My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

"SPENCER, HUXLEY, AND OTHERS 245defended himself well, declaring that the coat was arelic of his early unregenerate days, and where couldhe wear it out if not at the houses of his best friends ?" Besides," he concluded, " you will please to observethat I am true to principle in that I do not wear awhite tie !Those who are acquainted only with the volumesof Herbert Spencer's " Synthetic Philosophy " canhave no idea of the lightness, the energy, and thebright satire of some of his more popular writings.Such are many of his earlier Essays, and in hisvolume on "The Study of Sociology" we findabundant examples of these qualities.With the remainder of my scientific friends I had,for the most part, only social intercourse, with nocorrespondence of general interest. Those I sawmost of during my residence in London, and withwhom I became most intimate, were Huxley, Tyndall,Sir John Lubbock, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Sir WilliamCrookes, Sir Joseph Hooker, Mr. Francis Galton,Professor Alfred Newton, Dr. P. L. Sclater, Mr. St.George Mivart, Sir William Flower, Sir NormanLockyer, Professor R. Meldola, and many otherswhose names are only known to specialists. All theseI met very frequently at scientific meetings, or atsome of their houses at which I was occasionally aguest. To all of them I have been more or lessindebted for valuable information or useful suggestionsin the course of my work, and to these I must alsoadd Professor E. B. Poulton, of Oxford ; F. W. H.Myers, Professors W. F. Barrett and Percival Wright,of Dublin, with Professors Patrick Geddes, of Edinburgh,and J. A. Thomson, of Aberdeen. For thelast quarter of a century I have lived so completelyin the country tha.t I have ceased to have personal*