T.H. Huxley.
[And again on December 13:—]
My dear Spencer,
I am very glad to have news of you which on the whole is not unsatisfactory. Your conclusion as to the doctors is one I don't mind telling you in confidence I arrived at some time ago…
I am glad you liked my treatment of Mr. Lilly…I quite agree with you that the thing was worth doing for the sake of the public.
I have in hand another bottle of the same vintage about Modern Realism and the abuse of the word Law, suggested by a report I read the other day of one of Liddon's sermons. ["Pseudo-Scientific Realism" "Collected Essays" 4 59.]
The nonsense these great divines talk when they venture to meddle with science is really appalling.
Don't be alarmed about the history of Victorian science. [See above.] I am happily limited to the length of a review article or thereabouts, and it is (I am happy to say it is nearly done) more of an essay on the history of science, bringing out the broad features of the contrast between past and present, than the history itself. It seemed to me that this was the only way of dealing with such a subject in a book intended for the general public.
[The article "Science and Morals" was not only a satisfaction to himself, but a success with the readers of the "Fortnightly." To his wife he writes:—]
December 2.