and no mortal man will do half as much as you in giving it a start in the right direction, as you did at the first commencement.

And again, after “mounting climax on climax,” he continues:—­“I must tell you what Hooker said to me a few years ago.  ’When I read Huxley, I feel quite infantile in intellect.’”

This sketch of what constituted his holiday—­and it was not very much busier than many another holiday—­may possibly suggest what his busy time must have been like.

Till the end of the year the immense amount of work did not apparently tell upon him.  He rejoiced in it.  In December he remarked to his wife that with all his different irons in the fire, he had never felt his mind clearer or his vigour greater.  Within a week he broke down quite suddenly, and could neither work nor think.  He refers to this in the following letter:—­]

Jermyn Street, December 22, 1871.

My dear Johnny,

You are certainly improving.  As a practitioner in the use of cold steel myself, I have read your letter in to-day’s “Nature,” “mit Ehrfurcht und Bewunderung.”  And the best evidence of the greatness of your achievement is that it extracts this expression of admiration from a poor devil whose brains and body are in a colloid state, and who is off to Brighton for a day or two this afternoon.

God be with thee, my son, and strengthen the contents of thy gall-bladder!

Ever thine,

T.H.  Huxley.

PS.—­Seriously, I am glad that at last a protest has been raised against the process of anonymous self-praise to which our friend is given.  I spoke to Smith the other day about that dose of it in the “Quarterly” article on Spirit-rapping.

CHAPTER 2.3.

1872.

[Dyspepsia, that most distressing of maladies, had laid firm hold upon him.  He was compelled to take entire rest for a time.  But his first holiday produced no lasting effect, and in the summer he was again very ill.  Then the worry of a troublesome lawsuit in connection with the building of his new house intensified both bodily illness and mental depression.  He had great fears of being saddled with heavy costs at the moment when he was least capable of meeting any new expense—­hardly able even to afford another much-needed spell of rest.  But in his case, as in others, at this critical moment the circle of fellow-workers in science to whom he was bound by ties of friendship, resolved that he should at least not lack the means of recovery.  In their name Charles Darwin wrote him the following letter, of which it is difficult to say whether it does more honour to him who sent it or to him who received it:—­