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diff --git a/16935.txt b/16935.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddc37bb --- /dev/null +++ b/16935.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11231 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life +And Work, by P. Chalmers Mitchell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work + +Author: P. Chalmers Mitchell + +Release Date: October 25, 2005 [EBook #16935] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY *** + + + + +Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, LN Yaddanapudi and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of +public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY] + + + + +Leaders in Science + +THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY + +A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORK + + +BY + +P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, M.A. (_Oxon._) + + +G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS + +NEW YORK + +27 WEST TWENTY THIRD STREET + +LONDON + +24 BEDFORD STREET STRAND + +The Knickerbocker Press + +1900 + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1900 + +BY + +G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS + + +The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + + +PREFACE + + +This volume is in no sense an intimate or authorised biography of +Huxley. It is simply an outline of the external features of his life +and an account of his contributions to biology, to educational and +social problems, and to philosophy and metaphysics. In preparing it, I +have been indebted to his own Autobiography, to the obituary notice +written by Sir Michael Foster for the Royal Society of London, to a +sketch of him by Professor Howes, his successor at the Royal College +of Science, and to his published works. The latter consist of many +well-known separate volumes which are familiar to all zooelogists, and +of a vast number of memoirs and essays scattered in various scientific +and general publications. The general Essays were collected into nine +volumes, revised by himself in the later years of his life, and +published by Messrs. Macmillan. The Scientific Memoirs, thanks to the +generous enterprise of the same publishing firm, with which he was so +long associated, and to the pious labours of Sir Michael Foster and +Professor Ray Lankester, are in process of reissue in the form of four +volumes, two of which have now appeared. These will contain all his +important contributions to science, with the exception of a large +separate treatise on the _Oceanic Hydrozoa_ published by the Ray +Society in 1859. There is also announced a formal Biography, prepared +by his son, so that future admirers or students of Huxley's work will +be in an exceptionally favourable position. + +LONDON, 1900. + +P. CHALMERS MITCHELL. + + + + +Leaders in Science + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +PREFACE iii + + +CHAPTER I + +FROM SCHOOL TO LIFE-WORK 1 + + Birth--Parentage--School-days--Choice of Medical + Profession--Charing Cross Hospital--End of Medical + Studies--Admission to Naval Medical Service. + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE 13 + + The Objects of the Voyage--The Route--The Naturalist and the + Surgeon--Collecting and Dredging--Stay in Sydney--Adventures with + the Natives--Comparison with Darwin's Voyage on the _Beagle_. + + +CHAPTER III + +FLOATING CREATURES OF THE SEA 30 + + The Nature of Floating Life--Memoir on Medusae Accepted by the + Royal Society--Old and New Ideas of the Animal Kingdom--What + Huxley Discovered in Medusae--His Comparison of them with + Vertebrate Embryos + + +CHAPTER IV + +EARLY DAYS IN LONDON 46 + + Scientific Work as Unattached Ship-Surgeon--Introduction to + London Scientific Society--Translating, Receiving, and + Lecturing--Ascidians--Molluscs and the Archetype--Criticism of + Pre-Darwinian Evolution--Appointment to Geological Survey. + + +CHAPTER V + +CREATURES OF THE PAST 67 + + Beginning Palaeontological Work--Fossil Amphibia and + Reptilia--Ancestry of Birds--Ancestry of the Horse--Imperfect + European Series Completed by Marsh's American Fossils--Meaning of + Geological Contemporaneity--Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism + Compared with Evolution in Geology--Age of the Earth--Intermediate + and Linear Types. + + +CHAPTER VI + +HUXLEY AND DARWIN 89 + + Early Ideas on Evolution--Erasmus Darwin--Lamarck--Herbert + Spencer--Difference between Evolution and Natural + Selection--Huxley's Preparation for Evolution--The Novelty of + Natural Selection--The Advantage of Natural Selection as a Working + Hypothesis--Huxley's Unchanged Position with regard to Evolution + and Natural Selection from 1860 to 1894. + + +CHAPTER VII + +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--Resume of Huxley's + Exact Position with Regard to Evolution and to Natural Selection. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +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 + + Objections to Zooelogical 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-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 + + 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 + + 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 + + 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 + + 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 + + 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 + + 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 + + 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 Calycophoridae and +Physophoridae 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 Zooelogy_. 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 + + 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 Linnaeus 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] + + "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.'" + +From his father he thinks that he inherited little except an inborn +capacity for drawing, "a hot temper, and that amount of tenacity of +purpose which unfriendly observers sometimes call obstinacy." As it +happened, this natural gift for drawing proved of the greatest service +to him throughout his career. It is imperative that every investigator +of the anatomy of plants and animals should be able to sketch his +observations, and there is no greater aid to seeing things as they are +than the continuous attempt to reproduce them by pencil or brush. + +Huxley was christened Thomas Henry, and he was unaware why these names +were chosen, but he humorously records the curious chance that his +parents should have chosen for him the "name of that particular +apostle with whom he had always felt most sympathy." + +Of his childhood little is recorded. He remembers being vain of his +curls, and his mother's expressed regret that he soon lost the beauty +of early childhood. He attended for some time the school at Ealing +with which his father was associated, but he has little to say for the +training he received there. He writes: + + "My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps + fortunately: for, though my way of life has made me acquainted + with all sorts and conditions of men, from the highest to the + lowest, I deliberately affirm that the society I fell into at + school was the worst I have ever known. We boys were average lads + with much the same inherent capacity for good and evil as any + others; but the people who were set over us cared about as much + for our intellectual and moral welfare as if they were + baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of the struggle for + existence among ourselves, and bullying was the least of the ill + practices current among us. Almost the only cheerful reminiscence + in connection with the place which arises in my mind is that of a + battle which I had with one of my class-mates, who had bullied me + until I could stand it no longer. I was a very slight lad, but + there was a wild-cat element in me which, when roused, made up + for my lack of weight, and I licked my adversary effectually. + However, one of my first experiences of the extremely rough and + ready nature of justice, as exhibited by the course of things in + general, arose out of the fact that _I_--the victor--had a black + eye, while he--the vanquished--had none, so that I got into + disgrace and he did not. One of the greatest shocks I ever + received in my life was to be told, a dozen years afterwards by + the groom who brought me my horse in a stable-yard in Sydney, + that he was my quondam antagonist. He had a long story of family + misfortune to account for his position--but at that time it was + necessary to deal very cautiously with mysterious strangers in + New South Wales, and on enquiry I found that the unfortunate + young man had not only been 'sent out,' but had undergone more + than one colonial conviction." + +Huxley was soon removed from school and continued his own education +for several years, by reading of the most desultory sort. His special +inclinations were towards mechanical problems, and had he been able to +follow his own wishes there is little doubt but that he would have +entered on the profession of an engineer. It is probable that there +was a great deal more in his wishes than the familiar inclination of a +clever boy to engineering. All through the pursuit of anatomy, which +was the chief business of his life, it was the structure of animals, +the different modifications of great ground-plans which they +presented, that interested him. But the opportunity for engineering +did not present itself, and at an exceedingly early age he began to +study medicine. Two brothers-in-law were doctors, and this accidental +fact probably determined his choice. In these days the study of +medicine did not begin as now with a general and scientific education, +but the young medical student was apprenticed to a doctor engaged in +practice. He was supposed to learn the compounding of drugs in the +dispensary attached to the doctor's consulting-room; to be taught the +dressing of wounds and the superficial details of the medical craft +while he pursued his studies in anatomy under the direction of the +doctor. Huxley's master was his brother-in-law, Dr. Salt, a London +practitioner, and he began his work when only twelve or thirteen years +of age. In this system everything depended upon the superior; under +the careful guidance of a conscientious and able man it was possible +for an apt pupil to learn a great deal of science and to become an +expert in the treatment of disease. Huxley, however, had only a short +experience of this kind of training. He was taken by some senior +student friends to a post-mortem examination, and although then, as +all through his life, he was most sensitive to the disagreeable side +of anatomical pursuits, on this occasion he gratified his curiosity +too ardently. He did not cut himself, but in some way poisonous matter +from the body affected him, and he fell into so bad a state of health +that he had to be sent into the country to recruit. He lived for some +time at a farmhouse in Warwickshire with friends of his father and +slowly recovered health. From that time, however, all through his +life, he suffered periodically from prostrating dyspepsia. After some +months devoted to promiscuous reading he resumed his work under his +brother-in-law in London. He confesses that he was far from a model +student. + + "I worked extremely hard when it pleased me, and when it did + not,--which was a frequent case,--I was extremely idle (unless + making caricatures of one's pastors and masters is to be called a + branch of industry), or else wasted my energies in wrong + directions. I read everything I could lay hands upon, including + novels, and took up all sorts of pursuits to drop them again + quite speedily." + +It is almost certain, however, that Huxley underestimated the value of +this time. He stored his mind with both literature and science, and +laid the foundation of the extremely varied intellectual interests +which afterwards proved to him of so much value. It is certain, also, +that during this time he acquired a fair knowledge of French and +German. It would be difficult to exaggerate the value to him of this +addition to his weapons for attacking knowledge. To do the best work +in any scientific pursuit it is necessary to freshen one's own mind by +contact with the ideas and results of other workers. As these workers +are scattered over different countries it is necessary to transcend +the confusion of Babel and read what they write in their own tongues. +When Huxley was young, the great reputation of Cuvier overshadowed +English anatomy, and English anatomists did little more than seek in +nature what Cuvier had taught them to find. In Germany other men and +other ideas were to be found. Johannes Mueller and Von Baer were +attacking the problems of nature in a spirit that was entirely +different, and Huxley, by combining what he was taught in England with +what he learned from German methods, came to his own investigations +with a wider mind. But his conquest of French and German brought with +it advantages in addition to these technical gains. There is no reason +to believe that he troubled himself with grammatical details and with +the study of these languages as subjects in themselves. He acquired +them simply to discover the new ideas concealed in them, and he by no +means confined himself to the reading of foreign books on the subjects +of his own studies. He read French and German poetry, literature, and +philosophy, and so came to have a knowledge of the ideas of those +outside his own race on all the great problems that interest mankind. +A good deal has been written as to the narrowing tendency of +scientific pursuits, but with Huxley, as with all the scientific men +the present writer has known, the mechanical necessity of learning to +read other languages has brought with it that wide intellectual +sympathy which is the beginning of all culture and which is not +infrequently missed by those who have devoted themselves to many +grammars and a single literature. The old proverb, "Whatever is worth +doing is worth doing well," has only value when "well" is properly +interpreted. Although the science of language is as great as any +science, it is not the science of language, but the practical +interpretation of it, that is of value to most people, and there is +much to be said for the method of anatomists like Huxley, who passed +lightly over grammatical _minutiae_ and went straight with a dictionary +to the reading of each new tongue. + +After a short period of apprenticeship, or sometimes during the +course of it, the young medical students "walked" a hospital. This +consisted in attending the demonstrations of the physicians and +surgeons in the wards of the hospital and in pursuing anatomical, +chemical, and physiological study in the medical school attached to +the hospital. A large fee was charged for the complete course, but at +many of the hospitals there were entrance scholarships which relieved +those who gained them of all cost. In 1842 Huxley and his elder +brother, James, applied for such free scholarships at Charing Cross +Hospital. There is no record in the books of the hospital as to what +persons supported the application. The entry in the minutes for +September 6, 1842, states that + + "Applications from the following gentlemen (including the two + sons of Mr. George Huxley, late senior assistant master in Ealing + School), were laid before the meeting, and their testimonials + being approved of, it was decided that those gentlemen should be + admitted as free scholars, if their classical attainments should + be found upon examination to be satisfactory." + +It appears that the two Huxleys were able to satisfy the probably +unexacting demands of the classical examiners, for they began their +hospital work in October of the same year. + +Those who know the magnificent laboratories and lecture-rooms which +have grown up in connection with the larger London hospitals must have +difficulty in realising the humble arrangements for teaching students +in the early forties. What endowments there were--and Charing Cross +was never a richly endowed hospital--were devoted entirely to the +hospital as opposed to the teaching school. There were no separate +buildings for anatomy, physiology, and so forth. At Charing Cross the +dissecting-room was in a cellar under the hospital, and subjects like +chemistry, botany, physiology, and so forth were crowded into +inconvenient side rooms. The teachers were not specialists, devoting +their whole attention to particular branches of science, but were +doctors engaged in practice, who, in addition to their private duties +and their work at the hospital, each undertook to lecture upon a +special scientific subject. Huxley came specially under the influence +of Mr. Wharton Jones, who had begun to teach physiology at the +hospital a year before. Mr. Jones throughout his life was engaged in +professional work, his specialty being ophthalmic surgery, but he was +a devoted student of anatomy and physiology, and made several +classical contributions to scientific knowledge, his best-known +discoveries relating to blood corpuscles and to the nature of the +mammalian egg-cell. But perhaps his greatest claim to fame is that it +was he who first imbued Huxley with a love for anatomical science and +with a knowledge of the methods of investigation. At the end of his +first session, in 1843, Huxley received the first prize in the senior +physiology class, while his brother got a "good conduct" prize. Of +Wharton Jones Huxley writes: + + "The extent and precision of his knowledge impressed me greatly, + and the severe exactness of his method of lecturing was quite to + my taste. I do not know that I have ever felt so much respect for + anybody as a teacher before or since. I worked hard to obtain his + approbation, and he was extremely kind and helpful to the + youngster who, I am afraid, took up more of his time than he had + any right to do. It was he who suggested the publication of my + first scientific paper--a very little one--in the _Medical + Gazette_ of 1845, and most kindly corrected the literary faults + which abounded in it short as it was. For at that time, and for + many years afterwards, I detested the trouble of writing and + would take no pains over it." + +This little paper, although Huxley deprecates it, was remarkable as +the work of so young an investigator. In it he demonstrated the +existence of a hitherto unrecognised layer in the inner root-sheath of +hairs, a layer that has been known since as Huxley's layer. + +There is no record in the minutes of the hospital school that Huxley +gained any other school prizes. His name reappears only in formal +applications at the beginning of each session for the renewal of his +free scholarship. In this respect he is in marked contrast to his +fellow-student, afterwards Sir Joseph Fayrer, who appears to have +taken almost every prize open to him. On the other hand, his +attainments in anatomy and physiology brought him distinction in a +wider field than the hospital school, for he obtained, in the +"honours" division of the first examination for the degree of Bachelor +of Medicine at the University of London, the second place with a +medal. And it is certain that he was far from neglecting his strictly +professional work, although, no doubt, he devoted much time to reading +and research in pure science, for in the winter of 1845-46, having +completed his course at the hospital, he was prepared to offer himself +at the examination for the membership of the Royal College of +Surgeons; but, being as yet under twenty-one years of age, could not +be admitted as a candidate. + +It was now time for Huxley definitely to enter on his profession. He +would have preferred to continue his investigations in London and to +wait for the chance of a teaching post in physiology, but it was +necessary to earn a living. One of those whom he consulted was his +fellow-student, Joseph Fayrer, who, hailing from Bermuda, knew +something of those who go down to the sea in ships. He advised Huxley +to write to Sir William Burnett, at that time Director-General for the +medical service of the navy, for an appointment. + + "I thought this rather a strong thing to do," says Huxley in his + autobiography, "as Sir William was personally unknown to me; but + my cheery friend would not listen to my scruples, so I went to my + lodgings and wrote the best letter I could devise. A few days + afterwards I received the usual official circular of + acknowledgement, but at the bottom was written an instruction to + call at Somerset House on such a day. I thought that looked like + business, so, at the appointed time I called and sent in my card, + while I waited in Sir William's ante-room. He was a tall, + shrewd-looking old gentleman, with a broad Scotch accent--and I + think I see him now as he entered with my card in his hand. The + first thing he did was to return it with the frugal reminder that + I should probably find it useful on some other occasion. The + second was to ask whether I was an Irishman. I suppose the air of + modesty about my appeal must have struck him. I satisfied the + Director-General that I was English to the backbone, and he made + some enquiries as to my student career, finally desiring me to + hold myself ready for examination. Having passed this, I was in + Her Majesty's service, and entered on the books of Nelson's old + ship, the _Victory_, for duty at Haslar Hospital, about a couple + of months after I made my application." + +About the same time he passed the examination of the Royal College of +Surgeons and so became a fully qualified medical man. Haslar Hospital +was the chief naval hospital to which invalided sailors were sent. +There was a considerable staff of young surgeons, as navy surgeons +were usually sent for a term to work in the hospital before being +gazetted to a ship in commission. In connection with the hospital, +there was a museum of natural history containing a collection of +considerable importance slowly gathered from the gifts of sailors and +officers. The museum curator was an enthusiastic naturalist, and +Huxley must have had the opportunity of extending his knowledge of at +least the external characters of many forms of life hitherto unknown +to him. A few years later, the curator of the museum, with the help of +two of Huxley's successors, published a _Manual of Natural History for +the Use of Travellers_, and it is certain that Huxley at least did not +lose at Haslar any of the enthusiasm for zooelogy with which he had +been inspired at the Charing Cross Hospital. The chief of the hospital +was Sir John Richardson, an excellent naturalist, and well known as an +arctic explorer. He seems to have recognised the peculiar ability of +his young assistant, and although he was a silent, reserved man, who +seldom encouraged his assistants by talking to them, he made several +attempts to obtain a suitable post for Huxley. Such a post was that of +surgeon to H.M.S. _Rattlesnake_, then about to start under the command +of Captain Owen Stanley for surveying work in the Torres Straits. +Captain Stanley had expressed a wish for a surgeon who knew something +of science, and, on the recommendation of Sir John Richardson, +obtained the post for Huxley. There was, however, to be a special +naturalist attached to the expedition, but Huxley had the opportunity +he wanted. After a brief stay of seven months at the Haslar Hospital +he left it for his ship, and thus definitely entered on his work in +the world. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: This and many other details in this chapter are taken +from an autobiographical sketch in the first volume of Huxley's +collected essays published by Macmillan, London, 1894.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VOYAGE OF THE "RATTLESNAKE" + + The Objects of the Voyage--The Route--The Naturalist and the + Surgeon--Collecting and Dredging--Stay in Sydney--Adventures with + the Natives--Comparison with Darwin's Voyage on the _Beagle_. + + +Her Majesty's ship the _Rattlesnake_, one of the old class of 28-gun +ships, sailed from Plymouth for the Torres Straits and the Australian +seas on December 12, 1846. Her commander was Captain Owen Stanley, a +young but distinguished officer, the son of the Bishop of Norwich and +a brother of Dean Stanley, who afterwards played so great a part in +the social and religious history of England. She carried a complement +of 180 officers and men, and was attended by the _Bramble_ and the +_Castlereagh_, two small vessels of light draught, whose purpose was +to precede her in shallow waters. The young colonies of Australia were +developing commerce with the mother country, and the business of the +_Rattlesnake_ was to survey the waters round about the Torres Straits, +that the passage towards India on the homeward trip might be made +safer. Incidentally the vessel was to land a treasure of L50,000 at +the Cape of Good Hope, and another of L15,000 at the Mauritius. The +Admiralty Commissioners left full powers to Captain Stanley to carry +out the details of his mission according to his own judgment, but he +was solemnly warned upon two points. Many very unfortunate casualties +had occurred when sailors came in contact with the little-known +savages of the southern seas, and the Admiralty instructed him as +follows: + + "In stretching off from the Barrier Reefs to the eastward, in + order to explore the safety of the sea intervening between them + and Louisiade and New Guinea, you will have occasion to approach + these shores, in which case you must constantly be on your guard + against the treacherous disposition of their inhabitants. All + barter for refreshments must be conducted under the eye of an + officer, and every pains be taken to avoid giving any just cause + of offence to their prejudices, especially with respect to their + women." + +The second warning concerned grave international matters. European +politics were in the unsettled condition which, after the illusive +international courtesies of the Great Exhibition of 1851, ended in the +Crimean War, and it was feared that in the event of hostilities +breaking out, the zeal of the officers for their country might tempt +them to transcend their peaceful occupation. The instructions with +regard to this ran as follows: + + "In the event of this country being involved in hostilities + during your absence, you will take care never to be surprised; + but you are to refrain from any act of aggression towards the + vessels or settlements of any nation with which we may be at war, + as expeditions employed on behalf of discovery and science have + always been considered by all civilised communities as acting + under a general safeguard." + +The great scientific expeditions sent out in recent times by the +governments of Britain, Germany, and the United States, were fitted +with every convenience for the staff of naturalists, and the luxuries +and comforts of civilisation attended them round the world. The late +Professor Mosely, for instance, who was a naturalist on the English +_Challenger_ expedition, told the present writer of a pleasant way in +which a peculiarity of the deep sea was made to pay toll to the +comfort of those on board ship. The great ocean depths all over the +world, under the burning skies of the tropics, or below the arctic +ice-fields, are extremely cold, the water at the bottom always being +only a few degrees above freezing point. When the dredge brought up a +sample of the abysmal mud at a convenient time, it was used to ice the +wine for the officers' mess. There was, however, no cooled champagne +for Huxley. + + "Life on board Her Majesty's ships in those days," he writes, + "was a very different affair from what it is now, and ours was + exceptionally rough, as we were often many months without + receiving letters or seeing any civilised people but ourselves. + In exchange, we had the interest of being about the latest + voyagers, I suppose, to whom it could be possible to meet with + people who knew nothing of fire-arms--as we did on the south + coast of New Guinea--and of making acquaintances with a variety + of interesting savage and semi-civilised people. But apart from + experience of this kind, and the opportunities offered for + scientific work, to me personally the cruise was extremely + valuable. It was good for me to live under sharp discipline; to + be down on the realities of existence by living on bare + necessities; to find out how extremely well worth living life + seemed to be when one woke up from a night's rest on a soft plank + with the sky for canopy, and cocoa and weevilly biscuit the sole + prospect for breakfast; and more especially to learn to work for + the sake of what I got for myself out of it, even if it all went + to the bottom and I myself along with it. My brother officers + were as good fellows as sailors ought to be, and generally are, + but naturally