Darwin wrote to Huxley
concerning the gift: "In doing this we are convinced that we act for the
public interest." He assured Huxley that the friends who gave this felt
toward him as a brother. "I am sure that you will return this feeling
and will therefore be glad to give us the opportunity of aiding you in
some degree, as this will be a happiness to us to the last day of
our lives." The gift made it possible for Huxley to take another long
vacation, part of which was spent with Sir Joseph Hooker, a noted
English botanist, visiting the volcanoes of Auvergne. After this trip
he steadily improved in health, with no other serious illness for ten
years.
In 1876 Huxley was invited to visit America and to deliver the inaugural
address at Johns Hopkins University. In July of this year accordingly,
in company with his wife, he crossed to New York. Everywhere Huxley
was received with enthusiasm, for his name was a very familiar one. Two
quotations from his address at Johns Hopkins are especially worthy of
attention as a part of his message to Americans. "It has been my fate to
see great educational funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar in the
petrifying springs of architecture, with nothing left to work them.
A great warrior is said to have made a desert and called it peace.
Trustees have sometimes made a palace and called it a university.
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