[With this may be compared the letter of May 19, 1889, to Sir J. Donnelly, when he finally resolved to give up the “sleeping partnership” in the examination.

His last letter of the year was written to Sir J. Hooker, when transferring to him the “archives” of the x Club, as the new Treasurer.]

4 Marlborough Place, December 29, 1888.

My dear Hooker,

All good wishes to you and yours, and many of them.

Thanks for the cheque.  You are very confiding to send it without looking at the account.  But I have packed up the “Archives,” which poor dear Busk handed over to me, and will leave them at the Athenaeum for you.  Among them you will find the account book.  There are two or three cases, when I was absent, in which the names are not down.  I have no doubt Frankland gave them to me by letter, but the book was at home and they never got set down.  Peccavi!

I have been picking up in the most astonishing way during the last fortnight or three weeks at Eastbourne.  My doctor, Hames, carefully examined my heart yesterday, and told me that though some slight indications were left, he should have thought nothing of them if he had not followed the whole history of the case.  With fresh air and exercise and careful avoidance of cold and night air I am to be all right again in a few months.

I am not fond of coddling; but as Paddy gave his pig the best corner in his cabin—­because “shure, he paid the rint”—­I feel bound to take care of myself as a household animal of value, to say nothing of any other grounds.  So, much as I should like to be with you all on the 3rd, I must defer to the taboo.

The wife got a nasty bronchitic cold as soon as she came up.  She is much better now.  But I shall be glad to get her down to Eastbourne again.

Except that, we are all very flourishing, as I hope you are.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

CHAPTER 3.5.

1889.

[The events to be chronicled in this year are, as might be expected, either domestic or literary.  The letters are full of allusions to his long controversy in defence of Agnosticism, mainly with Dr. Wace, who had declared the use of the name to be a “mere evasion” on the part of those who ought to be dubbed infidels (Apropos of this controversy, a letter may be cited which appeared in the “Agnostic Annual” for 1884, in answer to certain inquiries from the editor as to the right definition of Agnosticism:—­]

Some twenty years ago, or thereabouts, I invented the word “Agnostic” to denote people who, like myself, confess themselves to be hopelessly ignorant concerning a variety of matters, about which metaphysicians and theologians, both orthodox and heterodox, dogmatise with the utmost confidence, and it has been a source of some amusement to me to watch the gradual acceptance of the term and its correlate, “Agnosticism”