they neither knew nor cared anything about my + pursuits, nor understood why I should be so zealous in pursuit + of the objects which my friends the middies christened 'Buffons,' + after the title conspicuous on a volume of the _Suites a Buffon_ + which stood on my shelf in the chart-room." + +Huxley was only the surgeon on board the _Rattlesnake_, and his +pursuit of natural history was his own affair. There was a special +naturalist appointed to the expedition, no doubt chosen because four +years earlier, as assistant to Professor Jukes, he had been attached +as naturalist to the expedition of the _Fly_ in the same waters. His +name was John MacGillivray, and he was the son of an exceedingly able +naturalist whose reputation has been overshadowed by the greater names +of the middle century. William MacGillivray, the father, sometime +professor at the University of Aberdeen, was one of those driven by an +almost instinctive desire to the study of nature. In his youth, when +he was a poor lad, desiring to see as much as possible of his native +land, and above all to visit the great museums and libraries of the +south, he walked from Aberdeen to London with no luggage but a copy of +Smith's _Flora Britannica_. He was an ardent botanist, a collector of +insects and molluscs, and one of the pioneers in the anatomy of birds. +There are many curious allusions in his writings which seem to shew +that he too was beginning to doubt the fixity of species, and to guess +at the struggle for existence and survival of the fittest which the +great Darwin was the first to make a part of the knowledge of the +world. It must be confessed that his son John, the companion of +Huxley, had little of his father's ability. He was three years older +than Huxley, and broke off his medical course at the University of +Edinburgh to sail in the _Fly_. After the return of the _Rattlesnake_, +he was appointed in 1852 as naturalist to H.M.S. _Herald_, then +starting under Captain Denham for surveying work round the shores of +South America. He left that ship at Sydney, and after many years' +wandering about the southern seas, accounts of which he communicated +from time to time to Sydney newspapers, he died in 1867. He was a +zealous collector of plants and animals, but apparently cared little +for the study of his captures, either in life, in relation to their +surroundings, like Darwin, or for the structure of their bodies, like +Huxley. The somewhat unpleasing nature of his regard for animals +appears in the following story which he himself tells: + + "While at dinner off Darnley Island near the Torres Straits, news + was brought that Dzum was under the stern in a canoe, shouting + out loudly for Dzoka (MacGillivray's native name), and, on going + up I found that he had brought off the barit, which after a deal + of trouble I struck a bargain for and obtained. It was a very + fine specimen of Cuscus Maculatus, quite tame and kept in a large + cage of split bamboo. Dzum seemed very unwilling to part with the + animal, and repeatedly enjoined me to take great care of it and + feed it well, which to please him I promised to do, although I + valued it merely for its skin, and was resolved to kill it for + that purpose at my first convenience." + +On the other hand, MacGillivray paid great attention to native +languages, and collected vocabularies of some value. To him was +entrusted the task of writing an account of the voyage, and it is from +his rather dull pages, brightened by illustrations from Huxley's +sketches, that the incidents of the voyage are taken. The references +to Huxley in the narrative are slight, and seem to shew that no great +intimacy existed between the two young men, the one a naturalist by +profession, the other as yet a surgeon, but more devoted to natural +history than the naturalist. Such references as occur relate to +Huxley's constant occupations on shore, sketching natives and their +dwellings, and his apparatus on board for trawling, dredging, and +dissecting. + +The voyage out was uneventful. The ship touched at Madeira and at Rio +de Janeiro, and then crossed the South Atlantic to Simon's Town at the +Cape of Good Hope, where the first quantity of treasure was to be +landed. There they found the colony distressed by the long continuance +of the Kaffir war. Prices for everything were extortionate, and the +colonists had no mind for any affairs than their own, so after a short +stay the voyagers were glad to set out for the Mauritius. That island, +although in the possession of Britain, still retained a strong impress +of its French occupation, and the travellers were interested by the +mixture of population inhabiting it.[B] + + "Passing through the closely packed lines of shipping, and + landing as a stranger at Port Louis, perhaps the first thing to + engage attention is the strange mixture of + nations,--representatives, he might at first be inclined to + imagine, of half the countries of the earth. He stares at a + coolie from Madras with a breech-cloth and a soldier's jacket, or + a stately bearded Moor striking a bargain with a Parsee merchant. + A Chinaman with two bundles slung on a bamboo hurries past, + jostling a group of young Creole exquisites smoking their + cheroots at a corner, and talking of last night's Norma, or the + programme of the evening's performance at the Hippodrome in the + Champ de Mars. His eye next catches a couple of sailors reeling + out of a grogshop, to the amusement of a group of laughing + negresses, in white muslin dresses of the latest Parisian + fashion, contrasting strongly with a modestly attired Cingalese + woman, and an Indian ayah with her young charge. Amidst all this, + the French language prevails; and everything more or less + pertains of the French character, and an Englishman can scarcely + believe that he is in one of the colonies of his own country." + +From Mauritius they proceeded to the English-looking colony of +Tasmania, and after a few days set out for Sydney, arriving there on +July 16th. The surveying officers had tedious work to do there, and +Huxley stayed in Sydney for three months. Then, and in the course of +three other prolonged stays in that town during the expedition, Huxley +entered into the society of the town and became a general favourite. +He is still remembered there, and the accompanying illustration[C] is +a copy of an original sketch of himself, now in the possession of an +Australian lady. He drew it on the fly-leaf of a volume of Lytton's +poems and presented it on her birthday to the little daughter of a +friend. At Sydney, too, he met and gained the love of the lady, then +Miss Henrietta A. Heathorn, who afterwards became his wife. + +On October 11th the _Rattlesnake_ sailed northwards to begin the real +work of the expedition. The great island of New Guinea, lying to the +north of Australia, is separated from it only by the comparatively +narrow Torres Straits. Through these lies the natural route for the +commerce between Australia and the Northern Hemisphere. The eastward +prolongation of New Guinea, and the coast of Queensland, enclose +between them a great tropical sea which gradually converges to the +Straits. The waters are very tempestuous, and the navigation is made +more dangerous by the thousands of coral islands and coral reefs that +stud the ocean. Following the shoreline of Queensland, at a distance +of from ten to one hundred and fifty miles, and stretching for twelve +hundred and fifty miles, is the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, one +of the wonders of the world. The shelving floor of the ocean rises +nearly to the surface along this line, and vast colonies of coral +building creatures have formed their reefs up to the water's edge +along the ridge. The turbulent waves scouring over this living mass +have carved and moulded it into millions of fantastic islands, +sometimes heaping detached masses of dead debris high above the +surface of the water. At low tide the most wonderful fields of the +animal flowers of the sea are exposed. Some of them form branching +systems of hard skeletons like stony trees, the soft, brightly +coloured animals dotted over the stems like buds. Others form solid +masses; others, again, rounded skull like boulders, or elevations like +toadstools. The colours of the skeletons and the animals are vivid +scarlets and purples and greens. Sea anemones, shell-fish, and +starfish of the most vivid hues are as abundant as the corals. +Brilliant fish dart through the blossoms of the marine gardens, and +sea birds scream and wheel in the air. The whole region is a paradise +for the naturalist. Along the seaward side of the reef the great ocean +surges and thunders perpetually. Between it and the shore the quiet +channel glows under the tropical skies. It was amid such scenes as +these that the _Rattlesnake_ moved for nearly four years in the slow +work of taking soundings, fixing the exact position of channels +through the outer reef by slow triangular measurements, and generally +preparing for the safety of the commerce of all nations. The ship went +first up to Port Curtis in Brisbane; then fetched back to Sydney. Its +next trip was south to the strait between Tasmania and Australia, +then back to Sydney; then again along the Barrier Reef right up to the +Torres Straits. After work there, it returned again to Sydney, and +then set out for the Louisiade Archipelago, which stretches through +the coral sea south-eastward from New Guinea; then again to the +Australian shores of the Torres Straits, and finally arrived in Sydney +in March, 1850, where the Captain suddenly died, and the ship was +ordered to return to England. + +Throughout the voyage MacGillivray and Huxley busied themselves with +collecting animals on sea and on shore. MacGillivray seems to have +taken for his share of the spoil chiefly such animals as provided +shells or skins or skeletons suitable for handing over to museums. +Huxley occupied himself incessantly with dissecting tools and with the +microscope, with results to be described in a later chapter. The +better equipped expeditions of modern times were provided with +elaborate appliances for bringing up samples of living creatures from +all depths of the floor of the ocean, and with complicated towing nets +for securing the floating creatures of the surface of the seas. The +_Rattlesnake_ naturalists had to content themselves with simple +apparatus devised by themselves. At an early period of the voyage +attempts were made to take deep soundings, but no bottom was reached +at a depth of two thousand four hundred fathoms, and their later work +was confined to surface animals or to inshore dredging in shallow +waters. They began near Rio. + + "None of the ship's boats could be spared, so I [MacGillivray] + hired one pulled by four negro slaves who, although strong, + active fellows, had great objections to straining their backs at + the oar, when the dredge was down. No sieve having been + supplied, we were obliged to sift the contents of the dredge + through our hands--a tedious and superficial mode of examination. + Two days after, Mr. Huxley and I set to work in Botafogo Bay, + provided with a wire-gauze meat-cover and a curious machine for + cleaning rice; these answered capitally as substitutes for + sieves, and enabled us, by a thorough examination of the contents + of the dredge, to detect some forty-five species of Mollusca and + Radiata, some of which were new to science." + +By "new to science" MacGillivray meant no more than that the +particular genera and species had not been captured before. Huxley, by +his anatomical work, showed many of the most familiar creatures in a +light "new to science," by revealing their true structure and +relationships. + + "Among the acquisitions," MacGillivray goes on, "I may mention a + new species of Amphioxus, a genus of small fishes exhibiting more + anomalies than any other known to Ichthyologists, and the lowest + organisation found in the class. It somewhat resembles the + sand-eels of Britain in habits, like them moving with + extraordinary rapidity through the sand. By dint of bribery and + ridicule we had at length managed to get our boatmen to work + tolerably well, and when we were alike well-roasted by the sun + and repeatedly drenched, besides being tired out and hungry, they + had become quite submissive, and exchanged their grumbling for + merriment." + +The towing net repeatedly produced a rich harvest. It was constructed +by themselves, and consisted of a bag of the bunting used for flags, +two feet deep, the mouth being sewn round a wooden hoop fourteen +inches in diameter; three pieces of cord, a foot and a half long, were +secured to the hoop at equal intervals and had their ends tied +together. This net was towed behind the ship by a stout cord. The +water passed through the meshes of the cloth and left behind in the +pocket any small floating animals. + +Excursions ashore to the little savage islands or to the mainland were +a source of constant interest, and it cannot be doubted that the +acquaintance Huxley thus gained with many of the very low savages of +Australia and New Guinea prepared his mind for the revolutionary +doctrine of descent which he embraced a few years later. At the +present time, there are probably very few parts of earth where there +are yet to be found savages unaltered by civilisation. Some of the low +races with which Huxley came in contact are now extinct. All the +survivors have come in contact with white races, and their habits and +customs have been altered. Before long the total extinction of these +lower races is to be expected, and there will then be left an enormous +gap between the lower animals and the dominant, aggressive, yellow and +white races which are spreading over the earth and making the lower +races perish before them, as the smaller but more cunning European rat +has exterminated the native brown rat of Australia. In their various +excursions upon the Australian mainland they had no trouble of any +kind with the natives. These were at first suspicious of the doings of +the white men, and their total ignorance of the use of firearms +tempted them to rashness; but a few friendly gifts, and the exercise +of tact in negotiating exchanges with them, made all the encounters +pass off pleasantly. On the other hand, in the Louisiade Archipelago +where the savages were of a higher type, difficulties constantly +occurred. On one occasion, in a bay on the south side of Joannet +Island the party was attacked. + + "In the grey of the morning the look-outs reported the approach + of three canoes with about ten men in each. On two or three + persons shewing themselves in the bow of the pinnace, in front of + the rain awning, the natives ceased paddling, as if baulked in + their design of surprising the large boat; but, after a short + consultation, they came alongside in their usual noisy manner. + After a stay of about five minutes only they pushed off to the + galley, and some more sham bartering was attempted, but they had + nothing to give in exchange for the wares they so much coveted. + In a short time the rudeness and overbearing insolence of the + natives had risen to a pitch which left no doubt of their hostile + intentions. The anchor was got up, when some of the blacks seized + the painter, and others, in trying to capsize the boat, brought + the gunwale down to the water's edge, at the same time grappling + with the men to pull them out, and dragging the galley inshore + towards the shoal-water. The bowman, with the anchor in his hand, + was struck on the head with a stone-headed axe. The blow was + repeated, but fortunately took effect only on the wash-streak. + Another of the crew was struck at with a similar weapon, but + warded off the blow, although held fast by one arm, when, just as + the savage was making another stroke, Lieutenant Dayman, who up + till now had exercised the utmost forbearance, fired at him with + a musket. The man did not drop, although wounded in the thigh. + But even this, unquestionably their first experience of firearms, + did not intimidate the natives, one of whom, standing on a block + of coral, threw a spear which passed across the breast of one of + the boat's crew and lodged in the bend of one arm, opening a + vein. They raised a loud shout when the spear was seen to take + effect, and threw several others which missed. Lieutenant + Simpson, who had been watching what was going on, then fired from + the pinnace with buckshot and struck them, when, finding that the + large boat, though at anchor, could assist the smaller one, the + canoes were paddled inshore in great haste and confusion. Some + more musket shots were fired, and the galley went in chase + endeavouring to turn the canoes, so as to bring them under fire + of the pinnace's twelve-pounder howitzer, which was speedily + mounted and fired. The shot either struck one of the canoes or + went within a few inches of the mark, on which the natives + instantly jumped overboard into the shallow water, making for the + mangroves, which they succeeded in reaching, dragging their + canoes with them. Two rounds of grape-shot crashing through the + branches dispersed the party, but afterwards they moved two of + the canoes out of sight. The remaining one was brought out after + breakfast by the galley under cover of the pinnace, and was towed + off to some distance. The paddles having been taken out and the + spears broken and left in her, she was let go to drift down + toward a village whence the attacking party were supposed to have + come. Some blood in this canoe, although not the one most aimed + at, showed that the firing had not been ineffective. This act of + deliberate treachery was perpetrated by persons who had always + been well treated by us, for several of the natives present were + recognised as having been alongside the ship in Coral Haven. + This, their first act of positive hostility, affords, I think, + conclusive evidence of the savage disposition of the natives of + this part of the Louisiade Archipelago when incited by the hope + of plunder, and shews that no confidence should ever be reposed + in them, unless, perhaps in the presence of a numerically + superior force, or in the close vicinity of a ship. At the same + time, the boldness of these savages in attacking, with thirty men + in three canoes, two boats known to contain at least twenty + persons--even in the hopes of taking them by surprise--and in not + being at once driven off upon feeling the novel and deadly + effects of firearms, shews no little amount of bravery." + +On their last visit to Cape York, in the extreme north of Australia, +the party had the remarkable experience of rescuing a white woman from +captivity among the natives. + + "In the afternoon some of our people on shore were surprised to + see a young white woman come up to claim their protection from a + party of natives from whom she had recently made her escape, and + who she thought would otherwise bring her back. Of course she + received every attention, and was taken on board the ship by the + first boat, when she told her story which is briefly as follows: + Her name is Barbara Thomson. She was born at Aberdeen in + Scotland, and, along with her parents, emigrated to New South + Wales. About four years and a half ago she left Moreton Bay with + her husband in a small cutter, called the _America_, of which he + was the owner, for the purpose of picking up some of the oil from + the wreck of a whaler, lost on the Bampton shoal, to which place + one of her late crew undertook to guide them; their ultimate + intention was to go on to Port Essington. The man who acted as + pilot was unable to find the wreck, and after much quarreling on + board in consequence, and the loss of two men by drowning and of + another who was left on a small uninhabited island, they made + their way up to the Torres Straits, where, during a gale of wind + their vessel struck upon a reef on the eastern Prince of Wales + Island. The two remaining men were lost in attempting to swim on + shore through the surf, but the woman was afterwards rescued by a + party of natives on a turtling excursion, who, when the gale + subsided, swam on board and supported her on shore between two of + their number. One of these blacks, Boroto by name, took + possession of the woman as his share of the plunder; she was + compelled to live with him, but was well treated by all the men, + although many of the women, jealous of the attention shewn her, + for a long time evinced anything but kindness. A curious + circumstance secured for her the protection of one of the + principal men of the tribe. This person, acting upon the belief, + universal throughout Australia and the islands of the Torres + Strait, so far as hitherto known, that white people are the + ghosts of the aborigines, fancied that in the stranger he + recognised a long-lost daughter, and at once admitted her into + the relationship which he thought had formerly subsisted between + them. She was immediately acknowledged by the whole tribe as one + of themselves, thus securing an extensive connection in relatives + of all denominations. The headquarters of the tribe being on an + island which all vessels passing through the Torres Strait from + the eastward must approach within two or three miles, she had the + mortification of seeing from twenty to thirty or more ships go + through every summer without anchoring in the neighbourhood, so + as to afford the slightest opportunity of making her escape. Last + year she heard of our two vessels being at Cape York, only twenty + miles distant from some of the tribe who had communicated with us + and had been well treated, but they would not take her over and + watched her even more narrowly than before. On our second and + present visit, however, which the Cape York people immediately + announced by smoke signals to their friends, she was successful + in persuading some of her more immediate friends to bring her + across to the mainland within a short distance of where the + vessels lay. The blacks were credulous enough to believe that as + she had been so long with them and had been so well treated, she + did not intend to leave them,--only 'she felt a strong desire to + see the white people once more and shake hands with them': adding + that she would be certain to purchase some axes, knives, tobacco, + and other much-prized articles." + +Although the external adventures of the _Rattlesnake_ party were less +varied and exciting than might have been expected in a voyage of four +years in the tropic seas and among barbarian tribes, the mental +adventures through which Huxley passed in the time must have been of +the most surprising kind. It was a four-years' course in the great +university of nature, and when he had finished it he was no longer a +mere student, capricious and unsettled in his mental tastes and +inclinations, but had set his face steadily towards his future +life-work. It is interesting to compare the importance in Huxley's +life of the _Rattlesnake_ voyage with the importance in Darwin's life +of the voyage on the _Beagle_ undertaken some fifteen years earlier. +Huxley, when he started, was a young surgeon with a taste of a vague +kind for dissecting and for drawing the peculiarities of structure of +different animals revealed by the knife and the microscope. Day after +day, month after month, year after year, in the abundant leisure his +slight professional duties left him, he dissected and drew, dissected +and drew, animal after animal, as he got them from the dredge or +tow-net, or from the surface of the coral reefs. He was not in any +sense of the word a collecting naturalist. The identification and +naming of species interested him little. What he cared for was, he +tells us, "the architectural and engineering part of the business: the +working out of the wonderful unity of plan in the thousands and +thousands of divers living constructions, and the modifications of +similar apparatuses to serve different ends." And so, on the +_Rattlesnake_, and in his work in continuation of the _Rattlesnake_ +investigations,--which occupied most of his time for a few years after +his return to London,--there was gradually growing up in his mind a +dim conception of the animal kingdom as a group of creatures, not +built on half a dozen or more separate plans or types, each +unconnected with the other, but as a varied set of modifications of a +single type. + +When Darwin set out on the _Beagle_, unlike Huxley, he was an +enthusiastic collecting naturalist. He had wandered from county to +county in England adding new specimens to his collections of +butterflies and beetles. As the _Beagle_ went round the world visiting +remote islands, far from land in the centre of the waters, +archipelagoes of islands crowding together, islands hugging the shore +of continents, and the great continents of the old and new worlds, he +continued to collect and to classify. Gradually the resemblances and +differences between the creatures inhabiting different parts of the +earth began to strike him as exhibiting an orderly plan. He saw that +under apparently the same conditions of food and temperature and +moisture, in different parts of the world the genera and species were +different, and that they were most alike in regions between which +there was the most recent chance of migrations having taken place. In +the quietness of England, while Huxley was on the _Rattlesnake_, +Darwin was slowly working towards the explanation of all he had seen: +towards the conception that animals and plants had spread slowly from +common centres, becoming more and more different from each other as +they spread. He realised on his voyage that species had come into +existence by descent with modification, and before long he was to +publish to the world in the _Origin of Species_ a vast and convincing +bulk of evidence as to the actual fact of a common descent for all the +different existing organisms, and, in his theory of natural selection, +a reasonable explanation of how the fact of evolution had come about. +Darwin's greatest ally in bringing the new idea before the world was +Huxley, and Huxley was teaching himself the absolute unity of the +living world. The two men were dissimilar in tastes and temperament, +and they were at work on quite different sides of nature. When the +time came, Huxley, with his commanding knowledge of the structure of +animals, was ready to support Darwin and to illustrate and amplify his +arguments by a thousand anatomical proofs. It is a curious and +dramatic coincidence to realise that both men learned their very +different lessons under very similar circumstances in the tropical +seas of the Southern Hemisphere. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote B: _Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake_," by +John MacGillivray, F.R.G.S. 2 vols. T.W. Boone, London, 1852.] + +[Footnote C: This sketch was reproduced and described in _Natural +Science_, vol. vii., p. 381, and is now reproduced here by the +courtesy of the proprietors.