regards Dr. Joule, for example, no doubt he did more than any one to
give the doctrine of the conservation of energy precise expression, but
Mayer and others run him hard.

Of deceased Englishmen who belong to the first half of the Victorian
epoch, I should say that Faraday, Lyell, and Darwin had exerted the
greatest influence, and all three were models of the highest and best
class of physical philosophers.

As for me, in part from force of circumstance and in part from a
conviction I could be of most use in that way, I have played the part
of something between maid-of-all-work and gladiator-general for
Science, and deserve no such prominence as your kindness has assigned
to me.

With our united kind regards to Mrs. Carpenter and yourself, ever yours
very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

[A brief note, also, to Lady Welby, dated July 25, is characteristic of
his attitude towards unverified speculation.]

I have looked through the paper you have sent me, but I cannot
undertake to give any judgment upon it. Speculations such as you deal
with are quite out of my way. I get lost the moment I lose touch of
valid fact and incontrovertible demonstration and find myself wandering
among large propositions, which may be quite true but which would
involve me in months of work if I were to set myself seriously to find
out whether, and in what sense, they are true. Moreover, at present,