My dear Darwin

I entirely sympathise with your feeling about the attack on George— If anybody tries that on with my boy Leonard the old wolf will shew all the fangs he has left by that time, depend upon it.—¹

My ambassador’s message has evoked a letter from Mivart (which I would send to you except that it is marked ‘private & confidential’) in which he not only pleads guilty but expresses his regret in a manner which shews that he is not devoid of all the instincts of a gentleman²

But after turning over the matter in my mind for a day— I came to the conclusion that there was no patching the matter up and I wrote him a note of which I enclose you a copy— Please to send it on to Hooker when you have read it & ask him to return it to me³

But now if I may venture in a word of counsel to my elder & better. I hope that neither you nor Hooker will do anything unless Mivart takes the initiative and I rather gather from his letter than he means to write either to you or George—

As a matter of policy, I think it is very desirable that no one shall be able to give a colour to the veritable lie— that we are a clique & that if you touch one all the other are down upon you— You ought to be like one of the blessed Gods of Elysium & let the inferior Deities do battle with the infernal powers

Moreover the severest & most effectual punishment for this sort of moral assassination is quietly to ignore the offender & give him the cold shoulder

He knows why he gets it & Society comes to know why, & though Society is more or less of a dunderhead— it has honourable instincts & the man in the cold finds no cloak that will cover him—

With all manner of hearty good wishes to you & yours | Ever | Yours faithfully | T H Huxley

Figurez vous. They have made me a Foreign Associate of that highly Catholic Academy of Brussels   E. van Beneden suggests that it may be set against the Irish Bishops curses!⁴