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +FLOATING CREATURES OF THE SEA + + The Nature of Floating Life--Memoir on Medusae Accepted by the + Royal Society--Old and New Ideas of the Animal Kingdom--What + Huxley Discovered in Medusae--His Comparison of them with + Vertebrate Embryos. + + +As the _Rattlesnake_ sailed through the tropical seas Huxley came in +contact with the very peculiar and interesting inhabitants of the +surface of the sea, known now to naturalists as pelagic life or +"plankton." Although a poet has spoken of the "unvintageable sea," all +parts of the ocean surface teem with life. Sometimes, as in high +latitudes, the cold is so great that only the simplest microscopic +forms are able to maintain existence. In the tropics, animals and +plants are abundant, and sometimes by their numbers colour great areas +of water; or, as in the drift of the Gulf Stream, make a tangle of +animal and plant life through which a boat travels only with +difficulty. The basis of the food supply of this vast and hungry +floating life is, as on land, vegetable life; for plants are the only +creatures capable of building up food from the gases of the air and +the simple chemical salts found dissolved in water. Occasionally, in +shallow or warm seas, marine floating plants, large and visible like +the sea-weeds of the coast, form the floating masses known as Sargasso +seas; more often the plants are minute, microscopic specks visible +only when a drop of water is placed under the microscope, but +occurring in incredible numbers, and, like the green vegetation of the +earth, forming the ultimate food-supply of all the living things +around them. Innumerable animals, great and small, live on the plants +or upon their fellows, and, however far he may be from land, the +naturalist has always abundant material got by his daily use of the +tow-net. This drifting population floats at the mercy of the waves. +Most of the animals are delicate, transparent creatures, their +transparency helping to protect them from the attacks of hungry +fellows. Nerves, muscles, skin, and the organs generally are clear, +pale, and hardly visible. Such structures as the liver, the +reproductive organs, and the stomach, which cannot easily become +transparent, are grouped together into small knots, coloured brown +like little masses of sea-weed. Other floating creatures are vividly +coloured, but the hues are bright blues and greens closely similar to +the sparkling tints of sea-water in sunlight. The different members of +this marine flotsam frequently rise and fall periodically: some of +them sinking by day to escape the light, others rising only by day; +others, again, appearing on the surface in spring, keeping deep down +in winter. Perhaps the majority of them are phosphorescent, sometimes +shining by their own light, sometimes borrowing a glory from +innumerable phosphorescent bacteria with which they are infested. +Nearly every class of the animal kingdom contributes members to this +strange population. The young forms of many fish, as for instance of +conger, flying gurnards, and some flatfish, are pelagic and have +colourless blood, and pale, transparent, gelatinous or cartilaginous +skeletons. The tadpole-like stages of the sea-squirts, which in adult +life are to be found attached to rocks like weeds, drift about in the +surface waters until their time comes for settling down in life. Many +other Ascidians pass their whole life as pelagic creatures. A few +molluscs, many kinds of worms, echinoderms, and their allies, crab and +lobster-like creatures in innumerable different stages of development, +are to be found there, while unnumbered polyps and jelly-fish are +always present. It would be difficult to imagine a better training for +the naturalist than to spend years, as Huxley did, working at this +varied assortment of living creatures. Huxley declared that the +difficulties of examining such flimsy creatures had been exaggerated. + + "At least, with a good light and a good microscope, with the ship + tolerably steady, I never failed in procuring all the information + I required. The great matter is to obtain a good successive + supply of specimens, as the more delicate oceanic species are + usually unfit for examination within a few hours after they are + taken." + +Day after day, as the _Rattlesnake_ crept from island to island, +Huxley examined the animals brought up by his tow-net. He made endless +dissections, and gradually accumulated a large portfolio of drawings. +Much of the time he passed at Sydney was spent in libraries and +museums, comparing his own observations with the recorded observations +of earlier workers, and receiving from the combination of his own work +and the work of others new ideas for his future investigations. It was +all entirely a labour of love; it lay outside the professional duties +by which he made his living, and for a long time it seemed as if he +was not even to gain reputation by the discoveries he knew himself to +be making. He writes in his autobiography: + + "During the four years of our absence, I sent home communication + after communication to the 'Linnaean' Society, with the same + result as that obtained by Noah when he sent the raven out of his + ark. Tired at last of hearing nothing about them, I determined to + do or die, and in 1849 I drew up a more elaborate paper and + forwarded it to the Royal Society. This was my dove, if I had + only known it; but owing to the movements of the ship I heard + nothing of that either until my return to England in the latter + end of the year 1850, when I found that it was printed and + published, and that a huge packet of separate copies awaited me. + When I hear some of my young friends complain of want of sympathy + and encouragement, I am inclined to think that my naval life was + not the least valuable part of my education." + +This first successful paper was a memoir _On the Anatomy and the +Affinities of the Family of Medusae_, and was sent at Captain Stanley's +suggestion to that officer's father, the Bishop of Norwich, who +communicated it to the Royal Society. It is a curious circumstance +that Huxley, who afterwards met with so virulent opposition from +bishops, owed his first public success to one of them. Professor Sir +Michael Foster writes of this period in Huxley's life: + + "The career of many a successful man has shewn that obstacles + often prove the mother of endeavour, and never was this lesson + clearer than in the case of Huxley. Working amidst a host of + difficulties, in want of room, in want of light, seeking to + unravel the intricacies of minute structure with a microscope + lashed to secure steadiness, cramped within a tiny cabin, jostled + by the tumult of a crowded ship's life, with the scantiest supply + of books of reference, with no one at hand of whom he could take + counsel on the problems opening up before him, he gathered for + himself during these four years a large mass of accurate, + important, and in most cases novel, observations and illustrated + them with skilful, pertinent drawings. Even his intellectual + solitude had its good effects: it drove him to ponder over the + new facts which came before him, and all his observations were + made alive with scientific thought." + +Afterwards, in England, he received the Royal Medal of the Royal +Society for this memoir on Medusae, sharing this supreme distinction of +scientific England with men so illustrious as Joule, the discoverer of +the relation between force and heat, Stokes, the great investigator of +optical physics, and Humboldt, the traveller, all of whom received +medals in the same year. In making the presentation to Huxley, the +Earl of Rosse, then President of the Royal Society, declared: + + "In those papers you have for the first time fully developed + their structure (that of the Medusae), and laid the foundation of + a rational theory for their classification. In your second paper, + on the anatomy of Salpa and Pyrosoma, the phenomena have received + the most ingenious and elaborate elucidations, and have given + rise to a process of reasoning, the results of which can scarcely + yet be anticipated, but must bear in a very important degree upon + some of the most abstruse points of what may be called + transcendental physiology." + +Many reasons make it difficult for us to realise, now, the singular +novelty and importance of Huxley's memoir on the Medusae. The first is +a reason which often prevents great discoveries in almost every +subject from receiving in after years their due respect. The years +that have passed since 1850 have seen not only the most amazing +progress in our knowledge of comparative anatomy, but almost a +revolution in the methods of studying it. Huxley's work has been +incorporated in the very body of science. A large number of later +investigators have advanced upon the lines he laid down; and just as +the superstructures of a great building conceal the foundations, so +later anatomical work, although it has only amplified and extended +Huxley's discoveries, has made them seem less striking to the modern +reader. The present writer, for instance, learned all that he knows of +anatomy in the last ten years, and until he turned to it for the +purpose of this volume he had never referred to Huxley's original +paper. When he did so, he found from beginning to end nothing that was +new to him, nothing that was strange: all the ideas in the memoir had +passed into the currency of knowledge and he had been taught them as +fundamental facts. It was only when he turned to the text-books of +anatomy and natural history current in Huxley's time that he was able +to realise how the conclusions of the young ship-surgeon struck the +Fellows and President of the Royal Society as luminous and +revolutionary ideas. + +In the first half of the century, a conception of the animal kingdom +prevailed which was entirely different from our modern ideas. We know +now that all animals are bound together by the bond of a common +descent, and we seek in anatomy a clue to the degrees of relationship +existing among the different animals we know. We regard the animal +kingdom as a thicket of branches all springing from a common root. +Some of these spring straight up from the common root unconnected with +their fellows. Others branch repeatedly, and all the branches of the +same stem have features in common. What we see in the living world is +only the surface of the thicket, the tops of the twigs; and it is by +examination of the structure of this surface that we reconstruct in +imagination the whole system of branches, and know that certain twigs, +from their likeness, meet each other a little way down; that others +are connected only very deep down, and that others, again, spring +free almost from the beginning. The fossils of beds of rock of +different geological ages give us incomplete views of the surface of +the thicket of life, as it was in earlier times. These views we have +of the past aspects of the animal kingdom are always much more +incomplete than our knowledge of the existing aspect; partly because +many animals, from the softness of their bodies, have left either no +fossil remains at all, or only very imperfect casts of the external +surfaces of their bodies; and partly because the turning of any animal +into a fossil, and its subsequent discovery by a geologist, are +occasional accidents; but, although the evidence is much less perfect +than we could wish, there is enough of it to convince anatomists that +existing animals are all in definite blood-relationship to each other, +and to make them, in the investigation of any new animal, study its +anatomy with the definite view of finding out its place in the family +tree of the living world. + +When Huxley made his first discoveries, entirely different ideas +prevailed. The animal kingdom was supposed to offer a series of types, +of moulds, into which the Creator at the beginning of the world had +cast the substance of life. These types were independent of each +other, and had been so since the beginning of things. Anatomists were +concerned chiefly with systematic work, with detecting and recording +the slight differences that existed among the numbers of animals +grouped around each type. No attempt was made to see connection +between type and type, for where these had been separately created +there was nothing to connect them except possibly some idea in the +mind of the Creator. This apparently barren attitude to nature was +stronger in men's minds because it had inspired the colossal +achievements of Cuvier, a genius who, under whatever misconceptions he +had worked, would have added greatly to knowledge. As we have seen in +the first chapter, Huxley, through Wharton Jones, and through his own +reading, had been brought under the more modern German thought of +Johannes Mueller and Von Baer. He had learned to study the problems of +living nature in the spirit of a physicist making investigations into +dead nature. In the anatomy of animals, as in the structure of rocks +and crystals, there were to be sought out "laws of growth" and shaping +and moulding influences which accounted for the form of the +structures. To use the technical term, he was a morphologist: one who +studied the architecture of animals not merely in a spirit of admiring +wonder, but with the definite idea of finding out the guiding +principles which had determined these shapes. + +Not only was the prevailing method of investigation faulty, but actual +knowledge of a large part of the animal kingdom was extremely limited. +In the minds of most zooelogists the animal kingdom was divided into +two great groups: the vertebrates and invertebrates. The vertebrate, +or back-boned, animals were well known; comparatively speaking they +are all built upon the type of man; and human anatomists, who indeed +made up the greater number of all anatomists, using their exact +knowledge of the human body, had studied many other vertebrates with +minute care, and, from man to fishes, had arranged living vertebrates +very much in the modern order. But the invertebrates were a vague and +ill-assorted heap of animals. It was not recognised that among them +there were many series of different grades of ascending complexity, +and there was no well-known form to serve as a standard of comparison +for all the others in the fashion that the body of man served as a +standard of comparison for all vertebrates. Here and there, a few +salient types such as insects and snails had been picked out, but +knowledge of them helped but little with a great many of the +invertebrates. The great Linnaeus had divided the animal kingdom into +four groups of vertebrates: mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes, but +for the invertebrates he had done no more than to pick out the insects +as one group and to call everything else "Vermes" or worms. The +insects included all creatures possessed of an external skeleton or +hard skin divided into jointed segments, and included forms so +different as insects, spiders, crabs, and lobsters. But Vermes +included all the members of the animal kingdom that were neither +vertebrates nor insects. Cuvier advanced a little. He got rid of the +comprehensive title Vermes--the label of the rubbish-heap of +zooelogists. He divided animals into four great subkingdoms: +Vertebrates, Mollusca, Articulata, Radiata. These names, however, only +covered very superficial resemblances among the animals designated by +them. The word _Mollusca_ only meant that the creatures grouped +together had soft bodies, unsupported by internal or external +articulated skeletons; and this character, or, rather, absence of +character, was applied alike to many totally dissimilar creatures. The +term _Articulata_ included not only Linnaeus's insects but a number of +soft-skinned, apparently jointed, worm-like animals such as the leech +and earthworm. Lastly, the name _Radiata_ meant no more than that the +organs of the creatures so designated were more or less disposed +around a centre, as the sepals and petals of a flower are grouped +around the central pistil; and it included animals so different as +the starfish and sea-anemones and Medusae. The names used in the +classification were not only loosely applied but were based on the +most superficial observation, and took no account of the intimate +structures of the tissues and organs of the animals. With slight +modifications, due to individual taste or special knowledge of small +groups, later writers had followed Linnaeus and Cuvier. + +It was with a view of the animal kingdom not much clearer than this +that Huxley began his work on the Medusae of the tropic seas. He began +to study them no doubt simply because they were among the most +abundant of the animals that could be obtained from the ship. He made +endless dissections and drawings, and, above all, studied their minute +anatomy with the microscope. They were all placed among Cuvier's +_Radiata_, but, as Huxley said in the first line of his memoir: + + "Perhaps no class of animals has been investigated with so little + satisfactory and comprehensive result, and this not for the want + of patience and ability on the part of the observers, but rather + because they have contented themselves with stating matters of + detail concerning particular genera and species, instead of + giving broad and general views of the whole class, considered as + organised upon a given type, and inquiring into its relations + with other families." + +He found that fully developed Medusae consisted each of a disc with +tentacles and vesicular bodies at the margins, a stomach, and canals +proceeding from it, and generative organs. He traced this simple +common structure through the complications and modifications in which +it appeared in the different groups of Medusae, in all this work +bringing out the prevailing features of the anatomy in contrast to +the individual peculiarities. He shewed that microscopically all the +complicated systems of canals and organs were composed of two +"foundation-membranes," two thin webs of cells, one of which formed +the outermost layer of the body, while the inner formed the lining of +the stomach and canals in the thinner parts of the body, such as the +edges of the umbrella-like disc, and towards the ends of the +tentacles. These thin webs formed practically all the body. In the +thicker parts there was interposed between them an almost +structureless layer of jelly, placed like padding between the lining +and the cloth of a coat. He shewed that blood-vessels and blood were +absent, in which he has been confirmed by all other observers. He +declared more doubtfully against the existence of a special nervous +system, and it was not until long after, when the methods of +microscopic investigation were much more perfect, that the delicate +nerve-cells and nerve-fibres, which we now know to exist, were +discovered. + +Having thus shewn the peculiar organisation of the group he turned to +seek out its allies among other families. The Medusae consisted +essentially of two membranes inclosing a variously shaped cavity +inasmuch as all its organs were so composed. The generative organs +were external, being variously developed processes of the two +membranes. The peculiar organs called thread-cells--poisoned darts by +the discharge of which prey could be paralysed--were universally +present. What other families presented these peculiarities? + +There are to be found abundantly in sea-water, and less frequently in +fresh water, innumerable forms of animal life called Zooephytes or +animal plants because they occur as encrusting masses like lichens, or +branched forests like moss, on the surface of stones and shells. A +common habit gave this set of creatures their common name; but, +although they were grouped together, there was no greater affinity +among them than there is racial affinity among people who clothe +themselves for an evening party in the same conventional dress. Huxley +examined a large number of these, and picked out from them two great +families of polyps, the Hydroid and Sertularian polyps, which each +consist of colonies of creatures very much like the little fresh-water +hydra. He shewed that the tubular body of these and the ring of +tentacles surrounding the mouth were composed of the same two +foundation-membranes of which all the organs of Medusae are composed. +He found in them the poisoned arrows or thread-cells of the Medusae, +and the same external position of the reproductive organs. And, +lastly, he separated from all other creatures, and associated with his +new group, some of the strangest and most beautiful animals of the +tropic seas, known to science as the Physophoridae and the Diphyidae. +The best-known of these is the "Portuguese man-of-war," the body of +which consists of a large pear-shaped vesicle which floats on the +water like a bladder. From the lower part of this depend into the +water large and small nutritive branches, each ending in a mouth +surrounded by a circle of waving tentacles armed with batteries of +thread-cells, while another set of hanging protrusions bear the +grape-like reproductive organs. On the upper surface of the bladder is +fixed a purple sail of the most brilliant colour, by which the +floating creature is blown through the water. When the weather is +rough, the bladder empties, and the creature sinks down into the quiet +water below the waves, to rise again when the storm is over. This, +and its equally wonderful allies, Huxley showed to be a complicated +colony of hydra-like creatures, each part being composed of two +membranes, and therefore essentially similar to Medusae. Thus, by a +great piece of constructive work, an assemblage of animals was +gathered into a new group and shewn to be organised upon one simple +and uniform plan, and, even in the most complex and aberrant forms, +reducible to the same type. The group, and Huxley's conception of its +structure, are now absolutely accepted by anatomists, and have made +one of the corner-stones of our modern idea of the arrangement of the +animal kingdom. With the exception of sponges, concerning the exact +relations of which there is still dispute, and of a few sets of +parasitic and possibly degenerate creatures, all animals, the bodies +of which are multicellular, from the simple fresh-water hydra up to +man, are divided into two great groups. The structure of the simpler +of these groups is exactly what Huxley found to be of importance in +the Medusae. The body wall, from which all the organs protrude, +consists merely of a web of cells arranged in two sheets or membranes, +and the single cavity consists of a central stomach, surrounded by +these membranes, the cavity remaining simple or giving rise to a +number of branching canals. The members of this great division of the +animal kingdom are the creatures which Huxley selected and placed +together, with the addition of the sea-anemones and the medusa-like +Ctenophora, which, indeed, he mentioned in his memoir as being related +to the others, but reserved fuller consideration for a future +occasion. This group is now called the Coelenterata, the name +implying that the creatures are simply hollow stomachs, and it is +contrasted in the strongest way with the group Coelomata, in which +are placed all the higher animals, from the simplest worm up to man; +animals in which, in addition to the two foundation-membranes of the +Coelenterata, there is a third foundation-membrane, and in which, in +addition to the simple stomach cavity with its offshoots, there is a +true body-cavity or coelome, and usually a set of spaces and +channels containing a blood-fluid. The older method of naming groups +of animals after some obvious superficial character lingered on for +some years in text-books and treatises, but in this memoir the young +ship-surgeon had replaced it by the modern scientific method of +grouping animals together only because of real identity of structure. + +There is yet left to be noticed perhaps the most wonderful of all the +ideas in this first memoir by Huxley. In the course of describing the +two foundation membranes of the Medusae he remarks: + + "It is curious to remark, that throughout, the outer and inner + membranes appear to bear the same physiological relation to one + another as do the serous and mucous layers of the germ: the outer + becoming developed into the muscular system, and giving rise to + the organs of offence and defence: the inner on the other hand + appearing to be more closely subservient to the purposes of + nutrition and generation." + +In the whole range of science it would be difficult to select an +utterance more prophetic of future knowledge than these few words. +Huxley had been reading the investigations of Von Baer into the early +development of back-boned animals. He had learned from them the great +generalisation, that the younger stages of these animals resemble one +another more closely than the adult stages, and that in an early stage +in the development of all these animals the beginning of the embryo +consists of two layers of cells, in fact of two foundation-membranes, +one forming specially the wall of the future digestive canal, the +other forming the most external portion of the future animal. In these +days nothing could have seemed a remoter or more unlikely comparison +than one instituted between Medusae and the embryonic stages of +back-boned animals. But Huxley made it, not allowing the evidence +brought before his reason to be swamped by preconceived ideas. At the +time he did no more than to make the comparison. It was much later +that the full importance of it became known, when more extended work +on the embryology of vertebrates and of the different groups of the +invertebrates had made it plain that the two foundation-membranes of +Huxley occur in all animals from the Medusae up to man. In the group of +Coelenterata the organisation remains throughout life as nothing +more than a folding in and folding out of these membranes. The early +stages of all the higher animals similarly consist of complications of +the two membranes; but later on there is added to them a third +membrane. Thus the group that Huxley gathered together comprises those +animals that as adults remain in a condition of development which is +passed through in the embryonic life of all higher animals. The +immense importance of this conclusion becomes plain, and the +conclusion itself seems obvious, when seen in the light of the +doctrine of descent. The group of Coelenterata represents a +surviving, older condition in the evolution of animals. Huxley +himself, when on the _Rattlesnake_, regarded evolution only as a vague +metaphysical dream, and he made the comparison which has been +described without any afterthought of what it implied. In this we have +the earliest authentic instance of the peculiar integrity of mind +which was so characteristic of him in his dealings with philosophy and +tradition. He never allowed any weight of authority or any apparent +disturbance of existing ideas to alter the conclusions to which his +reason led him. This intellectual courage made him fitted to be the +leader in the battle for evolution and against traditional thought, +and we shall find again and again in consideration of his work that it +was the keynote of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +EARLY DAYS IN LONDON + + Scientific Work as Unattached Ship-Surgeon--Introduction to + London Scientific Society--Translating, Reviewing, and + Lecturing--Ascidians--Molluscs and the Archetype--Criticism of + Pre-Darwinian Evolution--Appointment to Geological Survey. + + +The _Rattlesnake_ was paid off at Chatham on November 9, 1850. In the +natural course of events Huxley would have been appointed before long +to active service upon another ship. But he had no intention of +relapsing into the position of a mere navy doctor; he had accumulated +sufficient scientific material to keep him employed on scientific +investigation for years, and so he applied to the Admiralty to "be +borne on the books" of H.M.S. _Fisgard_ at Woolwich,--that is to say, +to be appointed assistant-surgeon to the ship "for particular +service," so that he should not be compelled to live on board, but +might remain in town, and, with free access to libraries and museums, +work up the observations he had made on the _Rattlesnake_ into serious +and substantial contributions to science. His request was granted, +largely by the aid of his old chief, Sir W. Burnett, who continued to +take the most useful interest in the young man he had originally +nominated to the service. In a letter to him Huxley described the +investigations which he desired to continue as being chiefly those on +"the anatomy of certain Gasteropod and Pteropod Mollusca, of Firola +and Atlantis, of Salpa and Pyrosoma, of two new Ascidians, namely, +Appendicularia and Doliolum, of Sagitta and certain Annelids, of the +auditory and circulatory organs of certain transparent Crustacea, and +of the Medusae and Polyps." His request was granted, and for the next +three years Huxley lived in London with his brother, on the exiguous +income of an assistant-surgeon, and devoted himself to research. He +became almost at once of the first rank among English anatomists. The +result of the paper on Medusae in the _Transactions of the Royal +Society_ was that he was elected a Fellow of the Society on June 5, +1851, and a year later received a Royal Medal of the Society. He made +many warm friendships both among the older and the younger generations +of scientific men. In his obituary notice of Huxley, Sir Michael +Foster wrote: + + "By Edward Forbes, in whose nature there was much that was akin + to his own, and with whom he had some acquaintance before his + voyage, he was at once greeted as a comrade, and with Joseph + Dalton Hooker, to whom he was drawn at the very first by their + common experience as navy surgeons, he began an attachment which, + strengthened by like biological aspirations, grew closer as their + lives went on. In the first year after his return, in the autumn + of 1851, he made the acquaintance of John Tyndall at the meeting + of the British Association at Ipswich, and the three, Hooker, + Huxley, and Tyndall, finding how much in common were all their + scientific views and desires, formed then and there a triple + scientific alliance." + +Repeated efforts were made by these three, and by more influential +friends, to induce the Admiralty to contribute to the expense of +publishing Huxley's scientific results, as they had given a pledge to +encourage officers who had done scientific work. These efforts lasted +unavailingly for nearly three years, and then, as Huxley says: "The +Admiralty, getting tired, I suppose, cut short the discussion by +ordering me to join a ship, which thing I declined to do, and, as +Rastignac, in the _Pere Goriot_, says to Paris, I said to London, _a +nous deux_." This light phrase conceals a courageous and momentous +decision. He