Thomas Henry Huxley

CHAPTER VII. The Battle for Evolution 110

THE BATTLE FOR EVOLUTION 110

Huxley's Prevision of the Battle--The Causes of the Battle--The Times Review--Sir Richard Owen attacks Darwinism in the Edinburgh Review--Bishop Wilberforce attacks in the Quarterly Review--Huxley's Scathing Replies--The British Association Debates at Oxford--Huxley and Wilberforce--Résumé of Huxley's Exact Position with Regard to Evolution and to Natural Selection.

CHAPTER VIII. Vertebrate Anatomy 128

VERTEBRATE ANATOMY 128

The Theory of the Vertebrate Skull--Goethe, Oken, Cuvier, and Owen--Huxley Defends Goethe--His own Contributions to the Theory--The Classification of Birds--Huxley Treats them as "Extinct Animals"--Geographical Distribution--Sclater's Regions--Huxley's Suggestions.

CHAPTER IX. Man and the Apes 144

MAN AND THE APES 144

Objections to Zoölogical Discussion of Man's Place--Owen's Prudence--Huxley's Determination to Speak out--Account of his Treatment of Man's Place in Nature--Additions Made by More Recent Work.

CHAPTER X. Science As a Branch of Education 167

SCIENCE AS A BRANCH OF EDUCATION 167

Science-Teaching Fifty Years Ago--Huxley's Insistence on Reform--Science Primers--Physiography--Elementary Physiology--The Crayfish--Manuals of Anatomy--Modern Microscopical Methods--Practical Work in Biological Teaching--Invention of the Type System--Science in Medical Education--Science and Culture.

CHAPTER XI. General Problems of Education 188

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 188

Establishment of Compulsory Education in England--The Religious Controversy--Huxley Advocates the Bible without Theology--His Compromise on the "Cowper-Temple" Clause--Influence of the New Criticism--Science and Art Instruction--Training of Teachers--University Education--The Baltimore Address--Technical Education--So-called "Applied Science"--National Systems of Education as "Capacity-Catchers."

CHAPTER XII. Citizen, Orator, and Essayist 204

CITIZEN, ORATOR, AND ESSAYIST 204

Huxley's Activity in Public Affairs--Official in Scientific Societies--Royal Commissions--Vivisection--Characteristics of his Public Speaking--His Method of Exposition--His Essays--Vocabulary--Phrase-Making--His Style Essentially One of Ideas.

CHAPTER XIII. The Opponent of Materialism 218

THE OPPONENT OF MATERIALISM 218

Science and Metaphysics--Berkeley, Hume, and Hobbes--Existence of Matter and Mind--Descartes's Contribution--Materialism and Idealism--Criticism of Materialism--Berkeley's Idealism--Criticism of Idealism--Empirical Idealism--Materialism as opposed to Supernaturalism--Mind and Brain--Origin of Life--Teleology, Chance, and the Argument from Design.

CHAPTER XIV. Freedom of Thought 232

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT 232

Authority and Knowledge in Science--The Duty of Doubt--Authority and Individual Judgment in Religion--The Protestant Position--Sir Charles Lyell and the Deluge--Infallibility--The Church and Science--Morality and Dogma--Civil and Religious Liberty--Agnosticism and Clericalism--Meaning of Agnosticism--Knowledge and Evidence--The Method of Agnosticism.

CHAPTER XV. The Bible and Miracles 245

THE BIBLE AND MIRACLES 245

Why Huxley Came to Write about the Bible--A Magna Charta of the Poor--The Theological Use of the Bible--The Doctrine of Biblical Infallibility--The Bible and Science--The Three Hypotheses of the Earth's History--Changes in the Past Proved--The Creation Hypothesis--Gladstone on Genesis--Genesis not a Record of Fact--The Hypothesis of Evolution--The New Testament--Theory of Inspiration--Reliance on the Miraculous--The Continuity of Nature no a priori Argument against Miracles---Possibilities and Impossibilities--Miracles a Question of Evidence--Praise of the Bible.

CHAPTER XVI. Ethics of the Cosmos 261

ETHICS OF THE COSMOS 261

Conduct and Metaphysics--Conventional and Critical Minds--Good and Evil--Huxley's Last Appearance at Oxford--The Ethical Process and the Cosmic Process--Man's Intervention--The Cosmic Process Evil--Ancient Reconciliations--Modern Acceptance of the Difficulties--Criticism of Huxley's Pessimism--Man and his Ethical Aspirations Part of the Cosmos.

CHAPTER XVII. Closing Days and Summary 275

CLOSING DAYS AND SUMMARY 275

Huxley's Life in London--Decennial Periods--Ill-health--Retirement to Eastbourne--Death--Personal Appearance--Methods of Work--Personal Characteristics--An Inspirer of Others--His Influence in Science--A Naturalist by Vocation--His Aspirations.

INDEX 287

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY--From a photograph by London Stereoscopic Company Frontispiece

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, 1857--Reproduced by permission from "Natural Science," vol. vii., No. 42 64

SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER--From a photograph by Elliott and Fry, London 98

CHARLES DARWIN--From the painting by Hon. John Collier in the National Portrait Gallery 146

SIR CHARLES LYELL--From a photograph by London Stereoscopic Company 236

CARICATURE OF HUXLEY DRAWN BY HIMSELF--Reproduced by permission from "Natural Science," vol. vii., No. 46. 276

LIST OF HUXLEY'S WRITINGS

This list is offered, not as a bibliography in the technical sense, but as an indication of the sources in which the vast majority of Huxley's scientific and general work may be consulted most conveniently.

