Ɛpsilon

WCP5556

Letter (WCP5556.6314)

[1]1

4 Marlborough Place.

Abbey Road, N.W.

Novr. 14th 1880

My dear Darwin

The papers in re Wallace have arrived and I lose no time in assuring you that all my ‘might, amity & authority’ as Essex said when that sneak Bacon asked him for a favour, shall be exercised as you wish2 [2]

The best course to pursue will need a little thinking over but there shall be no delay on my part in setting to work —

Your ‘pinned-on’ paragraph was so good that if I had written it myself, I should have been unable to refrain from sending it to the Printer. But it is much easier to be virtuous on other people’s account — and though Thomson deserved it & more — I thought [1 word illeg struck through] it would be better to refrain.3

If I say a savage thing it is only ‘pretty Fanny’s way’4 but if you do [1 word illeg struck through] it is not likely to be forgotten.

The letter as it stands will be very useful in more ways than one

The wife5 is very much on her back still I am sorry to say

With all our love | Ever | Yours | T H Huxley [signature]

1
"DAR. 166: 353" and "C" beneath, is written in pencil in the top RH corner of the page. "80 Huxley" is written across the top of the page in blue pencil. "Huxley" is written across the top LH corner, also in blue pencil and partially overwritten "Huxl" in plain pencil. Beneath "Huxley" is written again, in plain pencil.
2
The remarks are attributed to Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, in reference to Francis Bacon’s bid for the post of attorney-general in 1594: ‘The Attorneyship for Francis is that I must have; and in that I will spend all my power, might, authority, and amity’ (see Macaulay 1843, 2: 308). Bacon served as a prosecutor at Devereux’s trial for treason in 1601 (ODNB s.v. Devereux, Robert).
3
CD had sent Huxley his letter to Nature, 5 November 1880; it was a reply to critical remarks on natural selection made by Charles Wyville Thomson in Thomson 1880, including a sentence that Huxley did not pass on to Nature (see letter to T. H. Huxley, 5 November 1880 and nn. 1 and 3).
4
The expression appears in the poem ‘An elegy, to an old beauty’ by Thomas Parnell: ‘And all that’s madly wild, or oddly gay,/ We call it only pretty Fanny’s way’ (Parnell 1833, p. 81).
5
Huxley’s wife was Henrietta Anne Huxley.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP5556.6314)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-06-18] Transcribed by Darwin Correspondence Project [2020-06-11] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Published letter (WCP5556.6495)

[1] [p. 282]

The papers in re Wallace have arrived, and I lose no time in assuring you that all my "might, amity, and authority," as Essex1said when that sneak Bacon2 asked him for a favour, shall be exercised as you wish.

1
Devereux, Robert (1565-1601). British nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. 2nd Earl of Essex.
2
Bacon, Francis (1561-1626). English politician, lord chancellor and philosopher. Founder of the scientific method based on skeptical observation and experimentation.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP5556.6495)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Sherwood, Danni [2020-07-28] Transcription checked by Lo, Yen [2020-10-30]

Please cite as “WCP5556,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5556