The circumstances of my life have led me to experience all sorts of conditions in regard to alcohol, from total abstinence to nearly the other end of the scale, and my clear conviction is the less the better, though I by no means feel called upon to forgo the comforting and cheering effect of a little.

But for no conceivable consideration would I use it to whip up a tired or sluggish brain.  Indeed, for me there is no working time so good as between breakfast and lunch, when there is not a trace of alcohol in my composition.

4 Marlborough Place, May 6, 1889.

My dear Hooker,

I meant to have turned up at the x on Thursday, but I was unwell and, moreover, worried and bothered about Collier’s illness at Venice, and awaiting an answer to a telegram I sent there.  He has contrived to get scarlatina, but I hope he will get safe through it, as he seems to be going on well.  We were getting ready to go out until we were reassured on that point.

I thought I would go to the Academy dinner on Saturday, and that if I did not eat and drink and came away early, I might venture.

It was pleasant enough to have a glimpse of the world, the flesh (on the walls, nude!), and the devil (there were several Bishops), but oh, dear! how done I was yesterday.

However, we are off to Eastbourne to-day, and I hope to wash three weeks’ London out of me before long.  I think we shall go to Maloja again early in June.

Ever yours,

T.H.  Huxley.

Capital portrait in the New Gallery, where I looked in for a quarter of an hour on Saturday—­only you never were quite so fat in the cheeks, and I don’t believe you have got such a splendid fur-coat!

3 Jevington Gardens, Eastbourne, May 22, 1889.

...As to the Assistant Secretaryship of the British Association, I have turned it over a great deal in my mind since your letter reached me, and I really cannot convince myself that you would suit it or it would suit you.  I have not heard who are candidates or anything about it, and I am not going to take any part in the election.  But looking at the thing solely from the point of view of your interests, I should strongly advise you against taking it, even if it were offered.

My pet aphorism “suffer fools gladly” should be the guide of the Assistant Secretary, who, during the fortnight of his activity, has more little vanities and rivalries to smooth over and conciliate than other people meet with in a lifetime.  Now you do not “suffer fools gladly” on the contrary, you “gladly make fools suffer.”  I do not say you are wrong—­No tu quoque [Cf. above.  But for due cause he could suffer them “with a difference”; of a certain caller he writes:  “What an effusive bore he is!  But I believe he was very kind to poor Clifford, and restrained my unregenerate impatience of that kind of creature."]—­but that is where the danger of the explosion lies—­not in regard to the larger business of the Association.