My dear Darwin

Your excellent letter reached me on Saturday last.¹ You will doubtless set the matter before Huxley effectually in your own gentle way;² but for my part the idea of ‘entreatis’ would not have occured to me. It is his clear and bounden duty to do what we wish him to do: his duty to himself: his duty to his wife and children: his duty to us and to the world.

Compare his case with that of Faraday, the most delicate minded man that ever lived, the most Sensitive to the touch of anything questionable in the way of money. He accepted a pension of £300 a year. Now I take it that we can measure Huxley’s merits as well as the prime minister of the day could measure those of Faraday;³ and I also take it that what is done by his most intimate friends ought to raise less scruple in his mind than anything that could be done by the taxpayers of England.

I wish with you that M^rs. L.⁴ had not subscribed—It suggests the idea of an effort, which ought to be entirely absent from the movement. | Heartily yours | John Tyndall