Accept my best thanks for your two volumes, which I found on my return from Scotland yesterday.
I can give no better evidence of my appreciation of their contents than by the confession that they have caused me to neglect my proper business all yesterday evening and all to-day.
The section devoted to Irish affairs is a model of lucidity, and bears on its face the stamp of justice and fair dealing. It is a most worthy continuation of the chapter on the same subject in the first volume, and that is giving high praise.
You see I write as if I knew something about the subject, but you are responsible for creating the delusion.
With kindest remembrances to Mrs. Lecky,
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[A few weeks later, the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish sent a thrill of horror throughout England. Huxley was as deeply moved as any, but wrote calmly of the situation.
To his eldest son:—]
4 Marlborough Place, May 9, 1882.