Hodeslea, Eastbourne, October 23, 1891.

My dear Flower,

My “next worst thing” was promoting a weak man to a place of responsibility in lieu of a strong one, on the mere ground of seniority.

Caeteris paribus, or with even approximate equality of qualifications, no doubt seniority ought to count; but it is mere ruin to any service to let it interfere with the promotion of men of marked superiority, especially in the case of offices which involve much responsibility.

I suppose as trustee I may requisition a copy of Woodward’s Catalogue.  I should like to look a little more carefully at it...We are none the worse for our pleasant glimpse of the world (and his wife) at your house; but I find that speechifying at public dinners is one of the luxuries that I must utterly deny myself.  It will take me three weeks’ quiet to get over my escapade.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

CHAPTER 3.9.

1892.

The revival of part of the former controversy which he had had with Mr. Gladstone upon the story of creation, made a warlike beginning of an otherwise very peaceful year.  Since the middle of December a great correspondence had been going on in the “Times”, consequent upon the famous manifesto of the thirty-eight Anglican clergy touching the question of inspiration and the infallibility of the Bible.  Criticism, whether “higher” or otherwise, defended on the one side, was unsparingly denounced on the other.  After about a month of this correspondence, Huxley’s name was mentioned as one of these critics; whereupon he was attacked by one of the disputants for “misleading the public” by his assertion in the original controversy that while reptiles appear in the geological record before birds, Genesis affirms the contrary; the critic declaring that the word for “creeping things” (rehmes) created on the sixth day, does not refer to reptiles, which are covered by the “moving creatures” (shehretz) used of the first appearance of animal life.

It is interesting to see how, in his reply, Huxley took care to keep the main points at issue separate from the subordinate and unimportant ones.  His answer is broken up into four letters.  The first ("Times” January 26) rehearses the original issue between himself and Mr. Gladstone; wherein both sides agreed that the creation of the sixth day included reptiles, so that, formally at least, his position was secure, though there was also a broader ground of difference to be considered.  Before proceeding further, he asks his critic whether he admits the existence of the contradiction involved, and if not, to state his reasons therefor.  These reasons were again given on February 1 as the new interpretation of the two Hebrew words already referred to, an interpretation, by the way, which makes the same word stand both for “the vast and various population of the waters” and “for such land animals as mice, weasels, and lizards, great and small.”