was absolutely without private resources, and having +abandoned his professional work he had no salary of any kind. For a +year or so he supported himself by writing reviews and popular +scientific articles, striving all the time not only to gain his bread +but to continue his scientific work and make it known to the public. +He desired to get a professorship of physiology or of comparative +anatomy, and as vacancies occurred he applied, but unsuccessfully. At +the same time, he tells us, he and his friend, John Tyndall, were + + "candidates, he for the Chair of Physics, and I for that of + Natural History in the University of Toronto, which, fortunately, + as it turned out, would not look at either of us. I say + fortunately, not from any lack of respect for the University of + Toronto; but because I soon made up my mind that London was the + place for me, and hence I have steadily declined the inducements + to leave it which have at various times been offered." + +In these early years in London Huxley's work was most varied. A large +number of anonymous articles by him appeared in the _Literary +Gazette_, and in other periodicals. He assisted to remove the insular +narrowness from English scientific work by translating many foreign +memoirs. With the collaboration of Mr. Henfrey, he edited a series of +scientific memoirs, all of which were translated from foreign +languages, and many by his own pen. With the assistance of Mr. George +Busk he made a translation of Koelliker's _Histology_, a great treatise +on microscopic anatomy which played a large part in the development of +the modern English schools of anatomy and physiology. He made some +valuable contributions to Todd and Bowman's _Cyclopaedia of Anatomy_, +an elaborate publication now nearly forgotten and practically +superseded, but which was the standard anatomical work of the middle +of this century. He was unable to progress rapidly with his work upon +oceanic Medusae, as he was uncertain how to have it published; the +Admiralty refused to assist, and it was too lengthy for publication in +the volumes of the learned Societies. As a matter of fact, he did not +publish it until 1858, when it appeared as a separate memoir. To the +_Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_ and to the _Transactions +of the Royal and Linnaean Societies_ he contributed a large number of +memoirs dealing with the microscopic anatomy and relationships of +invertebrates, and, lastly, he gave a series of addresses at the Royal +Institution, which had been founded as a means by which leading men of +science might give accounts of their work to London society. Abstracts +of these lectures are published in the early volumes of the +_Proceedings of the Royal Institution_ and are interesting as shewing +the kinds of zooelogical subjects which were attracting the attention +of Huxley and which he considered of sufficient interest and +importance to bring to the notice of the general public. The first of +these lectures, and probably the first given in public by Huxley, +occurred on April 30, 1852, and was entitled "Animal Individuality." +The problem as to what is meant by an individual had been raised in +his mind by consideration of many of the forms of marine life, +notably compound structures like the Portuguese man-of-war, and +creatures like the salps, which form floating chains often many yards +in length. He explained that the word _individual_ covers at least +three quite different kinds of conceptions. There is, first, what he +described as arbitrary individuality, an individuality which is given +by the mind of the observer and does not actually exist in the thing +considered. Thus a landscape is in a sense an individual thing, but +only so far as it is a particular part of the surface of the earth, +isolated for the time in the mind of the person looking at it. If the +observer shift his position, the range of the landscape alters and +becomes something else. Next there are material, or practically +accidental individual things, such as crystals or pieces of stone; +and, lastly, there are living individuals which, as he pointed out, +were cycles. All living things are born into the world, grow up, and +die, and it was to the cycle of life, from the egg to the adult which +produces eggs, that he gave the name individual. In a simple animal +like Hydra there is no difficulty in accepting this plain definition +of individuality; but Huxley went on to compare with Hydra a compound +creature like the Portuguese man-of-war, which really is composed of a +colony of Hydra-like creatures, the different members of the colony +being more or less altered to serve different functions. All these +have come from the branching of a single simple creature produced from +an egg, and to the whole colony Huxley gave the name of zooelogical +individual. The salps give a still wider interpretation to this view +of individuality. The original salp produced from the egg gives rise +to many salps, which may either remain attached in a chain, or, +breaking away from one another, may live separately. Huxley extended +the use of the word _individual_ so as to include as a single +zooelogical individual the whole set of creatures cohering in chains or +breaking apart, which had been produced by budding from the product of +a single egg-cell. This subtle analysis of ideas delighted and +interested his contemporaries, and the train of logical examination of +what is meant by individuality has persisted to the present time. Like +all other zooelogical ideas, this has been considerably altered by the +conception of evolution. Zooelogists no longer attempt to stretch +logical conceptions until they fit enormous and different parts of the +living world. They recognise that the living world, because it is +alive, is constantly changing, and that living things pass through +different stages or kinds of individuality in the course of their +lives. A single egg-cell is one kind, perhaps the simplest kind, of +zooelogical individual; when it has grown up into a simple polyp it has +passed into a second grade of individuality; when, by budding, the +polyp has become branched, a third grade is reached, and when the +branches have become different, in obedience to the different purposes +which they are to serve in the whole compound creature, a still +further grade is reached. Huxley's attempt to find a meaning for +individuality that would apply equally to a single simple creature, to +a compound creature, and to the large number of separate creatures, +all developed by budding from one creature, is a striking instance of +his singular capacity for bringing apparently dissimilar facts into +harmony, by finding out the common underlying principle, and, although +we no longer accept this particular conclusion, we cannot fail to +notice in it the peculiar powers of his mind. + +A second and even more interesting Royal Institution lecture dealt +with the "Identity of Structure in Animals and Plants." At the present +time every educated person knows that the life of animals and plants +alike depends on the fact that their bodies are composed of a living +material called protoplasm, a material which is identical in every +important respect in both kingdoms of the living world. In the early +fifties, scientific opinion was by no means clear on this matter, and +certainly public opinion was most vague. Huxley discussed what was +meant by organisation, and shewed that in every essential respect +plants and animals alike were organised beings. Then he went on to +explain the cellular theory of Schwann, which was then a novelty to a +general audience. Schwann, in studying the microscopic structure of +plants, noticed that their bodies were made up of little cases with +firm walls; these he called _cells_, and declared that the whole body +of the plant was composed of cells. As the walls of these cells were +the most obvious and visible feature, it was supposed that they were +the most essential part of the structure, and there was some +difficulty in applying the cellular theory to the bodies of animals, +as in most cases there are no easily visible cell-walls in animal +tissues. As the result of his own observation, and from his reading of +the work of others, Huxley laid down in the clearest way what is now +accepted by everyone--that the presence of walls is of minor +importance, and that it is the slimy contents of the cells, what is +called "protoplasm," that is the important element. He declared that +the protoplasm of animals was identical with the protoplasm of plants, +and that plants were "animals confined in wooden cases." He agreed +with Schwann that the cell, using the term to imply the contents +rather than the wall, was of fundamental importance, and was the unit +of structure of the whole world of life. On the other hand, he +declared that it could not be looked at as the unit of function: he +denied that the powers and properties of a living body were simply the +sum of the powers and properties of the single cells. In this opinion +he was not followed by physiologists until quite recently. For many +years physiologists held that cells were units of function just as +much as they are units of structure; but in the last ten years there +has been a strong return to the opinion of Huxley. + +In 1851 two very important memoirs were published in the _Transactions +of the Royal Society_, which contained the results of Huxley's +observations of the interesting animals known as "tunicates." The +first of these papers begins as follows: + + "The Salpae, those strange gelatinous animals, through masses of + which the voyager in the great ocean sometimes sails day after + day, have been the subject of a great controversy since the time + of the publication of the celebrated work of Chamisso, _De + Animalibus Quibusdam e Classe Vermium Linnaeana_. In this work + there were set forth, for the first time, the singular phenomena + presented by the reproductive processes of these + animals,--phenomena so strange, and so utterly unlike anything + then known to occur in the whole province of zooelogy, that + Chamisso's admirably clear and truthful account was received with + almost as much distrust as if he had announced the existence of a + veritable Peter Schlemihl." + +According to Chamisso, salps appeared in two forms: solitary forms, +and forms in which a number of salps are united into a long chain. +Each salp of the aggregate form contains within it an embryo receiving +nutrition from the mother by a connection similar to the placenta by +which the embryo of a mammal receives nourishment from the blood of +the mother. These embryos grow up into the solitary form, and the +solitary form gives rise to a long chain of the aggregate form which +developes in the interior of the body. Chamisso compared this progress +to the development of insects. "Supposing," he said, "caterpillars did +not bodily change into butterflies, but by a process of sexual +breeding produced young which grew into the ordinary adults, and that +these adults, as indeed they do, gave rise to caterpillars by sexual +reproduction, then there would be a true alternation of generations." +The first generation would give rise to a second generation totally +unlike itself, and this second generation would reproduce, not its +kind, but the first generation; such an alternation of generations he +stated to occur among the salps. Huxley had an excellent opportunity +to study this question at Cape York in November, 1849. "For a time the +sea was absolutely crowded with Salpae, in all stages of growth, and of +size very convenient for examination." He was able to verify the +general truth of Chamisso's statement. The aggregate form of Salpa +always gives rise to the solitary salps, and the solitary salps always +give rise to chains of the aggregate salps. But the process of +reproduction he shewed to be quite different in the two cases. The +solitary salp produces in its interior a little stolon or diverticulum +which contains an outgrowth from the circulatory system, and this +stolon gradually becomes pinched off into the members of the chain of +the aggregate form. The salps of the aggregate form are therefore +merely buds from the solitary form, and are not produced in the +ordinary way, by sexual generation. On the other hand, each salp of +the chain has within it a true egg-cell. This is fertilised by a male +cell, and within the body of the parent, nourished by the blood of the +parent, grows up into the solitary form. There is then an alternation +of generations, but there are not two sexual generations. The sexual +generation of chain salps gives rise to forms which reproduce by buds. +From this conclusion, with which all later observers have agreed, +Huxley went on to his theory of individuality. Different names had +been given to the two forms, but Huxley declared that neither form was +a true zooelogical individual; they were only parts of individuals or +organs, and the true individual was the complete cycle involving both +forms. + +In addition to determining the interesting method of reproduction, +Huxley made an elaborate investigation of the structure of Salpa. On +one occasion only the _Rattlesnake_ came across a quantity of an +allied Ascidian, Pyrosoma, which had received its name from its +phosphorescence. + + "The sky was clear but moonless, and the sea calm; and a more + beautiful sight can hardly be imagined than that presented from + the deck of the ship as she drifted, hour after hour, through + this shoal of miniature pillars of fire gleaming out of the dark + sea, with an ever-waning, ever brightening, soft bluish light, as + far as the eye could reach on every side. The Pyrosomata floated + deep, and it was only with difficulty that some were procured for + examination and placed in a bucketful of sea-water. The + phosphorescence was intermittent, periods of darkness alternating + with periods of brilliancy. The light commenced in one spot, + apparently on the surface of one of the zooeids, and gradually + spread from this as a centre in all directions; then the whole + was lighted up: it remained brilliant for a few seconds, and then + gradually faded and died away, until the whole mass was dark + again. Friction at any point induces the light at that point, and + from thence the phosphorescence spreads over the whole, while the + creature is quite freshly taken; afterwards, the illumination + arising from friction is only local." + +Dealing with these creatures in the broad anatomical spirit with which +he had studied the Medusae, Huxley shewed the typical structure +manifested in the different forms, and that was common to them and the +Ascidians or sea-squirts of the seashore. In a second paper on +"Appendicularia and Doliolum" he made further contributions to our +knowledge of these interesting creatures. Appendicularia is a curious +little Ascidian, differing from all the others in its possession of a +tail. Earlier observers had obtained it on various parts of the ocean +surface, but had failed entirely to detect its relationship to the +ordinary Ascidians. Chamisso got it near Behring's Straits and thought +that it was more nearly allied to "Venus's Girdle," a Coelenterate. +Mertens, another distinguished zooelogist, had declared that "the +relation of this animal with the Pteropods (a peculiar group of +molluscs) is unmistakable"; while Mueller, a prince among German +anatomists, confessed that "he did not know in what division of the +animal kingdom to place this creature." Huxley shewed that it +possessed all the characteristic features of the Ascidians, the same +arrangement of organs, the same kind of nervous system, a respiratory +chamber formed from the fore part of the alimentary canal, and a +peculiar organ running along the pharynx which Huxley called the +endostyle and which is one of the most striking peculiarities of the +whole group. The real nature of the tail was Huxley's most striking +discovery. He pointed out that ordinary Ascidians begin life as tiny +tadpole-like creatures which swim freely by the aid of a long caudal +appendage; and that while these better-known Ascidians lose their +tails when they settle down into adult life, the Appendiculariae are +Ascidians which retain this larval structure throughout life. Von Baer +had shown that in the great natural groups of higher animals some +forms occur which typify, in their adult condition, the larval state +of the higher forms of the group. Thus, among the amphibia, frogs have +tails in the larval or tadpole condition; but newts throughout life +remain in the larval or tailed condition. Appendicularia he considered +to be the lowest form of the Ascidians, and to typify in its adult +condition the larval stages of the higher Ascidians. + +By this remarkable investigation of the structure of the group of +Ascidians, and display of the various grades of organisation, Huxley +paved the way for one of the great modern advances in knowledge. When, +later on, the idea of evolution was accepted, and zooelogists began +hunting out the pedigree of the back-boned animals, it was discovered +that Ascidians were modern representatives of an important stage in +the ancestry of vertebrate animals, and, therefore, of man himself. +There are few more interesting chapters in genealogical zooelogy than +those which reveal the relationship between Amphioxus and fish on the +one hand, and Ascidians on the other; for fish are vertebrates, and +Ascidians, on the old view, are lowly invertebrates. The details of +these relationships have been made known to us by the brilliant +investigations of several Germans, by Kowalevsky, a Russian, by the +Englishmen Ray Lankester and Willey, and by several Americans and +Frenchmen. But behind the work of all these lies the pioneer work of +Huxley, who first gathered the group of Ascidians together, and in a +series of masterly investigations described its typical structure. + +Huxley's next great piece of work was embodied in a memoir published +in the _Transactions of the Royal Society_ in 1853, and which remains +to the present day a model of luminous description and far-reaching +ideas. It was a treatise on the structure of the great group of +molluscs, and displays in a striking fashion his method of handling +anatomical facts, and deducing from them the great underlying +principles of construction. The shell-fish with which he dealt +specially were those distinguished as cephalous, because, unlike +creatures such as the oyster and mussel, they had something readily +comparable with the head of vertebrates. He began by pointing out what +problems he hoped to solve. The anatomy of many of the cephalous +molluscs was known, but the relation of structures present in one to +structures present in another group had not been settled. + + "It is not settled whether the back of a cuttle-fish answers to + the dorsal or ventral surface of a gasteropod. It is not decided + whether the arms and funnels of the one have or have not their + homologues in the other. The dorsal integument of a Doris and the + cloak of a whelk are both called 'mantle,' without any evidence + to show that they are really homologous. Nor do very much more + definite notions seem to have prevailed with regard to the + archetypal molluscous form, and the mode in which (if such an + archetype exist) it becomes modified in the different secondary + types." + +He had taken from the surface of the sea a number of transparent +shell-fish, and had been able to study the structure and arrangement +of their organs "by simple inspection, without so much as disturbing a +single beat of their hearts." From knowledge gained in this fashion, +and from ordinary dissection of a number of common snails, +cephalopods, and pteropods, he was able to describe in a very complete +way the anatomical structure of cephalous molluscs. The next natural +step, he stated, would have been to describe the embryonic development +of the organs of these different creatures in order that a true +knowledge might be gained of what were the homologous or really +corresponding parts in each. Having had no opportunity to make such +embryological studies for himself, he fell back on numerous accounts +of development by Koelliker, Van Beneden, Gegenbauer, and others, and +so gradually arrived at a conception of what he called the "archetype" +of the cephalous molluscs. As the word _archetype_ was borrowed from +old metaphysical ideas dating back to the time of Plato, he took care +to state that what he meant by it was no more than a form embodying +all that could be affirmed equally respecting every single kind of +cephalous mollusc, and by no means an "idea" upon which it could be +supposed that animal forms had been modelled. He described this +archetype, and showed the condition of the different systems of organs +which it could be supposed to possess, and how these organs were +modified in the different existing groups. This archetypal mollusc of +Huxley's was a creature with a bilaterally symmetrical head and body. +On the ventral side of the body it possessed a peculiar locomotor +appendage, the so-called foot, and the dorsal surface of the body +secreted a shell. Its nervous system consisted of three pairs of +ganglia or brains, one pair in the head, one in the foot, and a third +in the viscera. He shewed how the widely different groups of cephalous +molluscs could be conceived as modifications of this structure, and +extended the conception so as to cover all other molluscs. + +Quite apart from the anatomical value of this paper, and although all +technical details have been omitted here, it is necessary to say that +merely as a series of intricate anatomical descriptions and +comparisons, this memoir was one of the most valuable of any that +Huxley wrote. The working out of the theory of the archetype is +peculiarly interesting to compare with modern conceptions. To those of +us who began biological work after the idea of evolution had been +impressed upon anatomical work, it is very difficult to follow +Huxley's papers without reading into them evolutionary ideas. In the +article upon Mollusca, written for the ninth edition of the +_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, by Professor Ray Lankester, the same device +of an archetypal or, as Lankester calls it, a schematic mollusc, is +employed in order to explain the relations of the different structures +found in different groups of molluscs to one another. Lankester's +schematic mollusc differs from Huxley's archetypal mollusc only as a +finished modern piece of mechanism, the final result of years of +experiment, differs from the original invention. The method of +comparing the schematic mollusc with the different divergent forms in +different groups is identical, and yet, while the ideas of Darwin are +accepted in every line of Lankester's work, Huxley was writing six +years before the publication of _The Origin of Species_. There was +growing up in Huxley's mind, partly from his own attempts to arrange +the anatomical facts he discovered in an intelligible series, the idea +that within a group the divergencies of structure to be found had come +about by the modification of an original type. Not only did he +conceive of such an evolution as the only possible explanation of the +facts, but he definitely used the word _evolution_ to convey his +ideas. On the other hand, he was firmly convinced that such evolution +was confined within the great groups. For each group there was a +typical structure, and modifications by defect or excess of the parts +of the definite archetype gave rise to the different members of the +group. Moreover, he confined this evolution in the strictest possible +way to each group; he did not believe that what was called +anamorphosis--the transition of a lower type into a higher type--ever +occurred. To use his own words: + + "If, however, all Cephalous Mollusca, _i.e._, all Cephalopoda, + Gasteropoda, and Lamellibranchiata, be only modifications by + excess or defect of the parts of a definite archetype, then, I + think, it follows as a necessary consequence, that no + anamorphosis takes place in this group. There is no progression + from a lower to a higher type, but merely a more or less complete + evolution of one type. It may indeed be a matter of very grave + consideration whether true anamorphosis ever occurs in the whole + animal kingdom. If it do, then the doctrine that every natural + group is organised after a definite archetype, a doctrine which + seems to me as important for zooelogy as the theory of definite + proportions for chemistry, must be given up." + +It is of great historical interest to notice how closely actual +consideration of the facts of the animal kingdom took zooelogists to an +idea of evolution, and yet how far they were from it as we hold it +now. It is fashionable at the present time to attempt to depreciate +the immense change introduced by Darwin into zooelogical speculation, +and the method employed is largely partial quotation, or reference to +the kind of ideas found in papers such as this memoir by Huxley. The +comparison between the types of the great groups and the combining +proportions of the chemical elements shows clearly that Huxley +regarded the structural plans of the great groups as properties +necessary and inherent in these groups, just as the property of a +chemical element to combine with another chemical substance only in a +fixed proportion is necessary and inherent in the existing conception +of it. There was no glimmer of the idea that these types were not +inherent, but merely historical results of a long and slow series of +changes produced by the interaction of the varied conditions of life +and the intrinsic qualities of living material. + +In two lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in 1854 and 1855, +the one on "The Common Plan of Animal Forms," the other on "The +Zooelogical Arguments Adduced in Favour of the Progressive Development +of Animal Life in Time," show, so far as the published abstracts go, +the same condition of mind. The idea of progressive development of all +life from common forms was not unknown to Huxley and his +contemporaries, but was rejected by them. In the first of these two +lectures he took four great groups of animals, the Vertebrates, the +Articulata, the Mollusca, and the Radiata, and explained what was the +archetype of each. He shewed the distinctiveness of each plan of +structure, and then discussed the relations of the ideas suggested by +Von Baer to these archetypes. He stated explicitly that while the +adult forms were quite unlike one another, there were traces of a +common plan to be derived from a study of their embryonic development. +Such a trace of a common plan he had himself suggested when he +compared the foundation-membranes of the Medusae with the first +foundation-membranes of vertebrate embryos. This was going a long way +towards modern ideas; but he stopped short, and gave no hint that he +believed in the possibility of the development of one plan from a +lower or simpler plan. The second lecture dealt with the kind of ideas +which were crystallised in the popular but striking work of Chambers, +entitled _Vestiges of Creation_. Chambers attacked the theological +view that all animals and plants had been created at the beginning of +the world, and maintained that geological evidence showed the +occurrence of a progressive development of animal life. Huxley, like +all zooelogists and geologists who knew anything of the occurrence of +fossils in the rocks of past ages, agreed with the general truth of +the conception that a progressive development had occurred which +showed that the species now existing were represented in the oldest +rocks by species now extinct. But the examples he brought forward were +all limited to evolution within the great groups, and did not affect +his idea that archetypes were fixed and did not pass into each other. +Moreover, he summed up strongly against the suggestion that there was +any parallel between the succession of life in the past and the forms +assumed by modern animals in their embryological development. So far +as the present writer is able to judge from study of the literature of +this period, the possibility of evolution was present in an active +form in the minds of Huxley and of his contemporaries, and in an +extraordinary way they brought together evidence which afterwards +became of firstrate importance; but the idea in its modern sense was +rejected by them. + +In 1854 Huxley's uncomfortable period of probation came to an end. +Edward Forbes, who held the posts of Palaeontologist to the Geological +Survey, and Lecturer on General Natural History at the Metropolitan +School of Science Applied to Mining and the Arts, vacated these on his +appointment to the Chair of Natural History in the University of +Edinburgh, and Sir H. De La Beche, the then Director-General of the +Geological Survey, offered both the posts to Huxley--who in June and +July of that year had given lectures at