T.H. Huxley.
[But the net result of this holiday is summed up in a note, of October 5, to Sir M. Foster:—]
I got better while I was in Cornwall and Wales, and, at present, I don't think there is anything the matter with me except a profound disinclination to work. I never before knew the proper sense of the term "vis inertiae."
[And writing in the same strain to Sir J. Evans, he adds:]
But I have a notion that if I do not take a long spell of absolute rest before long I shall come to grief. However, getting into harness again may prove a tonic—it often does, e.g. in the case of cab-horses.
[Three days later he found himself ordered to leave England immediately, under pain of a hopeless breakdown.]
4 Marlborough Place, October 8, 1884.
My dear Foster,
We shall be very glad to see you on Friday. I came to the conclusion that I had better put myself in Clark's hands again, and he has been here this evening overhauling me for an hour.
He says there is nothing wrong except a slight affection of the liver and general nervous depression, but that if I go on the latter will get steadily worse and become troublesome. He insists on my going away to the South and doing nothing but amuse myself for three or four months.