1879.
[Much of the work noted down for 1878 reappears in my father's list
for 1879. He was still at work upon, or meditating his Crayfish, his
Introduction to Psychology, the Spirula Memoir, and a new edition of
the Elementary Physiology. Professor H.N. Martin writes about the
changes necessary for adapting the "Practical Biology" to American
needs; the article on Harvey was waiting to be put into permanent
form. Besides giving an address at the Working Men's College, he
lectured on Sensation and the Uniformity of the Sensiferous Organs
("Collected Essays" 6.), at the Royal Institution, Friday evening,
March 7; and on Snakes, both at the Zoological Gardens, June 5, and at
the London Institution, December 1. On February 3 he read a paper at
the Royal Society on "The Characters of the Pelvis in the Mammalia,
and the Conclusions respecting the Origin of Mammals which may be
based on them"; and published in "Nature" for November 6 a paper on
"Certain Errors Respecting the Structure of the Heart, attributed to
Aristotle."
Great interest attaches to this paper. He had always wondered how
Aristotle, in dissecting a heart, had come to assert that it contained
only three chambers; and the desire to see for himself what stood in
the original, uncommented on by translators who were not themselves
anatomists, was one of the chief reasons (I think the wish to read the
Greek Testament in the original was another) which operated in making
him take up the study of Greek late in middle life. His practice was
to read in his book until he had come to ten new words; these he
looked out, parsed, and wrote down together with their chief
derivatives. This was his daily portion.
When at last he grappled with the passage in question, he found that
Aristotle had correctly described what he saw under the special
conditions of his dissection, when the right auricle actually appears
as he described it, an enlargement of the "great vein." So that this,
at least, ought to be removed from the list of Aristotle's errors. The
same is shown to be the case with his statements about respiration.
His own estimate of Aristotle as a physiologist is between the
panegyric of Cuvier and the depreciation of Lewes: "he carried science
a step beyond the point at which he found it; a meritorious, but not a
miraculous, achievement." And it will interest scholars to know that
from his own experience as a lecturer, Huxley was inclined to favour
the theory that the original manuscripts of the "Historia Animalium,"
with their mingled accuracy and absurdity, were notes taken by some of
his students. This essay was reprinted in "Science and Culture" page
180.
This year he brought out his second volume of essays on various
subjects, written from 1870 to 1878, under the title of "Critiques and
Addresses," and later in the year, his long-delayed and now entirely
recast "Introductory Primer" in the Science Primer Series.]
6 Barnepark Terrace, Teignmouth, September 12, 1879.
My dear Roscoe,
I send you by this post my long-promised Primer, and a like set of
sheets goes to Stewart. [Balfour Stewart, Professor of Natural
Philosophy in Owens College, Manchester.]
You will see that it is quite different from my first sketch, Geikie's
primer having cut me out of that line--but _I_ think it much better.
You will see that the idea is to develop Science out of common
observation, and to lead up to Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and
Psychology.
I want the thing to be good as far as it goes, so don't spare
criticism.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
Best remembrances from us all, which we are jolly.
[To his other duties he now added that of a Governor of Eton College,
a post which he held till 1888, when, after doing what he could to
advance progressive ideas of education, and in particular, getting a
scheme adopted for making drawing part of the regular curriculum,
ill-health compelled him to resign.]
As for other pressure of work [he writes to Dr. Dohrn, February 16],
with the exception of the Zoological Society, I never have anything to
do with the affairs of any society but the Royal now--I find the
latter takes up all my disposable time...Take comfort from me. I find
53 to be a very youthful period of existence. I have been better
physically, and worked harder mentally, this last twelve month than in
any year of my life. So a mere boy, not yet 40 like you, may look to
the future hopefully.
[From about this time dates the inception of a short-lived society, to
be called the Association of Liberal Thinkers. It had first taken
shape in the course of a conversation at Professor W.K. Clifford's
house; the chief promoter and organiser being a well-known Theistic
preacher, while on the council were men of science, critics, and
scholars in various branches of learning. Huxley was chosen President,
and the first meeting of officers and council took place at his house
on January 25.
Professor G.J. Romanes was asked to join, but refused on the ground
that even if the negations which he supposed the society would
promulgate, were true, it was not expedient to offer them to the
multitude. To this Huxley wrote the following reply (January 2,
1879):--]
Many thanks for your letter. I think it is desirable to explain that
our Society is by no means intended to constitute a propaganda of
negations, but rather to serve as a centre of free thought.