The Scientific Memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley. Edited by Professor Sir Michael Foster and Professor E. Ray Lankester; in four volumes. London, Macmillan & Co.; New York, D. Appleton.

This magnificent collection is intended to contain all Huxley's original scientific papers, brought together from the multitude of scientific periodicals in which they appeared, with reproductions of the original illustrations. The only exception is the monograph on Oceanic Hydrozoa. The first volume appeared in 1898; the second in 1899, and the others are to follow quickly.

Collected Essays by T.H. Huxley; nine volumes of the Eversley Series. Macmillan & Co. London, 1893-95.

This set, edited by Huxley himself, contains the more important of his more general contributions to science and his literary, philosophical, and political and critical essays. Each volume has a preface specially written, and the first volume contains his autobiography.

The Oceanic Hydrozoa; a description of the Calycophoridæ and Physophoridæ observed during the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake in the years 1846-50, with a general introduction. Ray Society. London, 1859.

Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature. Williams & Norgate. London, 1863.

On our Knowledge of the Causes of Organic Phenomena; being Six Lectures to Working Men. Hardwicke. London, 1863.

Lectures on the Elements of Comparative Anatomy. On the Classification of Animals and the Vertebrate Skull. Churchill & Sons. London, 1864.

An Elementary Atlas of Comparative Osteology. In twelve plates. Williams & Norgate. London, 1864.

Lessons in Elementary Physiology. Macmillan & Co. London, 1866.

An Introduction to the Classification of Animals. Churchill. London, 1869.

A Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals. Churchill. London, 1871.

A Course of Practical Instruction in Elementary Biology, assisted by H.N. Martin. Macmillan. London, 1875.

A Manual of the Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals. Churchill. London, 1877.

Lay Sermons, Essays, and Reviews. Macmillan. London, 1877.

American Addresses, with a Lecture on the Study of Biology. Macmillan. London, 1877.

Physiography, an Introduction to the Study of Zoölogy. International Scientific Series. Kegan Paul. London, 1880.

Introductory Primer. Science Primers. Macmillan. London, 1880.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. Edited by his son, Francis Darwin. Volume II., with Chapter V. by Professor Huxley on the Reception of the Origin of Species. John Murray. London, 1887.

Life of Richard Owen. By his grandson. With an Essay on Owen's Position in Anatomical Science, by T.H. Huxley. John Murray. London, 1894.

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

CHAPTER I. From School to Life-Work

FROM SCHOOL TO LIFE-WORK

Birth--Parentage--School-days--Choice of Medical Profession--Charing Cross Hospital--End of Medical Studies--Admission to Naval Medical Service.

Some men are born to greatness: even before their arrival in the world their future is marked out for them. All the advantages that wealth and the experience of friends can bring attend their growth to manhood, and their success almost loses its interest because of the ease with which it is attained. Few of the leaders of science were in such a position: many of them, such as Priestley, Davy, Faraday, John Hunter, and Linnæus were of humble parentage, and received the poorest education: most of them, like Huxley himself, have come from parents who were able to do little more for their children than set them out into life along the ordinary educational avenues. In Huxley's boyhood at least a comfortable income was necessary for this: in every civilised country nowadays, state endowments, or private endowments, are ready to help every capable boy, as far as Huxley was helped, and in his progress from boyhood to supreme distinction, there is nothing that cannot be emulated by every boy at school to-day. The minds of human beings when they are born into the world are as naked as their bodies; it matters not if parents, grandparents, and remoter ancestors were unlettered or had the wisdom of all the ages, the new mind has to build up its own wisdom from the beginning. We cannot even say with certainty that children inherit mental aptitudes and capacities from their parents; for as tall sons may come from short parents or beautiful daughters from ugly parents, so we may find in the capacities of the parents no traces of the future greatness of their children. None the less it is interesting to learn what we can about the parents of great men; and Huxley tells us that he thinks himself to have inherited many characters of his body and mind from his mother.

Thomas Henry Huxley was born on the 4th of May, 1825, at Ealing, then a little country village, now united to London as a great suburb. He was the seventh child of George Huxley, who was second master at the school of Dr. Nicholson at Ealing. In these days private schools of varying character were very numerous in England, and this establishment seems to have been of high-class character, for Cardinal Newman and many other distinguished men received part of their education there. His mother, whose maiden name was Rachel Withers, was, he tells us himself:

"A slender brunette of an emotional and energetic temperament, and possessed of the most piercing black eyes I ever saw in a woman's head. With no more education than other women of the middle classes in her day, she had an excellent mental capacity. Her most distinguishing characteristic, however, was rapidity of thought. If one ventured to suggest she had not taken much time to arrive at any conclusion, she would say, 'I cannot help it. Things flash across me.' That peculiarity has been passed on to me in full strength: it has often stood me in good stead: it has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it has always been a danger. But, after all, if my time were to come over again there is nothing I would less willingly part with than my inheritance of 'mother wit.'"

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