With all our tinkering I feel inclined to wind up the affair after the manner of Mr. Shandy’s summing up of the discussion about Tristram’s breeches—­“And when he has got ’em he’ll look a beast in ’em.”

Ever yours,

T.H.  Huxley.

[April 12.  To the same:—­]

I am quite willing to remain at the M.B.A. till the opening.  If Evans will be President I shall be happy.

—­ is a very good man, but you must not expect too much of the “wild-cat” element, which is so useful in the world, in him.

I am disgusted with myself for letting everything go by the run, but there is no help for it.  The least thing bowls me over just now.

Casalini, West Cliff, Bournemouth, April 12, 1888.

My dear Hooker,

I plead not guilty. [In the matter of sending out no notices for a meeting of the x Club.] It was agreed at the last meeting that there should be none in April—­I suppose by reason of Easter, so I sent no notice.  This is what Frankland told me in his letter of the 2nd.  However, I see you were present, so I can’t make it out.

My continual absence makes me a shocking bad Treasurer, and I am sorry to say that things will be worse instead of better.  Ever since this last pleuritic business I have been troubled with praecordial uneasiness. [After an account of his symptoms he continues] so I am off (with my wife) to Switzerland at the end of this month, and shall be away all the summer.  We have not seen the Engadine and Tyrol yet, so we shall probably make a long circuit.  It is a horrid nuisance to be exiled in this fashion.  I have hardly been at home one month in the last ten.  But it is of no use to growl.

Under these circumstances, would you mind looking after the x while I am away?  There is nothing to do but to send the notices on Saturday previous to the meeting.

I am very grieved to hear about Hirst—­though to say truth, the way he has held out for so long has been a marvel to me.  The last news I had of Spencer was not satisfactory.

Eheu! the “Table Round” is breaking up.  It’s a great pity; we were such pleasant fellows, weren’t we?

Ever yours,

T.H.  Huxley.

Casalini, West Cliff, Bournemouth, April 18, 1888.

My dear Foster,

I am cheered by your liking of the notice of Darwin.  I read the “Life and Letters,” and the “Origin,” Krause’s “Life,” and some other things over again in order to do it.  But I have not much go in me, and I was a scandalous long time pottering over the writing.

I have sent the proof back with a variety of interpolations.  I would have brought the “Spirula” notes down here to see what I could do, but I felt pretty sure that if I brought two things I should not do one.  Nobody could do anything with it but myself.  I will try what I can do when I go to town.  How much time is there before the wind-up of the Challenger?