My dear Huxley

Shall you attend the Council Royal Socy. on Thursday next? I have not been very well of late, & I doubt whether I can attend; & if I can do anything (pray conceal the scandalous fact) I want to go to Crystal Palace to meet Horners, Lyells & a party.—¹ So I want to know whether you will speak for me most strongly for Barrande:² you know better than I do, his admirable labours on development of Trilobite, & his most important work on his lower or Primordial zone. I enclose an old note of Lyells to show what he thinks.³ With respect to Dana,⁴ whom I also proposed, you know well his merits: I can speak most highly of his Classificatory work on Crustacea & his Geographical Distribution.⁵ His Volcanic Geology is admirable: & he has done much good work on Coral Reefs.—⁶

If you attend do not answer this; but if you cannot be at council, please inform me, & I suppose, I must, if I can, attend.—⁷

Thank you, for your Abstract of your Lecture at Royal Institution,⁸ which interested me much, & rather grieved me, for I had hoped things had been in a slight degree, otherwise.

I heard some time ago, that before long I might congratulate you on becoming a married man:⁹ from my own experience of some fifteen years I am very sure that there is nothing in this wide world, which more deserves congratulation, & most sincerely & heartily do I congratulate you, & wish you many years of as much happiness as this world can afford.