Of course I have not a word to say in respect of your decision. I
quite appreciate your view of the matter, though it is diametrically
opposed to my own conviction that the more rapidly truth is spread
among mankind the better it will be for them.
Only let us be sure that it is truth.
[However, a course of action was proposed which by no means commended
itself to several members of the council. Tyndall begs Huxley "not to
commit us to a venture of the kind unless you see clearly that it
meets a public need, and that it will be worked by able men," and on
February 6 the latter writes:--]
After careful consideration of the whole circumstances of the case, I
have definitely arrived at the conclusion that it is not expedient to
go on with the undertaking.
I therefore resign my Presidency, and I will ask you to be so good as
to intimate my withdrawal from the association to my colleagues.
[In spite of having long ago "burned his ships" with regard to both
the great Universities, Huxley was agreeably surprised by a new sign
of the times from Cambridge. The University now followed up its
recognition of Darwin two years before, by offering Huxley an honorary
degree, an event of which he wrote to Professor Baynes on June 9:--]
I shall be glorious in a red gown at Cambridge to-morrow, and
hereafter look to be treated as a PERSON OF RESPECTABILITY.
I have done my best to avoid that misfortune, but it's of no use.
[A curious coincidence occurred here. Mr. Sandys, the public orator,
in his speech presenting him for the degree, picked out one of his
characteristics for description in the Horatian phrase, "Propositi
tenax." Now this was the family motto; and Huxley wrote to point out
the coincidence. (The speech delivered by the public orator on this
occasion (June 10, 1879) ran as follows:--Academi inter silvas qui
verum quaerunt, non modo ipsi veritatis lumine vitam hanc umbratilem
illustrare conantur, sed illustrissimum quemque veritatis
investigatorem aliunde delatum ea qua par est comitate excipiunt.
Adest vir cui in veritate exploranda ampla sane provincia contigit,
qui sive in animantium sive in arborum et herbarum genere quicquid
vivit investigat, ipsum illud vivere quid sit, quali ex origine natum
sit; qui exquirit quae cognationis necessitudo inter priores illas
viventium species et has quae etiam nunc supersunt, intercedat. Olim
in Oceano Australi, ubi rectis "oculis monstra natantia" vidit,
victoriam prope primam, velut alter Perseus, a Medusa reportavit;
varias deinceps animantium formas quasi ab ipsa Gorgone in saxum
versas sagacitate singulari explicavit; vitae denique universae
explorandae vitam suam totam dedicavit. Physicorum inter principes diu
honoratus, idem (ut verbum mutuemur a Cartesio illo cujus laudes ipse
in hac urbe quondam praedicavit) etiam "metaphysica" honore debito
prosecutus est. Illum demum liberaliter educatum esse existimat qui
cum ceteris animi et corporis dotibus instructus sit, tum praesertim
quicquid turpe sit oderit, quicquid sive in arte sive in rerum natura
pulchrum sit diligat; neque tamen ipse (ut ait Aristotles) "animalium
parum pulchorum contemplationem fastidio puerili reformidat"; sed in
perpetua animantium serie hominis vestigia perscrutari conatus, satis
ampla liberalitate in universa rerum natura "humani nihil a se alienum
putat." Duco ad vos virum intrepidum, facundum, propositi tenacem,
Thomam Henricum Huxley.)]
Science and Art Department, South Kensington, June 11, 1879.
My dear Mr. Sandys,
I beg your acceptance of the inclosed photograph, which is certainly
the best ever executed of me.
And by way of a memento of the claim which you established not only to
the eloquence but also the insight of a prophet, I have added an
impression of the seal with "Tenax propositi" writ plain, if not
large. As I mentioned to you, it belonged to my eldest brother, who
has been dead for many years. I trust that the Heralds' College may be
as well satisfied as he was about his right to the coat of arms and
crest.
My own genealogical inquiries have taken me so far back that I confess
the later stages do not interest me.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[The British Association met at Sheffield in 1879, and Huxley took
this occasion to "eat the leek" in the matter of Bathybius (see volume
1). It must be remembered that his original interpretation of the
phenomenon did not involve any new theory of the origin of life, and
was not put forward because of its supposed harmony with Darwin's
speculations.] ("That which interested me in the matter was the
apparent analogy of Bathybius with other well-known forms of lower
life, such as the plasmodia of the Myxomycetes and the Rhizopods.
