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Huxley one of those engaged in the attempt to obtain an adequate university for London, he says : 'I would cut away medicine, law, and theology as technical specialities. . . . The university or universities should be learning and teaching bodies devoted to art (literary and other), history, philosophy, and science, where any one who wanted to learn all that is known about these matters should find people who could teach him and put him in the way of learning for himself. That is what the world will want one day or other, as a supplement to all manner of high schools and technical institutions in which young people get decently educated and learn to earn their bread — such as our present universities. It would be a place for men to get knowledge, and not for boys and adolescents to get degrees.'

Between 1870 and 1885 he published a number of essays on philosophical subjects, the most important being his sketch of Hume (1879) in Mr. John Morley's 'English Men of Letters' series. In the chapter on the object and scope of philosophy, Huxley adopts the view that the method of psychology is the same as that of the physical sciences, and he points to Descartes, Spinoza, and Kant as showing the advantage to a philosopher of a training in physical science. The chapter dealing with volition and necessity is an expansion of the passage in the lecture 'On the Physical Basis of Life' already quoted. The chapter on miracles begins by demonstrating the absurdity of a priori objections to belief in miracles because they are violations of the 'laws of nature ;' but while it is absurd to believe that that which never has happened never can happen without a violation of the laws of nature, he agrees with Hume in thinking that 'the more a statement of fact conflicts with previous experience, the more complete must be the evidence which is to justify us in believing it.' The application of this criterion to the history of the world as given in the Pentateuch and to the story of the gospels forms the subject of numerous controversial essays and addresses, reprinted in the fourth and fifth volumes of the 'Collected Essays.'

In 1871, on the retirement of William Sharpey [q. v.], Huxley was chosen as one of the two secretaries of the Royal Society. The duties of this office were even more severe than usual during the years through which he held it. The Royal Society was requested by the admiralty to plan the equipment and to nominate the scientific staff of the Challenger, in preparation for her voyage round the world. Later on, the task of distributing her collections, and arranging for the publication of the monographs in which they are described, was also entrusted to the society; and the chief burden of the organisation fell upon Huxley. Many other matters, especially the organisation of arrangements for administering the annual grant of 4,000l. made by the treasury in aid of scientific research, made the duties of the secretary a serious addition to other demands upon him. In 1881 he was elected president of the society ; but in 1885 he was forced by ill-health to retire. He received the Copley medal in 1888, and the Darwin medal in 1894. From 1870 to 1884 he served upon the following royal commissions : upon the Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts (1870-1) ; on Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science (1870-5) ; on the Practice of subjecting Live Animals to Experiments for Scientific Purposes (1876) ; to inquire into the Universities of Scotland (1876-8) ; on the Medical Acts (1881-2) : on Trawl, Net, and Beam Trawl Fishing (1884). He also acted as an inspector of fisheries from 1881 to 1885.

In spite of the immense amount of work he contrived to perform, Huxley never enjoyed robust health after the accidental poisoning already mentioned. Fresh air and some daily exercise were necessary in order to ward off digestive difficulties, accompanied by lassitude and depression of a severe kind ; but fresh air and exercise are the most difficult of all things for a busy man in London to obtain. The evil effects of a sedentary life had shown themselves at the very beginning of his work in London, and they increased year by year. At the end of 1871 he was forced to take a long holiday ; but this produced only a temporary improvement, and finally symptoms of cardiac mischief became too evident to be neglected. For this reason he gave up his public work in 1885, and in 1890 he finally left London, living thenceforward at Eastbourne.

The years of comparative leisure after 1885 were occupied in writing many of the essays on philosophy and theology reprinted in the fourth and fifth volumes of his 'Collected Essays.' An attack of pleurisy in 1887 caused grave anxiety, and after its occurrence he suffered severely from influenza, so that the work of helping those teachers in London in their efforts to obtain an adequate university, which he undertook in 1892 and 1893, involved physical effort of a very severe kind, as did the delivery of his Romanes lecture on 'Evolution and Ethics' before the university of Oxford in 1893. An attack of influenza in the winter of 1894 was followed by an affection of the kidneys, and