I have been in a state of permanent blush ever since, and I feel sure you will forgive me for troubling you with this apology as the only remedy to which I can look for relief from that unwonted affliction.

I am, dear Lord Rosebery, yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

[All through the spring he had been busy completing the chapter on Sir Richard Owen’s work, which he had been asked to write by the biographer of his old opponent, and on February 4 tells Sir J.D.  Hooker:—­]

I am toiling over my chapter about Owen, and I believe his ghost in
Hades is grinning over my difficulties.

The thing that strikes me most is, how he and I and all the things we fought about belong to antiquity.

It is almost impertinent to trouble the modern world with such antiquarian business.

[He sent the manuscript to Sir M. Foster on June 16; the book itself appeared in December.  The chapter in question was restricted to a review of the immense amount of work, most valuable on its positive side, done by Owen (compare the letter of January 18, 1893.); and the review in “Nature” remarks of it that the criticism is “so straightforward, searching, and honest as to leave nothing further to be desired.”

Besides this piece of work, he had written early in the year a few lines on the general character of the nineteenth century, in reply to a request, addressed to “the most illustrious children of the century,” for their opinion as to what name will be given to it by an impartial posterity—­the century of Comte, of Darwin or Renan, of Edison, Pasteur, or Gladstone.  He replied:—­]

I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.

The activity of the scientific spirit has been manifested in every region of speculation and of practice.

Many of the eminent men you mention have been its effective organs in their several departments.

But the selection of any one of these, whatever his merits, as an adequate representative of the power and majesty of the scientific spirit of the age would be a grievous mistake.

Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a Messiah.

[The unexampled increase in the expenditure of the European states upon their armaments led the Arbitration Alliance this year to issue a memorial urging the Government to co-operate with other Governments in reducing naval and military burdens.  Huxley was asked to sign this memorial, and replied to the secretary as follows:—­]

Hodeslea, Eastbourne, June 21, 1894.

Dear Sir,

I have taken some time to consider the memorial to which you have called my attention, and I regret that I do not find myself able to sign it.