Speculative hopes or fears had nothing to do with the matter; and if
Bathybius were brought up alive from the bottom of the Atlantic
to-morrow, the fact would not have the slightest bearing, that I can
discern, upon Mr. Darwin's speculations, or upon any of the disputed
problems of biology. It would merely be one elementary organism the
more added to the thousands already known.") [("Collected Essays 5
154.)
In supporting a vote of thanks to Dr. Allman, the President, for his
address, he said (see "Nature" August 28, 1879):--]
I will ask you to allow me to say one word rather upon my own account,
in order to prevent a misconception which, I think, might arise, and
which I should regret if it did arise. I daresay that no one in this
room, who has attained middle life, has been so fortunate as to reach
that age without being obliged, now and then, to look back upon some
acquaintance, or, it may be, intimate ally of his youth, who has not
quite verified the promises of that youth. Nay, let us suppose he has
done quite the reverse, and has become a very questionable sort of
character, and a person whose acquaintance does not seem quite so
desirable as it was in those young days; his way and yours have
separated; you have not heard much about him; but eminently
trustworthy persons have assured you he has done this, that, or the
other; and is more or less of a black sheep, in fact. The President,
in an early part of his address, alluded to a certain thing--I hardly
know whether I ought to call it a thing or not--of which he gave you
the name Bathybius, and he stated, with perfect justice, that I had
brought that thing into notice; at any rate, indeed, I christened it,
and I am, in a certain sense, its earliest friend. For some time after
that interesting Bathybius was launched into the world, a number of
admirable persons took the little thing by the hand, and made very
much of it, and as the President was good enough to tell you, I am
glad to be able to repeat and verify all the statements, as a matter
of fact, which I had ventured to make about it. And so things went on,
and I thought my young friend Bathybius would turn out a credit to me.
But I am sorry to say, as time has gone on, he has not altogether
verified the promise of his youth.
In the first place, as the President told you, he could not be found
when he was wanted; and in the second place, when he was found, all
sorts of things were said about him. Indeed, I regret to be obliged to
tell you that some persons of severe minds went so far as to say that
he was nothing but simply a gelatinous precipitate of slime, which had
carried down organic matter. If that is so, I am very sorry for it,
for whoever may have joined in this error, I am undoubtedly primarily
responsible for it. But I do not know at the present time of my own
knowledge how the matter stands. Nothing would please me more than to
investigate the matter afresh in the way it ought to be investigated,
but that would require a voyage of some time, and the investigation of
this thing in its native haunts is a kind of work for which, for many
years past, I have had no opportunity, and which I do not think I am
very likely to enjoy again. Therefore my own judgment is in an
absolute state of suspension about it. I can only assure you what has
been said about this friend of mine, but I cannot say whether what is
said is justified or not. But I feel very happy about the matter.
There is one thing about us men of science, and that is, no one who
has the greatest prejudice against science can venture to say that we
ever endeavour to conceal each other's mistakes. And, therefore, I
rest in the most entire and complete confidence that if this should
happen to be a blunder of mine, some day or other it will be carefully
exposed by somebody. But pray let me remind you whether all this story
about Bathybius be right or wrong, makes not the slightest difference
to the general argument of the remarkable address put before you
to-night. All the statements your President has made are just as true,
as profoundly true, as if this little eccentric Bathybius did not
exist at all.
[Several letters of miscellaneous interest may be quoted.
The following acknowledges the receipt of "Essays in Romance":--]
4 Marlborough Place, London, N.W., January 1879.
My dear Skelton,
Being the most procrastinating letter-writer in existence, I thought,
or pretended to think, when I received your "Essays in Romance" that
it would not be decent to thank you until I had read the book. And
when I had done myself that pleasure, I further pretended to think
that it would be much better to wait till I could send you my Hume
book, which as it contains a biography, is the nearest approach to a
work of fiction of which I have yet been guilty.
The "Hume" was sent, and I hope reached you a week ago; and as my
conscience just now inquired in a very sneering and unpleasant tone
whether I had any further pretence for not writing on hand, I thought
I might as well stop her mouth at once.
You will see oddly enough that I have answered your question about
dreams in a sort of way on page 96. [Cp. "Essays in Romance" page 329;
Huxley's "Hume" page 96.]
You will get nothing but praise for your book, and I shall be
vilipended for mine. Is that fact, or is it not, an evidence of a
special Providence and Divine Government?
