Ɛpsilon

From T. H. Huxley   8 January 1881

Jany 8th. 1881

My dear Darwin

I congratulate you heartily on the success of your undertaking—for yours it is totally & entirely—

Gladstone’s note is very good & much to his credit.1

It convinces me that if my first inspiration had been followed out it would have been successful— But perhaps it is as well that the actual plan was adopted—2 There would have been no restraining your ferocious spirit of domination hereafter if you had found a Prime Minister obeying your orders!

I hear that the “Butler” has been throwing the dirty water in his pantry about again—3

Of course he is quite mad at being ignored— and the best thing that can happen is that he should get madder

Do you recollect what Goethe wrote about a man who attacked him in this way?

I forget the first two lines but the last two run

“Hat doch der Wallfisch seine Laus Muss auch die meine haben”.4

Ever yours | T H H.

2
CD had first discussed the plan of a memorial for Wallace when he met with Huxley in London on 31 October 1880 (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter to A. B. Buckley, 31 October [1880]).
3
CD was considering whether to respond to new accusations made by Samuel Butler in Unconscious memory (Butler 1880; see letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January 1881).
4
‘After all, the whale has its louse, so I must also have mine’ (German; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in ‘Pseudo-Wanderer’; see, for example, Goethe 1845–6, 1: 138). Huxley had quoted the same passage in his letter of 3 February 1880 (Correspondence vol. 28).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12992,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12992