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Page 37
The common note in these friendships was not only community of aims,
but an essential generosity and sincerity. This it was that had drawn
him so strongly to Edward Forbes among the leaders of biology when he
returned, an unknown but promising pioneer of science, from the voyage
of the _Rattlesnake_. For Forbes inspired his admiration and affection
as a man of letters and an artist who had not merged the _man_ in
the man of science; free from pedantry or jealousy--the two besetting
faults of literary and scientific men; earnest, disinterested, ready
to give his time and influence to help any man who was working for the
cause; one of the few to whom a proud man could feel obliged without
losing a particle of independence or self-respect.
My notions [he writes] are diametrically opposed to his in
some matters, and he helps me to oppose him.... I had a long
paper read at the Royal Society which opposed some of his
views, and he got up and spoke in the highest terms of it
afterwards. This is all as it should be. I can reverence such
a man and yet respect myself.
Without his aid and sympathy the young man would never have persevered
in the course he ventured to choose, and in following which it was one
of his greatest hopes that they should work in harmony for long years
at the aims so dear to both.
"One could trust him so thoroughly!" There lay the root of friendship.
And the trust was thoroughly reciprocated. The entire frankness
between friends is brightly illustrated by the history of the award
of the Royal Medal in 1854. As a member of the Royal Society Council,
Huxley had to vote on the names proposed for the various medals.
For the Royal Medal first Hooker was named, and received his hearty
support; then Forbes was put up, in his eyes equally deserving, and
almost more closely bound to him by ties of active friendship, so
that, whichever way he ultimately voted, his action might possibly be
ascribed to personal, not scientific, motives. Thereupon he explained
to the Council that he considered their claims equal; that, whichever
chanced to have been put forward first, he would never have proposed
the other in opposition to him. As he had spoken of Hooker's
merits, so also he spoke of Forbes's, positively, and not by way of
comparison; and this done, voted for both!
Hooker was actually elected. Huxley then wrote to both his friends,
explaining fully what he had done. Had he felt that one of the two had
strongly superior claims, and thought it right to vote for him only,
the other, he was sure, would have fully appreciated his motives, and
it would have done no injury to their friendship.
He was not mistaken. Among his most precious possessions he kept
Forbes's reply:--
I heartily concur in the course you have taken, and, had I
been placed as you have been, would have done exactly
the same.... Your way of proceeding was as true an act of
friendship as any that could be performed. As to myself, I
dream so little about medals that the notion of being on the
list never entered my brain, even when asleep. If it ever
comes, I shall be pleased and thankful; if it does not, it is
not the sort of thing to break my equanimity. Indeed, I would
always like to see it given not as a mere honour, but as a
help to a good man, and this it is assuredly in Hooker's case.
Government people are so ignorant that they require to have
people's merits drummed into their heads by all possible
means, and Hooker's getting the medal may be of real service
to him before long. I am in a snug, though not an idle, nest;
he has not got his resting-place yet. And so, my dear Huxley,
I trust that you know me too well to think that I am either
grieved or envious; and you, Hooker, and I are much of the
same way of thinking.
Frankness was the only remedy for such an imbroglio, and, as Huxley
wrote to Hooker about a similar case a couple of years later:--
It's deuced hard to keep straight in this wicked world, but,
as you say, the only chance is to out with it, and I thank you
much for writing so frankly about the matter.
[Illustration: From a Photograph by Downey, 1890 To face p. 102]
With Hooker, the keen observer and critical reasoner, the man of warm
impulses and sane judgments, he had a peculiarly intimate bond of
friendship summed up in a letter of 1888, when they had received the
Copley medal in successive years:--
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