Pray remember me very kindly to Mrs. Skelton. I hope your interrupted
visit will yet become a fact. We have a clean bill of health now.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
Scottish University Commission, 31 Queen Street, Edinburgh, April 2,
1879.
My dear Skelton,
I shall be delighted to dine with you on Wednesday, and take part in
any discussion either moral or immoral that may be started.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
March 15, 1879.
My dear Mrs. Tyndall,
Your hearty letter is as good as a bottle of the best sunshine. Yes, I
will lunch with you on Friday with pleasure, and Jess proposes to
attend on the occasion...Her husband is in Gloucester, and so doesn't
count. The absurd creature declares she must go back to him on
Saturday--stuff and sentiment. She has only been here six or seven
weeks. There is nothing said in scripture about a wife cleaving to her
husband!
With all our loves, ever yours very sincerely,
T.H. Huxley.
[The next is to his son, then at St. Andrews University, on winning a
scholarship tenable at Oxford.]
South Kensington, April 21, 1879.
My dear Boy,
I was very glad to get your good news this morning, and I need not
tell you whether M-- was pleased or not.
But the light of nature doth not inform us of the value and duration
of the "Guthrie"--and from a low and material point of view I should
like to be informed on that subject. However, this is "mere matter of
detail" as the Irishman said when he was asked HOW he had killed his
landlord. The pleasure to us is that you have made good use of your
opportunities, and finished this first stage of your journey so
creditably.
I am about to write to the Master of Balliol for advice as to your
future proceedings. In the meanwhile, go in for the enjoyment of your
holiday with a light heart. You have earned it.
Ever your loving father,
T.H. Huxley.
[The following, to Mrs. Clifford, was called forth by a hitch in
respect to the grant to her of a Civil List pension after the death of
her husband:--]
4 Marlborough Place, July 19, 1879.
My dear Lucy,
I am just off to Gloucester to fetch M-- back, and I shall have a long
talk with that sage little woman over your letter.
In the meanwhile keep quiet and do nothing. I feel the force of what
you say very strongly--so strongly, in fact, that I must morally ice
myself and get my judgment clear and cool before I advise you what is
to be done.
I am very sorry to hear you have been so ill. For the present dismiss
the matter from your thoughts and give your mind to getting better.
Leave it all to be turned over in the mind of that cold-blooded,
worldly, cynical old fellow, who signs himself,
Your affectionate Pater.
[The last is to Mr. Edward Clodd, on receiving his book "Jesus of
Nazareth."]
4 Marlborough Place, Abbey Road, N.W., December 21, 1879.
My dear Mr. Clodd,
I have been spending all this Sunday afternoon over the book you have
been kind enough to send me, and being a swift reader, I have
travelled honestly from cover to cover.
It is the book I have been longing to see; in spirit, matter and form
it appears to me to be exactly what people like myself have been
wanting. For though for the last quarter of a century I have done all
that lay in my power to oppose and destroy the idolatrous accretions
of Judaism and Christianity, I have never had the slightest sympathy
with those who, as the Germans say, would "throw the child away along
with the bath"--and when I was a member of the London School Board I
fought for the retention of the Bible, to the great scandal of some of
my Liberal friends--who can't make out to this day whether I was a
hypocrite, or simply a fool on that occasion.
But my meaning was that the mass of the people should not be deprived
of the one great literature which is open to them--not shut out from
the perception of their relations with the whole past history of
civilised mankind--not excluded from such a view of Judaism and Jesus
of Nazareth as that which at last you have given us.
I cannot doubt that your work will have a great success not only in
the grosser, but the better sense of the word.
I am yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[The winter of 1879-80 was memorable for its prolonged spell of cold
weather. One result of this may be traced in a New Year's letter from
Huxley to his eldest daughter.] "I have had a capital holiday--mostly
in bed--but I don't feel so grateful for it as I might do." [To be
forced to avoid the many interruptions and distractions of his life in
London, which claimed the greatest part of his time, he would regard
as an unmixed blessing; as he once said feelingly to Professor Marsh,]
"If I could only break my leg, what a lot of scientific work I could
do!" [But he was less grateful for having entire inaction forced upon
him.
However, he was soon about again, and wrote as follows in answer to a
letter from Sir Thomas (afterwards Lord) Farrer, which called his
attention, as an old Fishery Commissioner, to a recent report on the
sea-fisheries.]
4 Marlborough Place, January 9, 1880.
My dear Farrer,
I shall be delighted to take a dive into the unfathomable depths of
official folly; but your promised document has not reached me.