the school in place of Forbes. +Huxley says himself: + + "I refused the former point-blank, and accepted the latter only + provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils, + and that I should give up natural history as soon as I could get + a physiological post. But I held the office for thirty-one years, + and a large part of my work has been palaeontological." + +The salary of the post of Lecturer on Natural History was scanty, but +De La Beche, who evidently recognised Huxley's genius, and was anxious +to have him attached even against his will to palaeontological work, +created a place for him as Naturalist to the Geological Survey, by +which a more suitable income was found for him. His official duties +were at first in the Geological Museum of the Survey, but were +distinguished from those of the special Palaeontologist, Mr. Harvey. +His income was now assured, and for the rest of his life, until +towards its close, when he retired to Eastbourne, he lived the +ordinary life of a professional man of science in London. He was now +able to marry, and on July 21, 1855, he was married to a lady whom he +had met in Sydney in 1847, and whom he had not seen since the +_Rattlesnake_ left Sydney finally in the beginning of May, 1850. + +During the years 1856, 1857, and 1858, he held the post of Fullerian +Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution, choosing as the +title of his first two courses of lectures Physiology and Comparative +Anatomy, as he still cherished the idea of being in the first place a +physiologist. + +[Illustration: THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, 1857 Reproduced by permission from +_Natural Science_, vol. vii., No. 42] + + "Moreover," writes Professor Michael Foster, "like most other + young professional men of science, he had to eke out his not too + ample income by labours undertaken chiefly for their pecuniary + reward. He acted as examiner, conducting for instance, during the + years 1856 to 1863, and again 1865 to 1870, the examinations in + physiology and comparative anatomy at the University of London, + making even an examination paper feel the influence of the new + spirit in biology; and among his examinees at that time there was + at least one who, knowing Huxley's writings, but his writings + only, looked forward to the _viva voce_ test, not as a trial but + as an occasion of delight. He wrote almost incessantly for all + editors who were prepared to give adequate pay to a pen able to + deal with scientific themes in a manner at once exact and + popular, incisive and correct. During this period he was + gradually passing from his first anatomical love, the structure + of the Invertebrates, to Vertebrate work, and although he + continued to take a deep interest in the course of the progress + of research in that group of animals, the publication of his + great work on oceanic hydrozoa by the Ray Society was the last + piece of important work he wrote upon any anatomical subject + apart from vertebrates. His work in connection with the + Geological Survey naturally attracted his attention most closely + to vertebrates, and, towards the close of the fifties, he was led + to make a special study of vertebrate embryology, a subject which + the investigations of Koelliker and others in Germany were + bringing into prominence. The first result of this new direction + of his enquiries was embodied in a Croonian Lecture delivered in + 1858 'On the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull.' Sir Richard Owen, + who was at that time the leading vertebrate anatomist in England, + had given his support to an extremely complicated view of the + skull as being formed of a series of expanded vertebrae moulded + together. The theory was really a legacy from an old German + school of which the chief members were Goethe, the poet, and + Oken, a naturalist, who was more of a metaphysical philosopher + than of a morphologist. Huxley pointed out the futility of + attempting to regard the skull as a series of segments, and of + supporting this view by trusting to superficial resemblances and + abstract reasoning, when there was a definite method by which the + actual building up of the skull might be followed. Following the + lines laid down by Rathke, another of the great Germans from + whose investigations he was always so willing to find + corroboration and assistance in his own labours, he traced the + actual development of the skull in the individual. He shewed + that the foundations of the skull and of the backbone were laid + down in a fashion quite different, and that it was impossible to + regard both skull and backbone as modifications of a common type + laid down right along the axis of the body. The spinal column and + the skull start from the same primitive condition, whence they + immediately begin to diverge. It may be true to say that there is + a primitive identity of structure between the spinal or vertebral + column and the skull; but it is no more true that the adult skull + is a modified vertebral column than it would be to affirm that + the vertebral column is a modified skull." + +Since this famous lecture, a number of distinguished anatomists have +studied the development of the skull more fully; but they have not +departed from the methods of investigation laid down by Huxley, and +their conclusions have differed only in greater elaboration of detail +from the broad lines laid down by him. Apart from its direct +scientific value, this lecture was of importance as marking the place +to which Huxley had attained in the scientific world. Two years later, +it is true, the London _Times_, referring to a famous debate at a +meeting of the British Association at Oxford, spoke of him as "a Mr. +Huxley"; but in the scientific world he was accepted as the leader of +the younger anatomists, and as one at least capable of rivalling Owen, +who was then at the height of his fame. The Croonian Lecture was in a +sense a deliberate challenge to Owen, and in these days before Darwin, +to challenge Owen was to claim equality with the greatest name in +anatomical science. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +CREATURES OF THE PAST + + Beginning Palaeontological Work--Fossil Amphibia and + Reptilia--Ancestry of Birds--Ancestry of the Horse--Imperfect + European Series Completed by Marsh's American Fossils--Meaning of + Geological Contemporaneity--Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism + Compared with Evolution in Geology--Age of the + Earth--Intermediate and Linear Types. + + +Although Huxley took a post connected with Geology only because it was +the most convenient opening for him, it was not long before he became +deeply interested not only in the fossils, which at first he despised, +but in the general problems of geology. He began by co-operation with +Mr. Salter in the determination of fossils for the Geological Survey. +The mere work of defining genera and species and naming and describing +new species appealed very little to him. He had none of the +collector's passion for new species; his interest in a creature being +not whether or no it was new to science, but what general problems of +biology its structure helped to elucidate. While he assisted in the +routine work of determining the zooelogical position of the fossils +sent in to the museum by the Survey, he carried investigations much +farther than the duties of the post required when interesting +zooelogical problems arose. His earliest notes were written in +association with his colleague, and consisted of technical +descriptions of some small fossils from the Downton Sandstones which +were supposed to be fish-shields. The peculiarities of structure +presented by these aroused his interest, and he began an elaborate +series of investigations upon palaeozoic fishes in general. Earlier +zooelogists, such as the great Agassiz, had devoted most of their +attention to careful and exact description of the different fossil +fishes with which they became acquainted. Huxley at once began to +investigate the relations that existed among the different kinds of +structure exhibited in the different fish. He laid down the lines upon +which future work has been conducted, and, precisely as he did in the +case of molluscs, he started future investigators upon lines of +research the ends of which have not yet been reached. His work upon +_Devonian Fishes_, published in 1861, threw an entirely new light upon +the affinities of these creatures, and still remains a standard work. + +He made a similar, although less important, series of investigations +upon some of the great extinct Crustacea; but, perhaps, his most +important palaeontological work was done later, after he had been +convinced by Darwin of the fact of evolution. In 1855 he had expressed +the opinion that the study of fossils was hopeless if one sought in it +confirmation of the doctrine of evolution; but five-and-twenty years' +continuous work completely reversed his opinion, and in 1881, +addressing the British Association at York he declared that "if +zooelogists and embryologists had not put forward the theory, it would +have been necessary for palaeontologists to invent it." In three +special groups of animals his study of fossils enabled him to assist +in bridging over the gaps between surviving groups of creatures by +study of creatures long extinct. He began to study the structure of +the Labyrinthodonts, a group of extinct monsters which received their +name from the peculiar structure of their teeth. He published +elaborate descriptions of Anthracosaurus from the coal-measures of +Northumberland, of Loxomma from the lower carboniferous of Scotland, +and of several small forms from the coal-measures of Kilkenny, in +Ireland, as well as describing skulls from Africa and a number of +fragmentary bones from different localities. But in all this work it +was the morphology of the creatures that interested him, and the light +which their structure threw upon the structure of each other and of +their nearest allies. He shewed that these monsters stood on the +borderland between fishes, amphibia, and reptiles, and he added much +to our knowledge of the true structure of these great groups. Next, he +turned to the extinct reptiles of the Mesozoic age. It was generally +believed that the Pterodactyls, or flying reptiles, were the nearest +allies of birds, but Huxley insisted that the resemblances between the +wings were simply such superficial resemblances as necessarily exist +in organs adapted to the same purpose. About the same time, Cope in +America, and Phillips and Huxley, in England, from study of the bones +of the Dinosaurs, another great group of extinct reptiles, declared +that these were the nearest in structure to birds. In association with +the upright posture, the ilium or great haunch-bone of birds extends +far forwards in front of the articulation of the thigh-bone, so that +the pelvis in this region has a T-shape, the ilium forming the +cross-bar of the T, and the femur or thigh-bone the downward limb. +Huxley shewed that a large number of the Dinosaurs had this and other +peculiarities of the bird's pelvis, and separated these into a group +which he called the "Ornithoscelida," seeing in them the closest +representatives of the probable reptilian ancestors of birds. While +further work and the discovery of a still greater number of extinct +reptiles has made it less probable that these were the actual +ancestors of birds, Huxley's work in this, as in the many other cases +we have shown, proved not only of great value in itself, but led to a +continually increasing series of investigations by others. It is not +always the pioneer that makes the greatest discoveries in a new +country, but the work of the pioneer makes possible and easier the +more assured discoveries of his followers. + +A third great piece of palaeontological investigation with which the +name of Huxley will always be associated, is the most familiar of all +the instances taken from fossils in support of the evolution of +animals. This famous case is the pedigree of the horse. In 1870, in an +address delivered to the Geological Society of London, Huxley had +shewn that there was a series of animals leading backwards from the +modern horse to a more generalised creature called Anchitherium, and +found in the rocks of the Miocene period. He suggested that there +were, no doubt, similar fossils leading still further backwards +towards the common mammalian type of animal, with five fingers and +five toes, and went the length of suggesting one or two fossils which +might stand in the direct line of ancestry. But in 1876 he visited +America, and had the opportunity of consulting the marvellous series +of fossils which Professor Marsh had collected from American Tertiary +beds. Professor Marsh allowed him the freest use of his materials and +of his conclusions, and the credit of the final result is to be +shared at least equally between Marsh and Huxley. The final result was +a demonstrative proof of the possible course of evolution of the +horse, given in a lecture delivered by Huxley in New York on Sept. 22, +1876, and illustrated by drawings from specimens in Marsh's +collection. The matter of the lecture has become so important a part +of all descriptive writing on evolution, and the treatment is so +characteristic of Huxley's brilliant exposition, that it is worth +while to make some rather long quotations from it. The lecture was +published in the New York papers, and afterwards with other matter +formed a volume of _American Addresses_, published by Macmillan, in +London. + + "In most quadrupeds, as in ourselves, the forearm contains + distinct bones called the radius and the ulna. The corresponding + region in the horse seems at first to possess but one bone. + Careful observation, however, enables us to distinguish in this + bone a part which clearly answers to the upper end of the ulna. + This is closely united with the chief mass of the bone which + represents the radius, and runs out into a slender shaft which + may be traced for some distance downwards on the back of the + radius, and then in most cases thins out and vanishes. It takes + still more trouble to make sure of what is nevertheless the fact, + that a small part of the lower end of the bone of the horse's + forearm, which is only distinct in a very young foal, is really + the lower extremity of the ulna. + + "What is commonly called the knee of a horse is its wrist. The + 'cannon bone' answers to the middle bone of the five metacarpal + bones which support the palm of the hand in ourselves. The + 'pastern,' 'coronary,' and 'coffin' bones of veterinarians answer + to the joints of our middle fingers, while the hoof is simply a + greatly enlarged and thickened nail. But, if what lies below the + horse's 'knee' thus corresponds to the middle finger in + ourselves, what has become of the four other fingers or digits? + We find in the places of the second and fourth digits only two + slender splint-like bones, about two-thirds as long as the cannon + bone, which gradually taper to their lower ends and bear no + finger joints, or, as they are termed, phalanges. Sometimes small + bony or gristly nodules are to be found at the bases of these two + metacarpal splints, and it is probable that these represent + rudiments of the first and fifth digits. Thus the part of the + horse's skeleton which corresponds with that of the human hand + contains one overgrown middle digit, and at least two imperfect + lateral digits; and these answer, respectively, to the third, the + second, and the fourth digits in man. + + "Corresponding modifications are found in the hind limb. In + ourselves, and in most quadrupeds, the leg contains two distinct + bones, a large bone, the tibia, and a smaller and more slender + bone, the fibula. But, in the horse, the fibula seems, at first, + to be reduced to its upper end; a short slender bone united with + the tibia and ending in a point below occupying its place. + Examination of the lower end of a young foal's shin-bone, + however, shews a distinct portion of osseous matter, which is the + lower end of the fibula; so that the apparently single lower end + of the shin-bone is really made up of the coalesced ends of the + tibia and fibula, just as the apparently single lower end of the + fore-arm bone is composed of the coalesced radius and ulna. + + "The heel of the horse is the part commonly known as the hock; + the hinder cannon bone answers to the middle metatarsal bone of + the human foot, the pastern, coronary, and coffin bones, to the + middle-toe bones; the hind hoof to the nail, as in the fore foot. + And, as in the fore foot, there are merely two splints to + represent the second and fourth toes. Sometimes a rudiment of a + fifth toe appears to be traceable." + +Having in the same fashion described the highly complicated and +peculiar structure of the teeth of modern horses, Huxley proceeded: + + "To anyone who is acquainted with the morphology of vertebrated + animals, these characteristic structures of the horse show that + it deviates widely from the general structure of mammals; and + that the horse type is, in many respects, an extreme modification + of the general mammalian plan. The least modified mammals, in + fact, have the radius and ulna, the tibia and fibula, distinct + and separate. They have five distinct and complete digits on each + foot, and no one of these digits is very much larger than the + rest. Moreover, in the least modified mammals, the total number + of the teeth is very generally forty-four, while in the horse the + usual number is forty, and, in the absence of the canines, it may + be reduced to thirty-six; the incisor teeth are devoid of the + fold seen in those of the horse; the grinders regularly diminish + in size from the middle of the series to its front end; while + their crowns are short, early attain their full length, and + exhibit simple ridges or tubercles, in place of the complex + foldings of the horse's grinders. + + "Hence the general principles of the hypothesis of evolution + lead to the conclusion that the horse must have been derived from + some quadruped which possessed five complete digits on each foot; + which had the bones of the forearm and of the leg complete and + separate; and which possessed forty-four teeth, among which the + crown of the incisors and grinders had a simple structure; while + the latter gradually increased in size from before backwards, at + any rate in the anterior part of the series, and had short + crowns. + + "And if the horse had been thus evolved, and the remains of the + different stages of its evolution have been preserved, they ought + to present us with a series of forms in which the number of the + digits becomes reduced; the bones of the forearm and leg + gradually take on the equine condition; and the form and + arrangement of the teeth successively approximate to those which + obtain in existing horses. + + "Let us turn to the facts and see how far they fulfill these + requirements of the doctrine of evolution. + + "In Europe abundant remains of horses are found in the + Quaternary and later Tertiary strata as far as the Pliocene + formation. But these horses, which are so common in the + cave-deposits and in the gravel of Europe, are in all essential + respects like existing horses, and that is true of all the horses + of the later part of the Pliocene epoch. But, in the deposits + which belong to the earlier Pliocene, and later Miocene epochs, + and which occur in Britain, in France, in Germany, in Greece, in + India, we find animals which are extremely like horses--which in + fact are so similar to horses, that you may follow descriptions + given in works upon the anatomy of the horse, upon the skeletons + of these animals--but which differ in some important particulars. + For example, the structure of their fore and hind limbs is + somewhat different. The bones, which, in the horse are + represented by two long splints, imperfect below, are as long as + the middle metacarpal and metatarsal bones; and, attached to the + extremity of each, is a digit with three joints of the same + general character as those of the middle digit, only very much + smaller. These small digits are so disposed that they could have + had but very little functional importance, and they must have + been rather of the nature of the dew-claws, such as are to be + found in many ruminant animals. The _Hipparion_, as the extinct + European three-toed horse is called, in fact presents a foot + similar to that of the American _Protohippus_ except that in + _Hipparion_ the smaller digits are situated further back, and are + of smaller proportional size than in the _Protohippus_. + + "The ulna is slightly more distinct than in the horse; and the + whole length of it, as a very slender shaft, intimately united + with the radius, is completely traceable. The fibula appears to + be in the same condition as in the horse. The teeth of the + _Hipparion_ are essentially similar to those of the horse, but + the pattern of the grinders is in some respects a little more + complex, and there is a depression on the face of the skull in + front of the orbit, which is not seen in existing horses. + + "In the earlier Miocene and perhaps in the Eocene deposits of + some parts of Europe, another distinct animal has been + discovered, which Cuvier, who first described some fragments of + it, considered to be a _Palaeotherium_, but as further discoveries + threw new light on its structure, it was recognised as a distinct + genus, under the name of _Anchitherium_. + + "In its general characters the skeleton of _Anchitherium_ is + very similar to that of the horse, in fact Lartet and De + Blainville called it _Palaeotherium equinum_ or _Hippoides_; and + De Cristol, in 1847, said that it differed from _Hipparion_ in + little more than the characters of the teeth, and gave it the + name of _Hipparitherium_. Each foot possesses three complete + toes: while the lateral toes are much larger in proportion to the + middle toe than in _Hipparion_, and doubtless rested on the + ground in ordinary locomotion. The ulna is complete and quite + distinct from the radius, although firmly united with the latter. + The fibula seems also to have been complete; its lower end, + though intimately united with that of the tibia, is clearly + united with that of the latter bone. There are forty-four teeth; + the incisors have no strong pit. The canines seem to have been + well developed in both sexes. The first of the seven grinders, + which, as I have said, is frequently absent, and, when it does + exist, is small in the horse, is a good-sized and permanent + tooth, while the grinder which follows it is but little larger + than the hinder ones. The crowns of the grinders are short, and, + although the fundamental pattern of the horse-tooth is + discernible, the front and back ridges are less curved, the + accessory pillars are wanting, and the valleys, much shallower, + are not filled up with cement." + +Then, after describing his early efforts to trace the descent of the +horse from European fossils, Huxley goes on to relate the new light +thrown on the matter from the American discoveries of Professor Marsh: + + "You are all aware that, when your country was first discovered + by Europeans, there were no traces of the existence of the horse + in any part of the American continent. The accounts of the + conquest of Mexico dwell on the astonishment of the natives of + that country when they first became acquainted with that + astounding phenomenon, a man seated upon a horse. Nevertheless, + the investigations of American geologists have proved that the + remains of horses occur in the most superficial deposits of both + North and South America, just as they do in Europe. Therefore, + for some reason or other,--no feasible suggestion on that + subject, so far as I know, has been made,--the horse must have + died out on this continent at some period preceding the discovery + of America. Of late years there has been discovered in your + Western territories that marvellous accumulation of deposits, + admirably adapted for the preservation of organic remains, to + which I referred the other evening, and which furnishes us with a + consecutive series of records of the fauna of the older half of + the Tertiary epoch, for which we have no parallel in Europe. The + researches of Leidy and others have shewn that forms allied to + the _Hipparion_ and the _Anchitherium_ are to be found among + these remains. Rut it is only recently that the admirably + conceived and most thoroughly and patiently worked-out + investigations of Professor Marsh have given us a just idea of + the vast fossil wealth and of the scientific importance of these + deposits. I have had the advantage of glancing over the + collections in Yale Museum; and I can truly say that, so far as + my knowledge extends, there is no collection from any one region + and series of strata comparable, for extent, or for care with + which the remains have been got together, or for their scientific + importance, to the series of fossils which he has deposited + there. This vast collection has yielded evidence bearing on the + question of the pedigree of the horse of the most striking + character. It tends to show that we must look to America rather + than to Europe for the original seat of the equine series; and + that the archaic forms and successive modifications of the + horse's ancestry are far better preserved here than in Europe. + + "Professor Marsh's kindness has enabled me to put before you a + diagram, every figure of which is an actual representation of + some specimen which is to be seen at Yale at this present time. + + "The succession of forms which he has brought together carries + us from the top to the bottom of the Tertiaries. Firstly, there + is the true horse. Next we have the American Pliocene form of the + horse (_Pliohippus_): in the conformation of its limbs it + presents some very slight deviations from the ordinary horse, and + the crowns of the grinding teeth are shorter. Then comes the + _Protohippus_, which represents the European _Hipparion_, having + one large digit and two small ones on each foot, and the general + characters of the forearm and leg to which I have referred. But + it is more valuable than the European _Hipparion_ for the reason + that it is devoid of some of the peculiarities of that + form--peculiarities which tend to show that the European + _Hipparion_ is rather a member of a collateral branch than a form + in the direct line of succession. Next, in the backward order in + time, is the _Miohippus_, which corresponds pretty nearly with + the _Anchitherium_ of Europe. It presents three complete + toes--one large median and two smaller lateral ones: and there + is a rudiment of that digit which answers to the little finger of + the human race. + + "The European pedigree of the horse stops here; in the America + Tertiaries, on the contrary, the series of ancestral equine forms + is continued into the Eocene formations. An older Miocene form, + called _Mesohippus_, has three toes in front, with a large + splint-like rudiment representing the little finger; and three + toes behind. The radius and ulna, the tibia and fibula, are + distinct, and the short crowned molar teeth are _Anchitherioid_ + in pattern. + + "But the most important discovery of all is the _Orohippus_ + which comes from the Eocene formation, and is the oldest member + of the equine series yet known. Here we find four complete toes + on the front limb, three toes on the hind limb, a well-developed + ulna, a well-developed fibula, and short-crowned grinders of a + simple pattern. + + "Thus, thanks to these important researches, it has become + evident that, so far as our present knowledge extends, the + history of the horse type is exactly and precisely that which + could have been predicted from a knowledge of the principles of + evolution; and the knowledge we now possess justifies us + completely in the anticipation that, when the still lower Eocene + deposits, and those which belong to the Cretaceous period have + yielded up their remains of ancestral equine animals, we shall + find, first, a form with four complete toes and a rudiment of the + innermost or first digit in front, with probably a rudiment of + the fifth digit in the hind foot; while, in the older forms, the + series of digits will be more and more complete until we come to + the five-toed animals, in which, if the doctrine of evolution is + well founded, the whole series must have taken its origin." + +Just as Huxley was successful, when only the ancestry to Miocene times +was known, in predicting the discovery of older forms in the older +Miocene and upper Eocene, so his prediction of older Eocene forms +carrying the chain back to five-toed creatures proved correct. One of +the new links was indeed discovered before his lecture had passed +through the press, and he was able to add in a footnote some details +of the structure of the