The first allusion in these letters is to a concluding phase of Tyndall’s controversy upon the claims of the late Principal Forbes in the matter of Glacier theory:—­]

4 Marlborough Place, London, N.W., June 24, 1874.

My dear Tyndall,

I quite agree with your Scotch friend in his estimate of Forbes, and if he were alive and the controversy beginning, I should say draw your picture in your best sepia or lampblack.  But I have been thinking over this matter a good deal since I received your letter, and my verdict is, leave that tempting piece of portraiture alone.

The world is neither was nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and injustice by being damnably sentimental, and the more severely true your portrait might be the more loud would be the outcry against it.  I should say publish a new edition of your “Glaciers of the Alps,” make a clear historical statement of all the facts showing Forbes’ relations to Rendu and Agassiz, and leave the matter to the judgment of your contemporaries.  That will sink in and remain when all the hurly-burly is over.

I wonder if that address is begun, and if you are going to be as wise and prudent as I was at Liverpool.  When I think of the temptation I resisted on that occasion, like Clive when he was charged with peculation, “I marvel at my own forbearance!” Let my example be a burning and a shining light to you.  I declare I have horrid misgivings of your kicking over the traces.

The “x” comes off on Saturday next, so let your ears burn, for we shall be talking about you.  I have just begun my lectures to Schoolmasters, and I wish they were over, though I am very well on the whole.

Griffith [for many years secretary to the British Association.] wrote to ask for the title of my lecture at Belfast, and I had to tell him I did not know yet.  I shall not begin to think of it till the middle of July when these lectures are over.

The wife would send her love, but she has gone to Kew to one of Hooker’s receptions, taking Miss Jewsbury, who is staying with us. [Miss Geraldine Jewsbury (1812-1880) the novelist, and friend of the Carlyles.  After 1866 she lived at Sevenoaks.] I was to have gone to the College of Physicians’ dinner to-night, but I was so weary when I got home that I made up my mind to send an excuse.  And then came the thought that I had not written to you.

Ever yours sincerely,

T.H.  Huxley.

[The next letter is in reply to Tyndall, who had written as follows from Switzerland on July 15:—­

I confess to you that I am far more anxious about your condition than about my own; for I fear that after your London labour the labour of this lecture will press heavily upon you.  I wish to Heaven it could be transferred to other shoulders.

I wish I could get rid of the uncomfortable idea that I have drawn upon you at a time when your friend and brother ought to be anxious to spare you every labour...