Your astonishment at the tenacity of life of fallacies, permit me to
say, is shockingly unphysiological. They, like other low organisms,
are independent of brains, and only wriggle the more, the more they
are smitten on the place where the brains ought to be--I don't know
B., but I am convinced that A. has nothing but a spinal cord, devoid
of any cerebral development. Would Mr. Cross give him up for purposes
of experiment? Lingen and you might perhaps be got to join in a
memorial to that effect.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[A fresh chapter of research, the results of which he now began to
give to the public, was the history of the Dog. On April 6 and 13 he
lectured at the Royal Institution "On Dogs and the Problems connected
with them"--their relation to other animals, and the problem of the
origin of the domestic dog, and the dog-like animals in general. As so
often before, these lectures were the outcome of the careful
preparation of a course of instruction for his students. The dog had
been selected as one of the types of mammalian structure upon which
laboratory work was to be done. Huxley's own dissections had led him
on to a complete survey of the genus, both wild and domestic. As he
writes to Darwin on May 10:--]
I wish it were not such a long story that I could tell you all about
the dogs. They will make out such a case for "Darwinismus" as never
was. From the South American dogs at the bottom (C. vetulus,
cancrivorus, etc.) to the wolves at the top, there is a regular
gradual progression the range of variation of each "species"
overlapping the ranges of those below and above. Moreover, as to the
domestic dogs, I think I can prove that the small dogs are modified
jackals, and the big dogs ditto wolves. I have been getting capital
material from India, and working the whole affair out on the basis of
measurements of skulls and teeth.
However, my paper for the Zoological Society is finished, and I hope
soon to send you a copy of it...
[Unfortunately he never found time to complete his work for final
publication in book form, and the rough, unfinished notes are all that
remain of his work, beyond two monographs "On the Epipubis in the Dog
and Fox" ("Proceedings of the Royal Society" 30 162-63), and "On the
Cranial and Dental Characters of the Canidae" ("Proceedings of the
Zoological Society" 1880 pages 238-288).
The following letters deal with the collection of specimens for
examination:--]
4 Marlborough Place, January 17, 1880.
My dear Flower,
I happened to get hold of two foxes this week--a fine dog fox and his
vixen wife; and among other things, I have been looking up Cowper's
glands, the supposed absence of which in the dogs has always "gone
agin' me." Moreover, I have found them (or their representatives) in
the shape of two small sacs, which open by conspicuous apertures into
the urethra immediately behind the bulb. If your Icticyon was a male,
I commend this point to your notice.
ITEM.
If you have not already begun to macerate him, do look for the
"marsupial" fibro-cartilages, which I have mentioned in my "Manual,"
but the existence of which blasphemers have denied. I found them again
at once in both Mr. and Mrs. Vulpes. You spot them immediately by the
pectineus which is attached to them.
The dog-fox's caecum is so different from the vixen's that Gray would
have made distinct genera of them.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
4 Marlborough Place, N.W., May 2, 1880.
My dear Fayrer,
I am greatly obliged for the skulls, and I hope you will offer my best
thanks to your son for the trouble he has taken in getting them.
The "fox" is especially interesting because it is not a fox, by any
manner of means, but a big jackal with some interesting points of
approximation towards the cuons.
I do not see any locality given along with the specimens. Can you
supply it?
I have got together some very curious evidence of the wider range of
variability of the Indian jackal, and the "fox" which your son has
sent is the most extreme form in one direction I have met with.
I wish I could get some examples from the Bombay and Madras
Presidencies and from Ceylon, as well as from Central India. Almost
all I have seen yet are from Bengal.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[Between the two lectures on the Dog, mentioned above, on April 9,
Huxley delivered a Friday evening discourse, at the same place, "On
the Coming of Age of the Origin of Species" ("Collected Essays" 2
227). Reviewing the history of the theory of evolution in the
twenty-one years that had elapsed since the "Origin of Species" first
saw the light in 1859, he did not merely dwell on the immense
influence the "Origin" had exercised upon every field of biological
inquiry.] "Mere insanities and inanities have before now swollen to
portentous size in the course of twenty years." "History warns us that
it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies, and to
end as superstitions." [There was actual danger lest a new generation
should] "accept the main doctrines of the "Origin of Species" with as
little reflection, and it may be with as little justification, as so
many of our contemporaries, years ago, rejected them."