four-toed Eohippus from the lower Eocene +beds. Further discoveries have connected these with the five-toed +ancestors of the Tapirs, and there is the strongest reason to suppose +that we now know as nearly as possible the line of ancestry of the +horse back to the primitive forms common to all the higher mammals. It +would, of course, be beyond possibility of proof that the exact +fossils described were the actual ancestors of the horse; but that +they are exceedingly close allies of these, and that among them some +actual ancestors exist cannot reasonably be doubted. + +Although he had embarked upon geological work with some distaste, +Huxley became very closely associated with it as years went on, and +indeed, about the seventies, had abandoned his intention to devote +himself specially to physiology, and declared himself to be in the +first place a palaeontologist. In 1876 he had accomplished so much that +the Geological Society gave him its chief distinction, awarding him +the Wollaston Medal in recognition of his services to geological +science. He acted as Secretary to the Geological Society from 1859 to +1862, and he was President from 1868 to 1870. In 1862, the President +being incapacitated, Huxley delivered as Deputy-President the +Presidential Address. This address is famous in the history of +geology, because for the first time it stated clearly and in permanent +form a doctrine now taken as a first principle in all geological +text-books. A large part of geology is the attempt to read the past +history of the earth from the evidence given by the successive strata +of rocks that form its crust. + + "It is mathematically certain that, in any given vertical linear + section of an undisturbed series of sedimentary deposits, the bed + which lies lowest is the oldest. In many other vertical linear + sections of the same series, of course corresponding beds will + occur in a similar order." + +It is of the utmost importance to determine whether or no the same +series occurring vertically in the same order in different parts of +the earth were deposited at the same time. To explain the problem, +Huxley took the following concrete example: + + "The Lias of England and the Lias of Germany, the Cretaceous + rocks of Britain and the Cretaceous rocks of Southern India, are + termed by geologists 'Contemporaneous' formations; but whenever + any thoughtful geologist is asked whether he means to say that + they were deposited at the same time, he says, 'No, only within + the same great epoch.' And if, in pursuing the enquiry, he is + asked what may be the approximate value in time of a 'great + epoch'--whether it means a hundred years, or a thousand, or a + million, or ten million years--his reply is, 'I cannot tell.'" + +Most of the standard writers on palaeontology had assumed that the +presence in two beds at different parts of the world of the same +fossils implied that the beds were contemporaneous, that they had been +formed at the same time. Huxley pointed out that the fact of identical +fossils being present was, on the whole, evidence against the beds +having been formed at the same time. Even some of the older writers +who believed in species having been created at definite places at +definite times had seen that time must have been required for sets of +animals to wander from the places in which they had come into +existence. The newer theory of evolution was equally opposed to the +notion of the appearance of similar animals at the same time on +far-distant parts of the earth. For such reasons he proposed to reject +the use of the word _Contemporaneous_ as applied to rockbeds in +different localities which contained the same fossils, and to replace +it by the word _Homotaxial_, which meant no more than that the beds +occupied corresponding places in the geological history of the earth. +Huxley did not pretend that these arguments were entirely original: +they represented the drift of the best geological opinion, and he +seized hold of them and set them down as permanent geological truths. + +In 1869, in a Presidential Address to the Geological Society, Huxley +took up one of the burning questions of the day. In the early part of +the century, the discoveries of geologists had been the occasion of +great distress to those good people who clung to a literal +interpretation of everything in the Bible. Long before the doctrine of +evolution and the descent of man from lower animals had taken practical +shape, there had been a battle royal between geologists who declared +that the earth was many million years old, and had been inhabited at +least by animals and plants for enormous periods, and those who clung to +the traditional chronology which placed the date of creation only a few +thousand years from now. The continued progress of geology, and the +sturdy championship of it by men like Sedgwick, Chalmers, and Buckland, +who were at the same time reputable theologians and distinguished men of +science, had decided the battle in favour of the conclusions of science, +and it was accepted generally that the earth was almost indefinitely +old. At the same time, another and more strictly scientific dispute had +been in progress. The older school of geologists, looking on the face of +the world, and seeing it scarred by mighty fissures, displaying huge +distortions of the beds in the crust, had argued that geological change +had taken place by a series of mighty catastrophes. The tremendous +results which they saw seemed to them only possible on the theory that +unusual and gigantic displays of force had caused them. On the other +hand, Hutton and Lyell attempted to find adequate explanation of the +greatest changes in the slow forces which may be seen in operation at +the present time. Slow movements of upheaval and depression, amounting +at most to an inch or two in a century, may be shown to be actually in +existence now, and such slow changes acting for very many centuries +would account for the raising of continents above the sea, so that old +sea-bottoms became the surface of the land, and for the depression of +land areas so that new sedimentary rocks might be deposited upon them. +They shewed how air and water slowly crumbled away the hardest rocks, +and how rivers deepened their beds steadily but excessively slowly; and +they held that while great catastrophic changes might occasionally have +occurred, there was ample evidence of the present operation of forces +which, granted sufficient time for their operation, would have made the +crust of the earth such as it is. This doctrine of _Uniformitarianism_, +of the action of similar forces in the past and present history of the +earth, had almost completely triumphed over the older catastrophic +views. As Huxley put it, the school of catastrophe put no limit to the +violence of forces which had operated; the uniformitarians put no limit +to the length of time during which forces had operated. + + "Catastrophism has insisted upon the existence of a practically + unlimited bank of force, on which the theorist might draw; and it + has cherished the idea of development of the earth from a state + in which its form, and the forces which it exerted, were very + different from those which we now know. + + "Uniformitarianism, on the other hand, has with equal justice + insisted upon a practically unlimited bank of time, ready to + discount any quantity of hypothetical paper. It has kept before + our eyes the power of the infinitely little, time being granted, + and has compelled us to exhaust known causes before flying to the + unknown." + +But there was a third influence at work in geology, an influence which +may best be described in Huxley's own words: + + "I shall not make what I have to say on this head clear unless I + diverge, or seem to diverge, for a while, from the direct path of + my discourse so far as to explain what I take to be the scope of + geology itself. I conceive geology to be the history of the + earth, in precisely the same sense as biology is the history of + living beings; and I trust you will not think that I am + overpowered by the influence of a dominant pursuit if I say that + I trace a close analogy between these two histories. + + "If I study a living being, under what heads does the knowledge + I obtain fall? I can learn its structure, or what we call its + Anatomy; and its development, or the series of changes it passes + through to acquire its complete structure. Then I find that the + living being has certain powers resulting from its own + activities, and the interaction of these with the activities of + other things--the knowledge of which is Physiology. Beyond this, + the living being has a position in space and time, which is its + Distribution. All these form the body of ascertainable facts + which constitute the _status quo_ of the living creature. But + these facts have their causes; and the ascertainment of these + causes is the doctrine of AEtiology. + + "If we consider what is knowable about the earth, we shall find + that such earth-knowledge--if I may so translate the word + geology--falls into the same categories. + + "What is termed stratigraphical geology is neither more nor less + than the anatomy of the earth; and the history of the succession + of the formations is a history of the succession of such + anatomies, or corresponds with development, as distinct from + generation. + + "The internal heat of the earth, the elevation and depression of + its crust, its belching forth of vapours, ashes, and lava, are + its activities, in as strict a sense as are warmth and the + movements and products of respiration the activities of an + animal. The phenomena of the seasons, of the trade-winds, of the + Gulf Stream, are as much the results of the reaction between + these inner activities and outward forces, as are the budding of + the leaves in spring, and their falling in autumn the effects of + the interaction between the organisation of a plant and the solar + light and heat. And, as the study of the activities of the living + being is called its physiology, so are these phenomena the + subject matter of an analogous telluric physiology, to which we + sometimes give the name of meteorology; sometimes of physical + geography, sometimes that of geology. Again, the earth has a + place in space and time, and relations to other bodies in both + these respects, which constitute its distribution. This subject + is usually left to the astronomer; but a knowledge of its broad + outlines seems to me to be an essential constituent of the stock + of geological ideas. + + "All that can be ascertained concerning the structure, + succession of conditions, actions, and position in space of the + earth, is the matter of its natural history. But, as in Biology, + there remains the matter of reasoning from these facts to their + causes, which is just as much science as the other, and indeed + more; and this constitutes geological aetiology. + + "Having regard to this general scheme of geological knowledge + and thought, it is obvious that geological speculation may be, so + to speak, anatomical and developmental speculation, so far as it + relates to points of stratigraphical arrangement which are out of + reach of direct observation; or, it may be physiological + speculation so far as it relates to undetermined problems + relative to the activities of the earth; or, it may be + distributional speculation, if it deals with modifications of the + earth's place in space; or, finally, it will be aetiological + speculation if it attempts to deduce the history of the world, as + a whole, from the known properties of the matter of the earth, in + the conditions in which the earth has been placed." + +Huxley then proceeded to shew that uniformitarianism and catastrophism +had neglected this last and most important branch of geology, the +attempt to trace the interaction of causes which had brought the world +into its present condition. He gave a striking display of the wide +knowledge of his reading by going back to the foundation of this branch +of modern science, and giving a masterly account of the then +little-known treatise of Immanuel Kant, who in 1775 had written _An +Attempt to Account for the Constitutional and Mechanical Origin of the +Universe upon Newtonian Principles_. Next he declared that evolution +embraced all that was sound in both catastrophism and uniformitarianism +while rejecting the arbitrary limits and assumptions of both. + +Finally he came to the great question to which these observations upon +the existing schools of geology had led. The most distinguished +physicist of the age, then Sir William Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, and +Huxley's immediate successor in the Presidential Chair of the Royal +Society, had stated that the English school of geology had assumed an +impossible age for the earth. By physical reasonings, Thomson stated +that he was able to prove "That the existing state of things on the +earth--all geological history showing continuity of life--must be +limited within some such period of time as one hundred million years." +This pronouncement had been received with acclamation by those who +feared the geological and biological sciences, as a sign of internal +dissensions within the house of science. Huxley, then, as all through +the latter part of his life, at once constituted himself the champion +of science, and, taking Thomson's arguments one by one, shewed by a +series of masterly deductions from known facts that there was a great +deal to be said for the other side, and that physicists were as little +certain as geologists could be of the exact duration of time that had +elapsed since the dawn of life. His plea for more time since the +cooling of the globe than physicists were willing to allow remains one +of the classics of geological literature. But he carried the question +much farther. The inference which was widely drawn by the enemies of +evolution from the arguments of Sir William Thomson was that if +geologists had overestimated the age of the cooled earth there was not +time for the evolution of animals and plants to have taken place. +Huxley pointed out a fact which should be quite obvious, but which +even yet is frequently neglected. The evidence for the gradual +appearance of life in the past history of the earth depends simply on +the fact that the successive forms of life appear in successive +strata, and the length of time taken for these changes simply depends +upon the length of time which was taken up by the formation of the +strata. Our only reason for supposing the evolution of life, made +plain by fossil records, to have taken place very slowly is that +geologists have stated that the deposition of the strata took place +very slowly. Whether these strata were deposited slowly or less +slowly, we know that the forms of life changed at the same rate. + + "Biology takes her time from geology. The only reason we have for + believing in the slow rate of change in living forms is the fact + that they persist through a series of deposits which, geology + informs us, have taken a long while to make. If the geological + clock is wrong, all the naturalist will have to do is to modify + his notion of the rapidity of change accordingly; and I venture + to point out that, when we are told that the limitation of the + period during which living beings have inhabited this planet to + one, two, or three hundred million years requires a complete + revolution in geological speculation, the _onus probandi_ rests + on the maker of the assertion, who brings forward not a shadow of + evidence in its support." + +Perhaps, although this is now an old controversy, it is worth while +to recall that the keenness of Huxley's language was not directed +against Sir William Thomson, between whom and Huxley there was no more +than the desire to argue out an interesting scientific question upon +which their conclusions differed, but between Huxley and those +outsiders who were always ready to turn any dubious question in +science into an argument discrediting the general conclusions of +science. + +The last time that Huxley occupied the Presidential Chair of the +Geological Society was in 1870, and he occupied his Presidential +address by a review of the "old judgments" which he had given in the +course of his first address in 1862. The address was entitled +"Palaeontology and Evolution," and the most important part of it was a +complete withdrawal of the fears he had expressed that geology would +not supply definite evidence of the transformation of species. +Important discoveries had come thick and fast; and, at least in the +case of the higher vertebrates, he declared that, however one might +"sift and criticise them," they left a clear balance in favour of the +doctrine of the evolution of living forms one from another. But, with +his usual critical spirit, examining arguments that bore against a +conclusion for which he hoped almost more stringently than arguments +apparently favourable to what he expected to be true, Huxley made an +important distinction, the value of which becomes more and more +apparent as time goes on. In the first flush of enthusiasm for +Darwinism, zooelogists and palaeontologists allowed their zeal to outrun +discretion in the formation of family trees. They examined large +series of living or extinct creatures, and so soon as they found +gradations of structure present, they arranged their specimens in a +linear series, from the simplest to the most complex, and declared +that the arrangement was a representation of the family tree. The fact +that the line of descent apparently could have followed along the +direction they suggested they were inclined to take as evidence that +it had so followed. Huxley made the most careful distinction between +what he called intermediate types and types with a right to be placed +in linear order, + + Every fossil which takes an intermediate place between forms of + life already known may be said, so far as it is intermediate, to + be evidence in favour of evolution, inasmuch as it shews a + possible road by which evolution may have taken place. But the + mere discovery of such a form does not, in itself, prove that + evolution took place by and through it, nor does it constitute + more than a presumptive evidence in favour of evolution in + general. The fact that _Anoplotheridae_ are intermediate between + pigs and ruminants does not tell us whether the ruminants have + come from the pigs or the pigs from the ruminants, or both from + _Anoplotheridae_, or whether pigs, ruminants, and _Anoplotheridae_; + alike may not have diverged from some common stock. + +A familiar instance will make the point at issue plain. Everyone knows +that in many respects, in the structure of the skeleton, and the curve +of the backbone, and in the development of the brain, the man-like +monkeys, the gorilla and its allies, are intermediate between man and +the lower monkeys. In the early days of evolution it was assumed +frequently that the gorilla, etc., were therefore to be regarded as +ancestors of man, and they appear as such in more than one well-known +treatise on evolutionary biology. We now know that it is exceedingly +probable that the gorilla and its allies, although truly intermediate +types, and truly shewing a possible path of evolution from the brute +to man, are not the actual ancestors of man, but cousins, descendants +like man from some more or less remote common ancestor. And the +tendency of recent advances in knowledge is more and more to throw +stress on the value of Huxley's distinction, and to minimise confusion +between "intermediate" and truly ancestral types. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HUXLEY AND DARWIN + + Early Ideas on Evolution--Erasmus Darwin--Lamarck--Herbert + Spencer--Difference between Evolution and Natural + Selection--Huxley's Preparation for Evolution--The Novelty of + Natural Selection--The Advantage of Natural Selection as a + Working Hypothesis--Huxley's Unchanged Position with regard to + Evolution and Natural Selection from 1860 to 1894. + + +From our attempt to place together as much as possible of Huxley's +geological work in the last chapter, it followed that we anticipated +much that falls properly within this chapter. The year 1859, the date +of publication of _The Origin of Species_, is a momentous date in the +history of this century, as it was the year in which there was given +to the world a theory that not only revolutionised scientific opinion, +but altered the trend of almost every branch of thought. To understand +this great change, and the part played in it by Huxley, it is +necessary to be quite clear as to what Darwin did. In the first place, +he did not invent evolution. The idea that all the varied structures +in the world, the divergent forms of rocks and minerals and crystals, +the innumerable trees and herbs that cover the face of the earth like +a mantle, and all the animal host of creatures great and small that +dwell on the land or dart through the air or people the waters,--that +all these had arisen by natural laws from a primitive unformed +material was known to the Greeks, was developed by the Romans, and +even received the approval of early Christian Fathers, who wrote long +before the idea had been invented that the naive legends of the Old +Testament were an authoritative and literal account of the origin of +the world. After a long interval, in which scientific thought was +stifled by theological dogmatism, the theory of evolution, +particularly in its application to animals, began to reappear, long +before Darwin published _The Origin of Species_. Buffon, the great +French naturalist, and Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles, had +expressed in the clearest way the possibility that species had not +been created independently, but had arisen from other species. Lamarck +had worked out a theory of descent in the fullest detail, and regarded +it as the foundation of the whole science of biology. He taught that +the beginning of life consisted only of the simplest and lowest plants +and animals; that the more complex animals and plants arose from +these, and that even man himself had come from ape-like mammals. He +held that the course of development of the earth and of all the +creatures upon it was a slow and continuous change, uninterrupted by +violent revolutions. He summed up the causes of organic evolution in +the following propositions[D]: + + "1. Life tends by its inherent forces to increase the volume of + each living body and of all its parts up to a limit determined by + its own needs. + + "2. New wants in animals give rise to new movements which + produce organs. + + "3. The development of these organs is in proportion to their + employment. + + "4. New developments are transmitted to offspring." + +He supported especially the last two propositions by a series of +examples as to the effects of use and disuse; and the most famous of +these, the theory that giraffes had produced their long necks by +continually stretching up towards the trees on which they fed, is well +known to everyone. However, the ingenious speculations of Lamarck were +unsupported by a sufficient range of actual knowledge of anatomy, and +lacked experimental proof. He entirely failed to convince his +contemporaries; and Darwin himself, in a letter to Lyell, declared +that he had gained nothing from two readings of Lamarck's book. There +can be little doubt but that several Continental writers, in +particular Haeckel, have exaggerated Lamarck's services to the +development of the idea of evolution. On the other hand, Lyell, +although he strongly opposed the ideas of Lamarck and some curious +notions of progressional creation due to the great Agassiz, had +prepared the way for Darwin by his advocacy of natural causes and slow +changes in opposition to the catastrophic and miraculous views in +vogue. Above all, Herbert Spencer had argued most strenuously in +favour of evolution. Thus, in an important passage quoted by Mr. Clodd +from the _Leader_ of March 20, 1852, Spencer had written as follows: + + "Those who cavalierly reject the theory of evolution, as not + adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their + own theory is not supported by facts at all. Like the majority of + men who are born to a given belief, they demand the most rigorous + proof of any adverse belief, but assume that their own needs + none. Here we find, scattered over the globe, vegetable and + animal organisms numbering, of the one kind (according to + Humboldt) some 320,000 species, and of the other, some 2,000,000 + species (see Carpenter); and if to these we add the numbers of + animal and vegetable species that have become extinct, we may + safely estimate the number of species that have existed, and are + existing, on the earth, at no less than ten millions. Well, which + is the most rational theory about these ten millions of species? + Is it most likely that there have been ten millions of special + creations; or is it most likely that by continual modifications, + due to change of circumstances, ten millions of varieties have + been produced, as varieties are being produced still?... Even + could the supporters of the development hypothesis merely shew + that the origination of species by the process of modification is + conceivable, they would be in a better position than their + opponents. But they can do much more than this. They can shew + that the process of modification has effected, and is effecting, + decided changes in all organisms subject to modifying + influences.... They can shew that in successive generations these + changes continue, until ultimately the new conditions become the + natural ones. They can shew that in cultivated plants, + domesticated animals, and in the several races of men, such + alterations have taken place. They can show that the degrees of + difference so produced are often, as in dogs, greater than those + on which distinctions of species have been founded. They can + shew, too, that the changes daily taking place in ourselves--the + facility that attends long practice, and the loss of aptitude + that begins when practice ceases,--the strengthening of the + passions habitually gratified, and the weakening of those + habitually curbed,--the development of every faculty, bodily, + moral, intellectual, according to the use made of it--are all + explicable on this principle. And thus they can shew that + throughout all organic nature there is at work a modifying + influence of the kind they assign as the cause of these specific + differences; an influence which, though slow in its action, does, + in time, if the circumstances demand it, produce marked + changes--an influence which, to all appearance, would produce in + the millions of years, and under the great varieties of condition + which geological records imply, any amount of change." + +These and many other instances which might be brought together from +the published writings of the half-century before the publication of +the _Origin_, show conclusively that the idea of evolution was far +from new, and that all through the first part of this century +dissatisfaction with the doctrine of the fixity of species and of +their miraculous creation was growing. The great contribution of +Darwin was this: First, by his theory of natural selection, he brought +together the known facts of variation, of struggle for existence, and +of adaptation to varying conditions, in such a way that they provided +men with a rational and known cause, a cause the operation of which +could be seen, for the origin of species by means of preservation of +favoured races. Next, as to the origin of species, he brought together +not only proofs of the actual operation of natural selection, but a +body of evidence in favour of the fact of evolution that was, beyond +all comparison, more striking than had been adduced by any earlier +philosophical or biological writer. He convinced naturalists that +evolution was by far the most probable way in which the living world +had come to be what it is, and he made them turn to examination of the +animal and vegetable kingdoms with a lively hope that the past history +of the living world was not an insoluble problem. Darwin's doctrine +brought a new life into biological study, and the result of the +incomparably greater bulk of investigation that followed the year 1859 +was a continual increase of evidence in favour of the probability of +evolution, until now the whole scientific world, and the majority of +those who are unscientific, are content to accept evolution as the +only reasonable explanation of the living world. It is well to +remember that while Darwin, by bringing forward the theory of struggle +for existence and resulting survival of the fittest, was the actual +cause of the present assured position of evolution as a first +principle of science, it by no means follows that the survival of the +fittest has become similarly a first principle of science. At cross +roads a traveller may choose the right