HUXLEY (THOMAS HENRY)

Three autograph letters signed ("TH Huxley") to Peter Bayne, responding to an article by Bayne, 1878-1892: 'DARWIN IF HE COULD HAVE BEEN GOT TO TALK ON THIS MATTER WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU A LIKE STORY'

Three autograph letters signed ("TH Huxley") to Peter Bayne ("Dear Sir" or "My dear Sir"), the first responding to Bayne's article on "Lord Selbourne's impertinences", going on to say "...Lord Selbourne may be great as a lawyer – but I speak from personal observation when I say that he is in other matters a man not only of little information but of small capacity and your criticisms of him are perfectly justified... I accept what people call 'materialism' as the only working hypothesis which is of any practical use. As a Physiologist I cannot see any alternative course...", and referring him to his "...forthcoming little book..." on Hume in "English Men of Letters", 4 pages, dust stained and creased particularly outer portion where folded, 8vo, Science Schools, South Kensington, 7 December 1878; the second talking of Hume, Luther and mentioning Darwin ("...my crisis began when I was a boy... and has not ended yet...and I see no way out of this fate but that of debauching oneself with work, which people admire as devotion to the interests of their humanity etc... I suspect that Darwin if he could have been got to talk on this matter would have told you a like story... but I speak only for myself and have already been [?] into unwanted egotism..."), 6 pages, dust staining and spotting, some wear at folds of single leaf and discolouration, remains of guard, 8vo (184 x 110mm.), Abbey Road, N.W., 30 December [date indistinct]; the third referring to his "Critiques & Addresses" of 1870 in which he "...took particular pains to advise England not to pitch the bible aside... in setting up a bridge lies the only way of access to the higher life...", 4 pages, light dust staining and spotting, 8vo, Eastbourne, 24 July 1892