[So dire a consummation, he declared, must be prevented by unflinching
criticism, the essence of the scientific spirit,] "for the scientific
spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held
truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors."
[What, then, were the facts which justified so great a change as had
taken place, which had removed some of the most important
qualifications under which he himself had accepted the theory? He
proceeded to enumerate the] "crushing accumulation of evidence"
[during this period, which had proved the imperfection of the
geological record; had filled up enormous gaps, such as those between
birds and reptiles, vertebrates and invertebrates, flowering and
flowerless plants, or the lowest forms of animal and plant life. More:
paleontology alone has effected so much--the fact that evolution has
taken place is so irresistibly forced upon the mind by the study of
the Tertiary mammalia brought to light since 1859, that] "if the
doctrine of evolution had not existed, paleontologists must have
invented it." [He further developed the subject by reading before the
Zoological Society a paper "On the Application of the Laws of
Evolution to the Arrangement of the Vertebrata, and more particularly
of the Mammalia" ("Proceedings of the Zoological Society" 1880 pages
649-662). In reply to Darwin's letter thanking him for the "Coming of
Age" ("Life and Letters" 3 24), he wrote on May 10:--]
My dear Darwin,
You are the cheeriest letter-writer I know, and always help a man to
think the best of his doings.
I hope you do not imagine because I had nothing to say about "Natural
Selection," that I am at all weak of faith on that article. On the
contrary, I live in hope that as paleontologists work more and more in
the manner of that "second Daniel come to judgment," that wise young
man M. Filhal, we shall arrive at a crushing accumulation of evidence
in that direction also. But the first thing seems to me to be to drive
the fact of evolution into people's heads; when that is once safe, the
rest will come easy.
I hear that ce cher X. is yelping about again; but in spite of your
provocative messages (which Rachel retailed with great glee), I am not
going to attack him nor anybody else.
[Another popular lecture on a zoological subject was that of July 1 on
"Cuttlefish and Squids," the last of the "Davis" lectures given by him
at the Zoological Gardens.
More important were two other essays delivered this year. The "Method
of Zadig" ("Collected Essays" 4 1), an address at the Working Men's
College, takes for its text Voltaire's story of the philosopher at the
Oriental court, who, by taking note of trivial indications, obtains a
perilous knowledge of things which his neighbours ascribe either to
thievery or magic. This introduces a discourse on the identity of the
methods of science and of the judgments of common life, a fact which,
twenty-six years before, he had briefly stated in the words,] "Science
is nothing but trained and organised common sense" [("Collected
Essays" 3 45).
The other is "Science and Culture" ("Collected Essays" 3 134), which
was delivered on October 1, as the opening address of the Josiah Mason
College at Birmingham, and gave its name to a volume of essays
published in the following year. Here was a great school founded by a
successful manufacturer, which was designed to give an education at
once practical and liberal, such as the experience of its founder
approved, to young men who meant to embark upon practical life. A
"mere" literary training--i.e. in the classical languages--was
excluded, but not so the study of English literature and modern
languages. The greatest stress was laid on training in the scientific
theory and practice on which depend the future of the great
manufactures of the north.
The question dealt with in this address is whether such an education
can give the culture demanded of an educated man to-day. The answer is
emphatically Yes. English literature is a field of culture second to
none, and for solely literary purposes, a thorough knowledge of it,
backed by some other modern language, will amply suffice. Combined
with this, a knowledge of modern science, its principles and results,
which have so profoundly modified society and have created modern
civilisation, will give a "criticism of life," as Matthew Arnold
defined "the end and aim of all literature," that is to say culture,
unattainable by any form of education which neglects it. In short,
although the "culture" of former periods might be purely literary,
that of to-day must be based, to a great extent, upon natural science.
This autumn several letters passed between him and Darwin. The latter,
contrary to his usual custom, wrote a letter to "Nature," in reply to
an unfair attack which had been made upon evolution by Sir Wyville
Thomson in his Introduction to "The Voyage of the Challenger" (see
Darwin "Life and Letters" 3 242), and asked Huxley to look over the
concluding sentences of the letter, and to decide whether they should
go with the rest to the printer or not. "My request," he writes
(November 5), "will not cost you much trouble--i.e. to read two
pages--for I know that you can decide at once." Huxley struck them
out, replying on the 14th,] "Your pinned-on paragraph was so good
that, if I had written it myself, I should have been unable to refrain
from sending it on to the printer. But it is much easier to be
virtuous on other people's account; and though Thomson deserved it and
more, I thought it would be better to refrain. If I say a savage
thing, it is only 'Pretty Fanny's way'; but if you do, it is not
likely to be forgotten."