path from a quite +unsatisfactory reason. Darwin himself, in the act of bringing forward +his own theory of natural selection, admitted the possibility of the +co-operation of many other agencies in evolution, and at various times +during the course of his life he was inclined to attach, now more now +less, importance to these additional agencies. Huxley, as we shall +soon come to see, never wavered in his adhesion to the facts of +evolution after 1859; but, from first to last, regarded natural +selection as only the most probable cause of the occurrence of +evolution. Other naturalists, of whom the best-known are Weismann in +Germany, Ray Lankester in England, and W.K. Brooks in America, have +come to attach a continually increasing importance to the purely +Darwinian factor of natural selection; while others again, such as +Herbert Spencer in England, and the late Professor Cope and a large +American school, have advocated more and more strongly the importance +of what may be called the Lamarckian factors of evolution,--the +inherited effects of increased or diminished use of organs, the direct +influence of the environment, and so forth. From the fact that Darwin +has persuaded the world of the truth of evolution, evolution is often +called Darwinism; and in this historically just though scientifically +inaccurate sense of the term, Huxley was a strict Darwinian, a +Darwinian of the Darwinians. From the facts that, although natural +selection had been formulated by several writers before Darwin, and +had been simultaneously elaborated by Wallace and Darwin, the _Origin +of Species_ was the foundation of the modern acceptation of evolution, +and natural selection was the key-note of the origin of species, +natural selection may be called Darwinism with both historical and +scientific accuracy; and in this sense of the term Huxley was a +Darwinian; a convinced but free-thinking and broad-minded Darwinian, +who was far from persuaded that his tenet had a monopoly of truth, and +who delighted in shewing the distinctions between what seemed to him +probable and what was proved, and in absorbing from other doctrines +whatever he thought worthy to be absorbed. The present writer has +thought it so important to distinguish between these two sides of the +word _Darwinism_, that for the sake of clearness he has stated what he +believes to be the truth of Huxley's relation to Darwin before +beginning detailed exposition of it. + +In consideration of Huxley's position before 1859, the most +interesting feature of his zooelogical work is the gradual preparation +that it was making in his mind for the doctrine of the _Origin_. He +was like an engineer boring a tunnel through a mountain, but ignorant +of how near he was to the pleasant valley on the other side; and, +above all, ignorant how rapidly he was being met by a much more mighty +excavation from the other side. To use what is perhaps a more exact +simile: he was like a child with half the pieces of a puzzle-map, +slowly linking them together as far as they would fit, and quite +ignorant that presently the remaining half would suddenly be given +him, and with almost no trouble would at once fit into the gaps he had +necessarily left, and transform a meaningless pattern into a perfect +and intelligible whole. Let us consider some of these map pieces. The +ultimate picture was the conception of the whole world of life, past +and present, as a single family tree growing up from the simplest +possible roots, and gradually spreading out first into the two main +branches of animals and plants, and then into the endless series of +complicated ramifications that make up living and extinct animals and +plants. Huxley was piecing together the scattered fragments, and +gradually learning to see here and there whole branches, as yet +separate at their lower ends, but in themselves shapely, and showing a +general resemblance to one another in the gradual progression from +simple to complex. The greatest of these branches that he had pieced +together was the group of Medusae and their allies, now known as +Coelenterates. He had formed similar branches for the Molluscs and +minor branches for the Salps and Ascidians, and, in his general +lectures on the whole animal kingdom, he had shadowed out the broad +arrangement of the main divisions, or, as he called them, _types_. He +had seen in each particular branch the clearest evidence of the laws +of growth which had directed its development, and had realised that +these laws of growth, consisting of gradual modifications of common +typical structures, were identical in the different branches. He had +taken clear hold of Von Baer's conception that the younger stages of +different types were more alike than the adult stages, and here and +there he had made comparisons between the younger stages or simplest +forms of his different branches, and had shown that, without +completely realising it, he was ready for the idea that just as the +separate pieces could be arranged to form orderly branches, so the +separate branches might come to be arranged as a single tree. And +finally, in his lectures on "Protoplasm and Cells," and on the +"Common Structure of the Animal and Plant Kingdoms," he had reached +the conclusion that the two main divisions of the living world were +formed of the same stuff, displayed in identical fashion the +elementary functions of life, and were creatures of the same order. +But, notwithstanding this close approach to modern conceptions, he was +not an evolutionist. When, in public, he expressed deliberate +convictions, these convictions were against the general idea of +evolution, until very shortly before 1859. In this opposition he was +supported partly by the critical scepticism of his mind, which in all +things made him singularly unwilling to accept any theories of any +kind, but chiefly from the fact that the books of the two chief +supporters of evolutionary conceptions impressed him very +unfavourably. Huxley writes: + + "I had studied Lamarck attentively, and I had read the _Vestiges_ + with due care; but neither of them afforded me any good ground + for changing my negative and critical attitude. As for the + _Vestiges_, I confess that the book simply irritated me by the + prodigious ignorance and thoroughly unscientific habit of mind + manifested by the writer. If it had any influence on me at all, + it set me against evolution; and the only review I ever have + qualms of conscience about, on the ground of needless savagery is + one I wrote on the _Vestiges_ while under that influence. With + respect to the _Philosophie Zoologique_, it is no reproach to + Lamarck to say that the discussion of the species question in + that work, whatever might be said for it in 1809, was miserably + below the level of the knowledge of half a century later. In that + interval of time, the elucidation of the structure of the lower + animals and plants had given rise to wholly new conceptions of + their relations; histology and embryology, in the modern sense, + had been created; physiology had been reconstituted; the facts of + distribution, geological and geographical, had been prodigiously + multiplied and reduced to order. To any biologist whose studies + had carried him beyond mere species-mongering, in 1850 one-half + of Lamarck's arguments were obsolete, and the other half + erroneous or defective, in virtue of omitting to deal with the + various classes of evidence which had been brought to light since + his time. Moreover his one suggestion as to the cause of the + gradual modification of species--effort excited by change of + conditions--was, on the face of it, inapplicable to the whole + vegetable world. I do not think that any impartial judge who + reads the _Philosophie Zoologique_ now, and who afterwards takes + up Lyell's trenchant and effective criticism (published as far + back as 1830) will be disposed to allot to Lamarck a much higher + place in the establishment of biological evolution than that + which Bacon assigns to himself in relation to physical science + generally--_buccinator tantum_". + +On the other hand, Huxley's friendship with Darwin and with Lyell +began to make him less certain about the fixity of species. He tells +us that during his first interview with Darwin, which occurred soon +after his return from the _Rattlesnake_, he + + "expressed his belief in the sharpness of the lines of + demarcation between natural groups and in the absence of + transitional forms, with all the confidence of youth and + imperfect knowledge. I was not aware at that time that he had + been many years brooding over the species question; and the + humorous smile which accompanied his gentle answer, that such was + not altogether his view, long haunted and puzzled me." + +An elaborate study of Lyell's works helped largely in destroying this +youthful confidence, and a letter written by Lyell and quoted by +Huxley in the chapter he communicated to Darwin's _Life and Letters_, +states that in April, 1856, "when Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston were +at Darwin's last week they (all four of them) ran a tilt against +species; further I believe, than they are prepared to go." Another +quotation from Huxley's essay on _The Reception of the Origin of +Species_ will make it plain beyond all doubt that he was not a +Darwinian before Darwin. + +[Illustration: SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER] + + "Thus, looking hack into the past, it seems to me that my own + position of critical expectancy was just and reasonable, and must + have been taken up, on the same grounds, by many other persons. + If Agassiz had told me that the forms of life which had + successively tenanted the globe were the incarnations of + successive thoughts of the Deity; and that He had wiped out one + set of these embodiments by an appalling geological catastrophe + as soon as His ideas took a more advanced shape, I found myself + not only unable to admit the accuracy of the deductions from the + facts of palaeontology, upon which this astounding hypothesis was + founded, but I had to confess my want of means of testing the + correctness of his explanation of them. And besides that, I could + by no means see what the explanation explained. Neither did it + help me to be told by an eminent anatomist that species had + succeeded one another in time, in virtue of a 'continuously + operative creational law'. That seemed to me to be no more than + saying that species had succeeded one another in the form of a + vote-catching resolution, with 'law' to please the man of science + and 'creational' to draw the orthodox. So I took refuge in that + _thaetige Skepsis_ which Goethe has so well defined; and, + reversing the apostolic precept to be all things to all men, I + usually defended the tenability of the received doctrines when I + had to do with the transmutationists, and stood up for the + possibility of transmutation among the orthodox--thereby, no + doubt, increasing an already current, but quite undeserved, + reputation for needless combativeness." + +What transformed Huxley's views and the views of his contemporaries +who accepted Darwinism was not so much the evidence in favour of +evolution contained in the _Origin_, as the illuminating doctrine of +natural selection which for the first time supplied naturalists with a +reasonable explanation of how evolution might have come about, both in +the animal and vegetable kingdoms. As soon as this reason was +provided them, they turned to the store of facts within their own +knowledge, and rapidly arranged the evidence which had been lurking +only partly visible in favour of the fact of evolution. It cannot be +disputed that here and there earlier writers than Darwin and Wallace +had suggested the possibility of natural selection acting upon +existing variations so as to cause survival of the fittest. +MacGillivray, the Scots naturalist, and the father of Huxley's +companion on the _Rattlesnake_, had published suggestions which came +exceedingly near to Darwin's theory. In 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew had +published a work on _Naval Architecture and Timber_, and in it had +stated the essential principle of the Darwinian doctrine of struggle +and survival. Still earlier, in 1813, a Dr. W.C. Wells, in a paper to +the Royal Society on "A White Female, Part of whose Skin Resembles +that of a Negro," had, as Darwin himself freely admitted, distinctly +recognised the principle of natural selection--but applied it only to +the races of man, and to certain characters alone. Finally, long +before either of these, Aristotle himself had written, in _Physics_, +ii., 8: "Why are not the things which seem the result of design, +merely spontaneous variations, which, being useful, have been +preserved, while others are continually eliminated as unsuitable?" +None of these foreshadowings were supported by lengthy evidence, nor +worked out into an elaborate theory; and it was not until Darwin had +done this that we can say the birth of natural selection really took +place. Huxley writes: + + "The suggestion that new species may result from the selective + action of external conditions upon the variations from their + specific type which individuals present,--and which we call + 'spontaneous,' because we are ignorant of their causation,--is + as wholly unknown to the historian of scientific ideas as it was + to biological specialists before 1858." + +But that suggestion is the central idea of the origin of species, and +contains the quintessence of Darwinism. + +Some weeks before the _Origin_ was published, Darwin wrote to Huxley, +sending him a copy of the work, and asking him for the names of +eminent foreigners to whom it should be sent. In the course of his +letter he wrote: "I shall be intensely curious to hear what effect the +book produces on you," and it was clear that he had no very confident +expectation of a favourable opinion. Huxley replied the day before the +_Origin_ was published, saying that he had finished the volume, and +stating that it had completely convinced him of the fact of evolution, +and that he fully accepted natural selection as a "true cause for the +production of species." Darwin, in a letter to Wallace, telling of his +doubts and fears concerning the reception of his book, had added the +postscript: "I think I told you before that Hooker is a complete +convert. If I can convert Huxley, I shall be content." When he +received Huxley's letter he replied at once: + + "Like a good Catholic who has received extreme unction, I can now + sing _Nunc Dimittis_. I should have been more than contented with + one quarter of what you have said. Exactly fifteen months ago, + when I first put pen to paper for this volume, I had awful + misgivings, and thought perhaps I had deluded myself, like so + many have done; and I then fixed in my mind three judges, on + whose decision I determined mentally to abide. The judges were + Lyell, Hooker, and yourself. It was this which made me so + excessively anxious for your verdict. I am now contented, and can + sing my _Nunc Dimittis_." + +The effect of the new theory on Huxley's mind has been expressed most +fully and clearly by himself: + + "I imagine that most of my contemporaries who thought seriously + about the matter were very much in my own state of mind--inclined + to say to Mosaists and Evolutionists, 'a plague on both your + houses!' and disposed to turn aside from an interminable and + apparently fruitless discussion to labour in the fertile fields + of ascertainable fact. And I may, therefore, further suppose that + the publication of the Darwin and Wallace papers in 1858, and + still more that of the _Origin_ in 1859, had the effect upon them + of that of a flash of light which, to a man who has lost himself + in a dark night, suddenly reveals a road which, whether it takes + him straight home or not, certainly goes his way. That which we + were looking for and could not find, was a hypothesis respecting + the origin of known organic forms, which assumed the operation of + no causes but such as could be proved to be actually at work. We + wanted, not to pin our faith to that or any other speculation, + but to get hold of clear and definite conceptions which could be + brought face to face with facts and have their validity tested. + The _Origin_ provided us with the working hypothesis we sought. + Moreover, it did us the immense service of freeing us for ever + from the dilemma--refuse to accept the creation hypothesis, and + what have you to propose that can be accepted by any cautious + reasoner? In 1857 I had no answer ready, and I do not think that + anyone else had. A year later, we reproached ourselves with + dulness for being perplexed by such an enquiry. My reflection, + when I first made myself master of the central idea of the + _Origin_ was, 'how exceedingly stupid not to have thought of + that.' I suppose that Columbus's companions said much the same + when he made the egg to stand on end. The facts of variability, + of the struggle for existence, of adaptation to conditions, were + notorious enough; but none of us had suspected that the road to + the heart of the species problem lay through them, until Darwin + and Wallace dispelled the darkness, and the beacon-fire of the + _Origin_ guided the benighted. + + "Whether the particular shape which the doctrine of evolution, + as applied to the organic world, took in Darwin's hands, would + prove to be final or not, was, to me, a matter of indifference. + In my earliest criticisms of the _Origin_ I ventured to point out + that its logical foundation was insecure so long as experiments + in selective breeding had not produced varieties which were more + or less infertile; and that insecurity remains up to the present + time. But, with any and every critical doubt which my sceptical + ingenuity could suggest, the Darwinian hypothesis remained + incomparably more probable than the creation hypothesis. And if + we had none of us been able to discern the paramount significance + of some of the most patent and notorious of natural facts, until + they were, so to speak, thrust under our noses, what force + remained in the dilemma--creation or nothing? It was obvious + that, hereafter, the probability would be immensely greater that + the links of natural causation were hidden from our purblind + eyes, than that natural causation should be unable to produce all + the phenomena of nature. The only rational course for those who + had no other object than the attainment of truth, was to accept + 'Darwinism' as a working hypothesis, and see what could be made + of it. Either it would prove its capacity to elucidate the fact + of organic life, or it would break down under the strain. This + was surely the dictate of common sense, and for once common-sense + carried the day. The result has been that complete _volte-face_ + of the whole scientific world which must seem so surprising to + the present generation. I do not mean to say that all the leaders + of biological science have avowed themselves Darwinians; but I do + not think that there is a single zooelogist, or botanist, or + palaeontologist, among the multitude of active workers of this + generation, who is other than an evolutionist profoundly + influenced by Darwin's views. Whatever may be the ultimate fate + of the particular theory put forth by Darwin, I venture to affirm + that, so far as my knowledge goes, all the ingenuity and all the + learning of hostile critics has not enabled them to adduce a + solitary fact of which it can be said that it is irreconcilable + with the Darwinian theory. In the prodigious variety and + complexity of organic nature, there are multitudes of phenomena + which are not deducible from any generalisation we have yet + reached. But the same may be said of every other class of natural + objects. I believe that astronomers cannot yet get the moon's + motions into perfect accordance with the theory of gravitation." + +These quotations make plain the historical fact that Huxley was +convinced of evolution because Darwin, by his theory of natural +selection, brought forward an actual cause that could be seen in +operation, and that was competent to produce new species. As soon as the +"flash of light" came, it revealed to Huxley the vast store of evidence +that he had unconsciously accumulated, and it set him at once to work +collecting more evidence. If we bear in mind the distinction between +evolution and natural selection, the well-known subsequent history of +the relations between Huxley and what was known popularly as Darwinism +becomes clear and intelligible. From first to last he accepted +evolution; from first to last he accepted natural selection as by far +the most reasonable hypothesis that had been brought forward, and as +infinitely more in accordance with the observed facts of nature than any +theory of the immediate action of supernatural creative power. As time +went on, and the influence of Darwin's theory made evolution acceptable +to a wider and wider range of people, until it passed into the common +knowledge of the world, that confusion of which we have spoken arose +between evolution and Darwin's particular theory. And as knowledge grew, +and the number of biologists increased in the striking fashion of this +last half-century, while the evidence for evolution continued to +increase with an unexpected rapidity, every detail of the purely +Darwinian theory became more and more subjected to rigid scrutiny. Most +educated people, unless their education has been largely in an +experimental science, find difficulty in understanding the relation in +the minds of naturalists between "authority" and "knowledge." We do not +_know_, for instance, that the structure of the Medusae consists +essentially of two foundation-membranes, because Huxley, one of the +greatest authorities in anatomy that the world has seen, told us that it +was so. We know it because, Huxley having told us that it was so, we are +able at any time with a microscope and dissecting needles to observe the +fact for ourselves. It is true, that unless we are making a special +study of the Medusae we do not repeat the observation in the case of so +many different forms of Medusae as Huxley studied; but it is part of our +training to observe for ourselves in a sufficient number of cases to +test the correspondence between statement and fact before we accept the +generalisation of any authority. And we learn, or at least have the +opportunity of learning, in the whole habit of our lives as naturalists, +to distinguish carefully between knowledge of which personal observation +is an essential part, and opinion or belief which may or may not be +based upon authority, but which in any case is devoid of the +corroboration of personal observation. When a piece of new anatomical or +physiological work is published in a technical journal, it is read by a +large number of anatomists and physiologists, and if the work is +apparently of an important kind, bearing on the general problems that +even specialists have to follow, they all at once set to work in their +laboratories to make corroborative dissections or experiments, and it is +part of every modern account of a biological discovery to tell exactly +the methods by which results were got, in order that this process of +corroboration may be set about easily. The question as to whether or no +natural selection were the sole or chief cause, or indeed a cause at +all, of evolution is not yet, and perhaps never will be, a matter of +knowledge in the scientific sense. At the most, we can see for ourselves +only that selection does bring about changes at least as great as the +differences between natural species. The evidence for this we have +before our eyes, if we choose to see, on a stock farm; in the breeding +yards of any keeper of "fancy" animals; or in the nursery gardens of any +florist. So far, Huxley accepted the Darwinian principle as a definite +contribution to knowledge; and so far the whole body of biologists has +followed him. Beyond this the truth of the Darwinian principle is a +matter of inference or judgment; of balancing probabilities and +improbabilities. In multitude of counsellors there is said to be wisdom, +and what we learn from the counsellors of biology all over the world is +that some maintain that natural selection is the only probable agency in +effecting evolution, and that it is competent to account for all the +changes which we know to have taken place; others hold that its probable +influence has been over-rated; and others, again, think that it has been +one of the many causes that have brought about the kaleidoscopic variety +of organic nature. Huxley remained to the last among those who +distinguished in the clearest way between natural selection as an +exceedingly ingenious and probable hypothesis, and a proved cause; and +he was always careful, especially when he was writing for or speaking in +the presence of those who like himself accepted the fact of evolution as +proven, to distinguish between this provisional hypothesis as to how +evolution had come about, and definite knowledge that it had come about +in this way. Two passages from Huxley's writings, one written in 1860 in +the _Westminster Review_, and the second written in 1893, in the preface +to the volume of his collected essays which contained a reprint of the +_Westminster_ article, will make plain the continuity of Huxley's +attitude: + + "There is no fault to be found with Mr. Darwin's method, then; + but it is another question whether he has fulfilled all the + conditions imposed by that method. Is it satisfactorily proved, + in fact, that species may be originated by selection? That there + is such a thing as natural selection? That none of the phenomena + exhibited by species are inconsistent with the origin of species + in this way? If these questions can be answered in the + affirmative, Mr. Darwin's view steps out of the rank of + hypotheses into those of proved theories; but, so long as the + evidence at present adduced falls short of enforcing that + affirmation, so long, to our minds, must the new doctrine be + content to remain among the former--an extremely valuable, and in + the highest degree probable, doctrine; indeed, the only extant + hypothesis which is worth anything in a scientific point of view; + but still a hypothesis, and not yet the theory of species. + + "After much consideration, and assuredly with no bias against + Mr. Darwin's views, it is our clear conviction that, as the + evidence stands, it is not absolutely proven that a group of + animals having all the characters exhibited by species in nature, + has ever been originated by selection, whether natural or + artificial. Groups having the morphological character of species, + distinct and permanent races, in fact, have been so produced over + and over again; but there is no positive evidence at present that + any group of animals has, by variation and selective breeding, + given rise to another group which was in the least degree + infertile with the first. Mr. Darwin is perfectly aware of this + weak point, and brings forward a multitude of ingenious and + important arguments to diminish the force of the objection. We + admit the value of these arguments to the fullest extent; nay, we + will go so far as to express our belief that experiments, + conducted by a skilful physiologist, would very probably obtain + the desired production of mutually more or less infertile breeds + from a common stock in a comparatively few years; but still, as + the case stands at present, this little 'rift within the lute' is + not to be disguised or overlooked."--(_Westminster Review_, + 1860.) + + "We should leave a very wrong impression on the reader's mind if + we permitted him to suppose that the value of Darwin's work + depends wholly on the ultimate justification of the theoretical + views which it contains. On the contrary, if they were disproved + to-morrow, the book would still be the best of its kind--the most + compendious statement of well-sifted facts bearing on the + doctrine of species that has ever appeared. The chapters on + variation, on the struggle for existence, on instinct, on + hybridism, on the imperfection of the geological record, on + geographical distribution, have not only no equals, but, so far + as our knowledge goes, no competitors, within the range of + biological literature. And viewed as a whole, we do not believe + that, since the publication of Von Baer's _Researches on + Development_, thirty years ago, any work has appeared calculated + to exert so large an influence, not only on the future of + biology, but in extending the domination of science over regions + of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly + penetrated."