[The rest of this correspondence has to do with a plan of Darwin's,
generous as ever, to obtain a Civil List pension for the veteran
naturalist, Wallace, whose magnificent work for science had brought
him but little material return. He wrote to consult Huxley as to what
steps had best be taken; the latter replied in the letter of November
14:--]
The papers in re Wallace have arrived, and I lose no time in assuring
you that all my "might, amity, and authority," as Essex said when that
sneak Bacon asked him for a favour, shall be exercised as you wish.
On December 11 he sends Darwin the draft of a memorial on the subject,
and on the 28th suggests that the best way of moving the official
world would be for Darwin himself to send the memorial, with a note of
his own, to Mr. Gladstone, who was then Prime Minister and First Lord
of the Treasury:--]
Mr. G. can do a thing gracefully when he is so minded, and unless I
greatly mistake, he will be so minded if you write to him.
[The result was all that could be hoped. On January 7 Darwin
writes:--"Hurrah! hurrah! read the enclosed. Was it not
extraordinarily kind of Mr. Gladstone to write himself at the present
time?...I have written to Wallace. He owes much to you. Had it not
been for your advice and assistance, I should never have had courage
to go on."
The rest of the letter to Darwin of December 28 is characteristic of
his own view of life. As he wrote four years before (see above), he
was no pessimist any more than he was a professed optimist. If the
vast amount of inevitable suffering precluded the one view, the
gratuitous pleasures, so to speak, of life preclude the other. Life
properly lived is worth living, and would be even if a malevolent fate
had decreed that one should suffer, say, the pangs of toothache two
hours out of every twenty-four. So he writes:--]
We have had all the chicks (and the husbands of such as are therewith
provided) round the Christmas table once more, and a pleasant sight
they were, though I say it that shouldn't. Only the grand-daughter
left out, the young woman not having reached the age when change and
society are valuable.
I don't know what you think about anniversaries. I like them, being
always minded to drink my cup of life to the bottom, and take my
chance of the sweets and bitters.
[The following is to his Edinburgh friend Dr. Skelton, whose
appreciation of his frequent companionship had found outspoken
expression in the pages of "The Crookit Meg."]
4 Marlborough Place, November 14, 1880.
My dear Skelton,
When the "Crooked Meg" reached me I made up my mind that it would be a
shame to send the empty acknowledgment which I give (or don't give)
for most books that reach me.
But I am over head and ears in work--time utterly wasted in mere
knowledge getting and giving--and for six weeks not an hour for real
edification with a wholesome story.
But this Sunday afternoon being, by the blessing of God, as beastly a
November day as you shall see, I have attended to my spiritual side
and been visited by a blessing in the shape of some very pretty and
unexpected words anent mysel'. [The passage referred to stands on page
72 of "The Crookit Meg," and describes the village naturalist and
philosopher, Adam Meldrum, "who in his working hours cobbled old
boats, and knew by heart the plays of Shakespeare and the 'Pseudodoxia
Epidemica' of Sir Thomas Browne."
"For the rest it will be enough to add that this long, gaunt, bony
cobbler of old boats was--was--(May I take the liberty, Mr.
Professor?) a village Huxley of the year One. The colourless
brilliancy of the great teacher's style, the easy facility with which
the drop of light forms itself into a perfect sphere as it falls from
his pen, belong indeed to a consummate master of the art of
expression, which Adam of course was not; but the mental lucidity,
justice, and balance, as well as the reserve of power, and the
Shakespearean gaiety of touch, which made the old man one of the most
delightful companions in the world, were essentially Huxleian."]
In truth, it is a right excellent story, though, distinctly in love
with Eppie, I can only wonder how you had the heart to treat her so
ill. A girl like that should have had two husbands--one "wisely ranged
for show" and t'other de par amours.
Don't ruin me with Mrs. Skelton by repeating this, but please remember
me very kindly to her.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[The following letter to Tyndall was called forth by an incident in
connection with the starting of the "Nineteenth Century." Huxley had
promised to help the editor by looking over the proofs of a monthly
article on contemporary science. But his advertised position as merely
adviser in this to the editor was overlooked by some who resented what
they supposed to be his assumption of the role of critic in general to
his fellow-workers in science. At a meeting of the x Club, Tyndall
made a jesting allusion to this; Huxley, however, thought the mere
suggestion too grave for a joke, and replied with all seriousness to
clear himself from the possibility of such misconception. And the same
evening he wrote to Tyndall:--]
Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, S.W., December 2, 1880.
My dear Tyndall,
I must tell you the ins and outs of this "Nineteenth Century"
business. I was anxious to help Knowles when he started the journal,
and at his earnest and pressing request I agreed to do what I have
done. But being quite aware of the misinterpretation to which I should
be liable if my name "sans phrase" were attached to the article, I
insisted upon the exact words which you will find at the head of it;
and which seemed, and still seem to me, to define my position as a
mere adviser of the editor.
Moreover, by diligently excluding any expression of opinion on the
part of the writers of the compilation, I thought that nobody could
possibly suspect me of assuming the position of an authority even on
the subjects with which I may be supposed to be acquainted, let alone
those such as physics and chemistry, of which I know no more than any
one of the public may know.
Therefore your remarks came upon me to-night with the sort of painful
surprise which a man feels who is accused of the particular sin of
which he flatters himself he is especially NOT GUILTY, and "roused my
corruption" as the Scotch have it. But there is no need to say
anything about that, for you were generous and good as I have always
found you. Only I pray you, if hereafter it strikes you that any doing
of mine should be altered or amended, tell me yourself and privately,
and I promise you a very patient listener, and what is more a very
thankful one.
Ever yours,
T.H. Huxley.
[Tyndall replied with no less frankness, thanking him for the friendly
promptitude of his letter, and explaining that he had meant to speak
privately on the matter, but had been forestalled by the subject
coming up when it did. And he wound up by declaring that it would be
too absurd to admit the power of such an occasion "to put even a
momentary strain upon the cable which has held us together for nine
and twenty years."
At the very end of the year, George Eliot died. A proposal was
immediately set on foot to inter her remains in Westminster Abbey, and
various men of letters pressed the matter on the Dean, who was
unwilling to stir without a very strong and general expression of
opinion. To Mr. Herbert Spencer, who had urged him to join in
memorialising the Dean, Huxley replied as follows:--]
4 Marlborough Place, December 27, 1880.
My dear Spencer,
Your telegram which reached me on Friday evening caused me great
perplexity, inasmuch as I had just been talking with Morley, and
agreeing with him that the proposal for a funeral in Westminster Abbey
had a very questionable look to us, who desired nothing so much as
that peace and honour should attend George Eliot to her grave.
It can hardly be doubted that the proposal will be bitterly opposed,
possibly (as happened in Mill's case with less provocation), with the
raking up of past histories, about which the opinion even of those who
have least the desire or the right to be pharisaical is strongly
divided, and which had better be forgotten.
With respect to putting pressure on the Dean of Westminster, I have to
consider that he has some confidence in me, and before asking him to
do something for which he is pretty sure to be violently assailed, I
have to ask myself whether I really think it a right thing for a man
in his position to do.
Now I cannot say I do. However much I may lament the circumstance,
Westminster Abbey is a Christian Church and not a Pantheon, and the
Dean thereof is officially a Christian priest, and we ask him to
bestow exceptional Christian honours by this burial in the Abbey.
George Eliot is known not only as a great writer, but as a person
whose life and opinions were in notorious antagonism to Christian
practice in regard to marriage, and Christian theory in regard to
dogma. How am I to tell the Dean that I think he ought to read over
the body of a person who did not repent of what the Church considers
mortal sin, a service not one solitary proposition in which she would
have accepted for truth while she was alive? How am I to urge him to
do that which, if I were in his place, I should most emphatically
refuse to do?
You tell me that Mrs. Cross wished for the funeral in the Abbey. While
I desire to entertain the greatest respect for her wishes, I am very
sorry to hear it. I do not understand the feeling which could create
such a desire on any personal grounds, save those of affection, and
the natural yearning to be near even in death to those whom we have
loved. And on public grounds the wish is still less intelligible to
me. One cannot eat one's cake and have it too. Those who elect to be
free in thought and deed must not hanker after the rewards, if they
are to be so called, which the world offers to those who put up with
its fetters.
Thus, however I look at the proposal it seems to me to be a profound
mistake, and I can have nothing to do with it.
I shall be deeply grieved if this resolution is ascribed to any other
motives than those which I have set forth at more length than I
intended.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.