--(_Ibid._) + + "Those who take the trouble to read the essays published in 1859 + and 1860, will, I think, do me the justice to admit that my zeal + to secure fair play for Mr. Darwin did not drive me into the + position of a mere advocate; and that, while doing justice to the + greatness of the argument, I did not fail to indicate its weak + points. I have never seen any reason for departing from the + position which I took up in these two essays; and the assertion + which I sometimes meet with nowadays that I have 'recanted' or + changed my opinions about Mr. Darwin's views is quite + unintelligible to me. + + "As I have said in the seventh essay, the fact of evolution is + to my mind sufficiently evidenced by palaeontology; and I remain + of the opinion expressed in the second, that until selective + breeding is definitely proved to give rise to varieties infertile + with one another, the logical foundation of the theory of natural + selection is quite incomplete. We still remain very much in the + dark about the causes of variation; the apparent inheritance of + acquired characters in some cases; and the struggle for existence + within the organism, which probably lies at the bottom of both + these phenomena."--(1893, _Preface_.) + +Finally, when he was awarded the Darwin Medal of the Royal Society, on +November 30, 1894, in the course of an address at the anniversary +dinner of the Society, he said, as reported in the _Times_ next day: + + "I am as much convinced now as I was thirty-four years ago that + the theory propounded by Mr. Darwin, I mean that which he + propounded--not that which has been reported to be his by too + many ill-instructed, both friends and foes--has never yet been + shewn to be inconsistent with any positive observations, and if I + may use a phrase which I know has been objected to, and which I + use in a totally different sense from that in which it was first + proposed by its first propounder, I do believe that on all + grounds of pure science it 'holds the field' as the only + hypothesis at present before us which has a sound scientific + foundation.... I am sincerely of opinion that the views which + were propounded by Mr. Darwin thirty-four years ago may be + understood hereafter as constituting an epoch in the intellectual + history of the human race. They will modify the whole system of + our thought and opinion, our most intimate convictions. But I do + not know, I do not think anybody knows, whether the particular + views he held will be hereafter fortified by the experience of + the ages which come after us.... Whether the particular form in + which he has put before us the Darwinian doctrines may be such as + to be destined to survive or not, is more, I venture to think, + than anybody is capable at this present moment of saying." + +Further details of Huxley's relation to natural selection may be +gained from an interesting chapter in Professor Poulton's volume on +_Charles Darwin_ (Cassell and Co., London, 1896). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote D: See E. Clodd's _Pioneers of Evolution_, London, 1897, and +Osborn's _From the Greeks to Darwin_, New York, 1896.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE BATTLE FOR EVOLUTION + + 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--Resume of Huxley's + Exact Position with Regard to Evolution and to Natural Selection. + + +When Huxley wrote thanking Darwin for the first copy of the _Origin_, +he warned him of the annoyance and abuse he might expect from those +whose opinions were too suddenly disturbed by the new exposition of +evolution, and assured him of the strongest personal support: + + "I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted + or annoyed by the considerable abuse and misrepresentation which, + unless I greatly mistake, is in store for you. Depend upon it, + you have earned the lasting gratitude of all thoughtful men; and + as to the curs which will bark and yelp, you must recollect that + some of your friends, at any rate, are endowed with an amount of + combativeness which (though you have often and justly rebuked it) + may stand you in good stead. + + "I am sharpening my claws and beak in readiness." + +Huxley was absolutely right in his prediction as to the magnitude of +the prejudices to be overcome before evolution became accepted, and +for the next thirty years of his life he was the leader in the battle +for Darwinism. It was natural that the new views, especially in their +extension to man himself, should arouse the keenest opposition. To +those of the present generation, who have grown up in an atmosphere +impregnated by the doctrine of descent, the position of the world in +1860 seems "older than a tale written in any book." As we have tried +to shew in the preceding chapter, biological science was partially +prepared; the mutability of species and the orderly succession of +organic life were in the air. But the application of the doctrine to +man came as a greater shock to civilised sentiment than would have +occurred a century earlier. It came as a disaster even to the clearest +and calmest intellects, for it seemed to drag down to the dirt the +nobility of man. Out of the fierce flame of the French Revolution, +there had come purged and clean the conception of man as an individual +and soul. As this century advanced, the conception of the dignity and +worth of each individual man, rich or poor, bond or free, had spread +more and more widely, bearing as its fruit the emancipation of slaves, +the spread of political freedom, the amelioration of the conditions of +the dregs of humanity, the right of all to education, the possibility +of universal peace based on the brotherhood of man; and all that was +best in philosophy and in political practice seemed bound up with a +lofty view of the unit of mankind. Carlyle himself, to whom many of +the freest and noblest spirits in Europe were beginning to look as to +an inspired prophet, could see in it nothing but a "monkey +damnification of mankind." The dogmatic world saw in it nothing but a +deliberate and malicious assault upon religion. The Church of England +in particular was beginning to recover from a long period of almost +incredible supineness, and there was arising a large body of clergy +full of faith and zeal and good works, but quite unacquainted with +science, who frankly regarded Darwin as Antichrist, and Huxley and +Tyndall as emissaries of the devil. Against evolutionists there was +left unused no weapon that ignorant prejudice could find, whether that +prejudice was inspired by a lofty zeal for what it conceived to be the +highest interests of humanity, or by a crafty policy which saw in the +new doctrine a blow to the coming renewed supremacy of the Church. To +us, now, it may seem that Huxley had "sharpened his beak and claws" +with the spirit of a gladiator rather than with that of the mere +defender of a scientific doctrine; but a very short study of +contemporary literature will convince anyone that for a time the +defenders of evolution had to defend not only what they knew to be +scientific truth, but their personal and private reputation. The new +doctrine, like perhaps all the great doctrines that have come into the +world, brought not peace but a sword, and had to be defended by the +sword. Darwin had not the kind of disposition nor the particular +faculties necessary for a deadly contest of this kind; he was +interested indeed above all things in convincing a few leading +naturalists of the truth of his opinions; but, that done, he would +have been contented to continue his own work quietly, in absolute +carelessness as to what the world in general thought of him. Huxley, +on the other hand, was incapable of restraining himself from +propagating what he knew to be the truth; his reforming missionary +spirit was not content simply with self-defence; it drove him to be a +bishop _in partibus infidelium_. + +By a curious and interesting accident, Huxley had the opportunity of +beginning his propagandism by writing the first great review of _The +Origin of Species_ in the _Times_, at that period without question the +leading journal in the world. Huxley's own account of this happy +chance is given in _Darwin's Life and Letters_, vol. ii. + + "The _Origin_ was sent to Mr. Lucas, one of the staff of the + _Times_ writers at that day, in what I suppose was the ordinary + course of business. Mr. Lucas, though an excellent journalist, + and at a later period editor of _Once a Week_, was as innocent of + any knowledge of science as a babe, and bewailed himself to an + acquaintance on having to deal with such a book, whereupon he was + recommended to ask me to get him out of his difficulty, and he + applied to me accordingly, explaining, however, that it would be + necessary for him formally to adopt anything I might be disposed + to write, by prefacing it with two or three paragraphs of his + own. + + "I was too anxious to seize on the opportunity thus offered of + giving the book a fair chance with the multitudinous readers of + the _Times_ to make any difficulty about conditions; and being + then very full of the subject, I wrote the article faster, I + think, than I ever wrote anything in my life, and sent it to Mr. + Lucas, who duly prefixed his opening sentences. When the article + appeared, there was much speculation as to its authorship. The + secret leaked out in time, as all secrets will, but not by my + aid; and then I used to derive a good deal of innocent amusement + from the vehement assertions of some of my more acute friends, + that they knew it was mine from the first paragraph." "As the + _Times_ some years since referred to my connection with the + review, I suppose there will be no breach of confidence in the + publication of this little history." + +This review was one of the few favourable notices, and naturally it +delighted Darwin greatly. He wrote to Hooker about it: "Have you seen +the splendid essay and notice of my book in the _Times_? I cannot +avoid a strong suspicion that it is by Huxley; but I have never heard +that he wrote in the _Times_. It will do grand service." On the same +day, writing to Huxley himself, he said of the review: + + "It included an eulogium of me which quite touched me, although I + am not vain enough to think it all deserved. The author is a + literary man and a German scholar. He has read my book + attentively; but, what is very remarkable, it seems that he is a + profound naturalist. He knows my barnacle book and appreciates it + too highly. Lastly, he writes and thinks with quite uncommon + force and clearness; and, what is even still rarer, his writing + is seasoned with most pleasant wit. We all laughed heartily over + some of the sentences.... Who can it be? Certainly I should have + said that there was only one man in England who could have + written this essay, and that you were the man; but I suppose that + I am wrong, and that there is some hidden genius of great + calibre; for how could you influence Jupiter Olympus and make him + give you three and a half columns to pure science? The old fogies + will think the world will come to an end. Well, whoever the man + is, he has done great service to the cause." + +The essay in the _Times_ was followed shortly afterwards by a "Friday +Evening Discourse" in 1860 on "Species, Races, and their Origin," in +which Huxley, addressing a cultivated audience, laid the whole weight +of his brilliant scientific reputation on the side of evolution. Next, +in April, 1860, he published a long article in the _Westminster +Review_, then a leading organ of advanced opinion, on _The Origin of +Species_, some quotations from which article were made in the last +chapter. Apart from its strong support of the doctrine of evolution, +its whole-hearted praise of Darwin's achievements, and the clear way +in which, while it showed the value of natural selection as the only +satisfactory hypothesis in the field, it gave reasons for regarding it +strictly as an hypothesis, the review is specially interesting as a +contrast to reviews which appeared about the same time in the +_Edinburgh Review_ and in the _Quarterly_. Both these were not only +exceedingly unfavourable, but were written in a spirit of personal +abuse singularly unworthy of their authors and still more of their +subject. The review in the _Edinburgh_ had come as a particularly +great shock to Darwin, Huxley, and their friends. Sir Richard Owen, in +many ways, was at that time the most distinguished anatomist in +England. He had been an ardent follower of Cuvier, and in England had +carried on the palaeontological work of the great Frenchman. He was a +personal friend of the court, a well-known man in the best society, +and in many ways a worthy upholder of the best traditions of science. +In the particular matter of species, he was known to be by no means a +firm supporter of the orthodox views. When Darwin's paper was read at +the Linnaean Society, and afterwards when the _Origin_ was published, +the verdict of Owen was looked to with the greatest interest by the +general public. For a time he wavered, and even expressed himself of +the opinion that he had already in his published works included a +considerable portion of Darwin's views. But two things seemed to have +influenced him: First, Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, and Sedgwick +and Whewell, the two best-known men at Cambridge, urged him to stamp +once for all, as he only could do, upon this "new and pernicious +doctrine." Secondly, combined with his great abilities, he had the +keenest personal interest in his own position as the leader of English +science, and had no particular friendship for men or for views that +seemed likely to threaten his own supreme position. In a very short +time he changed from being neutral, with a tendency in favour of the +new views, to being a bitter opponent of them. In scientific societies +and in London generally, naturally enough he constantly came across +the younger scientific men, such as Huxley and Hooker, who had +declared for Darwin, and he made the irretrievable mistake of for a +time attempting to disguise his opposition while he was writing the +most bitter of all the articles against Darwinism. That appeared in +the _Edinburgh Review_ in April, 1860, and the range of knowledge it +displayed, and the form of arguments employed, naturally enough +betrayed the secret of its authorship, although Owen for very long +attempted to conceal his connection with it. Darwin, who had the most +unusual generosity towards his opponents, found this review too much +for him. Writing to Lyell soon after its publication, he said: + + "I have just read the _Edinburgh_, which, without doubt is by + ----. It is extremely malignant, clever, and, I fear, will be + very damaging. He is atrociously severe on Huxley's lecture, and + very bitter against Hooker. So we three _enjoyed_ it together. + Not that I really enjoyed it, for it made me uncomfortable for + one night; but I have quite got over it to-day. It requires much + study to appreciate all the bitter spite of many of the remarks + against me; indeed I did not discover all myself. It scandalously + misrepresents many parts. He misquotes some passages, altering + words within inverted commas.... It is painful to be hated in the + intense degree with which ---- hates me." + +As Owen was still alive when this letter was published in _Darwin's +Life_, the authorship of the review was not actually mentioned; but it +is necessary to mention it, as it justifies the sternness with which +Huxley exposed Owen on an occasion shortly to be described. The review +in the _Quarterly_ was written by Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, +in July, 1860, and almost at once the authorship of it became known +to Darwin's friends. In connection with this, Huxley wrote in 1887, in +_Darwin's Life and Letters_: + + "I doubt if there was any man then living who had a better right + (than Darwin) to expect that anything he might choose to say on + such a question as the Origin of Species would be listened to + with profound attention, and discussed with respect. And there + was certainly no man whose personal character should have + afforded a better safeguard against attacks, instinct with + malignity and spiced with shameless impertinences. Yet such was + the portion of one of the kindest and truest men that it was ever + my good fortune to know; and years had to pass away before + misrepresentation, ridicule, and denunciation ceased to be the + most notable constituents of the majority of the multitudinous + criticisms of his work which poured from the press. I am loth to + rake up any of these ancient scandals from their well-deserved + oblivion; but I must make good a statement which may seem + overcharged to the present generation, and there is no _piece + justificative_ more apt for the purpose or more worthy of such + dishonour than the article in the _Quarterly Review_ for July, + 1860. Since Lord Brougham assailed Dr. Young, the world has seen + no such specimen of the insolence of a shallow pretender to a + Master in Science as this remarkable production, in which one of + the most exact of observers, most cautious of reasoners, and most + candid of expositors, of this or any other age, is held up to + scorn as a 'flighty' person who endeavours to 'prop up his + utterly rotten fabric of guess and speculation,' and whose 'mode + of dealing with nature' is reprobated as 'utterly dishonourable + to natural science.' And all this high and mighty talk, which + would have been indecent in one of Mr. Darwin's equals, proceeds + from a writer whose want of intelligence, or of conscience, or of + both, is so great, that, by way of an objection to Mr. Darwin's + views, he can ask, 'Is it credible that all favourable varieties + of turnips are tending to become men'; who is so ignorant of + palaeontology that he can talk of the 'flowers and fruits' of the + plants of the carboniferous epoch; of comparative anatomy, that + he can gravely affirm the poison apparatus of venomous snakes to + be 'entirely separate from the ordinary laws of animal life, and + peculiar to themselves'; of the rudiments of physiology, that he + can ask, 'what advantage of life could alter the shape of the + corpuscles into which the blood can be evaporated?' Nor does the + reviewer fail to flavour this outpouring of incapacity with a + little stimulation of the _odium theologicum_. Some inkling of + the history of the conflicts between astronomy, geology, and + theology leads him to keep a retreat open by the proviso that he + cannot 'consent to test the truth of Natural Science by the Word + of Revelation,' but for all that he devotes pages to the + exposition of his conviction that Mr. Darwin's theory + 'contradicts the revealed relation of the creation to its + Creator,' and is 'inconsistent with the fulness of His glory.'" + +In a footnote to this passage, Huxley wrote that he was not aware when +writing these lines that the authorship of the article had been avowed +publicly. He adds, however: + + "Confession unaccompanied by penitence, however, affords no + ground for mitigation of judgment; and the kindliness with which + Mr. Darwin speaks of his assailant, Bishop Wilberforce, is so + striking an exemplification of his singular gentleness and + modesty, that it rather increases one's indignation against the + presumption of his critic." + +As a matter of fact Wilberforce was a man of no particular information +in letters or in philosophy, and his knowledge of science was of the +vaguest: a little natural history picked up from Gosse, the naturalist +of the seashore, in the course of a few days' casual acquaintance at +the seaside, and some pieces of anatomical facts with which he was +provided, it is supposed, by Owen, for the purposes of the review. But +he bore a great name, and misused a great position; he was a man of +facile intelligence, smooth, crafty, and popular, and in this case he +was convinced that he was doing the best possible for the great +interests of religion by authoritatively denouncing a man whose +character he was incapable of realising, and on whose work he was +incompetent to pronounce an opinion. Against an enemy of this kind, +Huxley was implacable and relentless. He was constitutionally +incapable of tolerating pretentious ignorance, and he had realised +from the first that there could be no question of giving and taking +quarter from persons who were more concerned to suppress doctrines +they conceived to be dangerous than to examine into their truth. On +the other hand, much as Huxley disliked Owen's devious ways, and +although in after life there occurred many and severe differences of +opinion between Huxley and Owen, Huxley had a sincere respect for much +of Owen's anatomical and palaeontological work, and when, in 1894, +Owen's _Life_ was published, one of the most interesting parts of it +was a long, fair, and appreciative review by Huxley of Owen's +contributions to knowledge. + +The middle of 1860, however, was not a time for Huxley, in his +capacity as Darwin's chief defender, to make truce with the enemy. In +England a certain number of well-known scientific men had given a +general support to Darwinism. From France, Germany, and America there +had come some support and a good deal of cold criticism, but most +people were simmering with disturbed emotions. The newspapers and the +reviews were full of the new subject; political speeches and sermons +were filled with allusions to it. Wherever educated people talked the +conversation came round to the question of evolution. Were animals and +plants the results of special creations, or were they, including man, +the result of the gradual transformations of a few simple primitive +types evolving under the stress of some such force as Darwin's natural +selection? To many people it seemed to be a choice between a world +with God and a world without God; and the accredited defenders of +religion gathered every force of argument, of misrepresentation, +conscious and unconscious, of respectability, and of prejudice to +crush once for all the obnoxious doctrine and its obnoxious +supporters. In the autumn of that year it fell that the meeting of the +British Association, then coming into prominence as the annual +parliament of the sciences, was to be held at Oxford. It was +inevitable that evolution should be debated formally and informally in +the sessions of the Association, and it must have seemed to the +orthodox that there, in that beautiful city, its air vibrant with +tinkling calls to faith, its halls and libraries crowded with the +devout and the learned, its history and traditions alike calling on +all to defend the old fair piety, in such an uncongenial air, the +supporters of evolution must be overwhelmed. Almost the whole weight +of the attack had to be resisted by Huxley. In the various sectional +meetings he had combat after combat with professors and clerics. Of +these dialectic fights the most notable were one with Owen on the +anatomical structure of the brain, and another with Wilberforce upon +the general question of evolution. Owen contended that there were +anatomical differences not merely of degree but of kind between the +brain of man and the brain of the highest ape, and his remarks were +accepted by the audience as a complete and authoritative blow to the +theory of descent. Huxley at once met Owen with a direct and flat +contradiction, and pledged his reputation to justify his contradiction +with all due detail on a further occasion. As a matter of fact, he did +justify the contradiction, and no anatomist would now dream of +attempting the support of the proposition rashly made by Owen; but, +at the time, the position of Owen and the sympathies of the audience +took away much of their effect from Huxley's words. Two days later, +Wilberforce, in a scene of considerable excitement, made a long, +eloquent, and declamatory speech against evolution and against Huxley. +From the incomplete reports of the debate that were published, it is +difficult to gain a very clear idea of the Bishop's speech; but it is +certain that it was eloquent and facile, and that it appealed strongly +to the religious prejudices of the majority of the audience. He ended +by a gibe which, under ordinary circumstances, might have passed +simply as the rude humour of a popular orator, but which in that +electric atmosphere stung Huxley into a retort that has become +historical. He asked Huxley whether he was related by his +grandfather's or grandmother's side to an ape. Huxley replied: + + I asserted, and I repeat, that a man has no reason to be ashamed + of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor + whom I should feel shame in recalling, it would be a _man_, a man + of restless and versatile intellect, who, not content with an + equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into + scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only + to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric, and distract the + attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent + digressions, and skilled appeals to religious prejudice. + +An eye-witness has told the present writer that Huxley's speech +produced little effect at the time. In the minds of those of the +audience best qualified to weigh biological arguments, there was +little doubt but that he had refuted Owen, and simply dispelled the +vaporous effusions of the Bishop; but the majority of the audience +retained the old convictions. The combat was removed to a wider +tribunal. From that time forwards Huxley, by a series of essays, +addresses, and investigations, continued almost to the end of his +life, tried to convince, and succeeded in convincing, the intellectual +world. At the risk of wearying by repetition we shall again insist +upon the side of Darwinism that Huxley fought for and triumphed for. + +Long before the time of Darwin and Huxley, almost at the beginning of +recorded thought, philosophers busied themselves with the wonderful +diversity of the living world and with speculations as to how it had +assumed its present form. From the earliest times to this century, +theories as to the living world fell into one or other of two main +groups. The key-note of one group was the fixity of species: the +belief that from their first appearance species were separate, +independent entities, one never springing from another, new species +never arising by the modification in different directions of +descendants of already existing species. The key-note of the other +group of theories was the idea of progressive change: that animals and +plants as they passed along the stream of time were continually being +moulded by the forces surrounding them, and that the farther back the +mind could go in imagination the fewer and simpler species would be; +until, in the first beginning, all the existing diverse kinds of +living creatures would converge to a single point. It may be that, on +the whole, the idea of fixity prevailed more among thinkers with a +religious bias; but for the most part the theories were debated +independently of the tenets of any faith, Christian or other. There +were sceptical defenders of fixity and religious upholders of +evolution. However, in Christian countries, from the time of the +Reformation onwards, a change in this neutrality of religion to +theories of the living world took place. As Pascal prophesied, +Protestantism rejected the idea of an infallible Church in favour of +the idea of an infallible book, and, because it happened that this +book included an early legend of the origin of the world in a form +apparently incompatible with evolution, Protestantism and, to a lesser +and secondary extent, Catholicism, assumed the position that there was +no place for evolution in a Christian philosophy. At the end of last +century, and up to the middle of this century, the problem was not +raised in any acute form. The chief anatomists and botanists were +occupied with the investigation and discovery of facts, and, in an +ordinary way, without taking any particular trouble about it, accepted +more or less loosely the idea that species were fixed. Now and then an +evolutionist propounded his views; but, as a rule, he supported them +with a knowledge of facts very much inferior to that possessed by the +more orthodox school. Then came Herbert Spencer, reasserting evolution +in the old broad spirit, not merely in its application to species, but +as the guiding principle of the whole universe from the integrations +of nebulae into systems of suns and planets to the transformations of +chemical bodies. Before his marvellous generalisations had time to +grip biologists, there came Darwin; and Darwin brought two things: +first, a re-statement of the fact of evolution as applied to the +living world, supported by an enormous body of evidence, new and old, +presented with incomparably greater force, clearness, patience, and +knowledge than had ever been seen before; and, second, the exposition +of the principle of natural selection as a mechanism which might have +caused, and probably did cause, evolution. + +Huxley, as has been shewn, like many other anatomists, was ready for +the general principle of evolution. In fact, so far as it concerned +the great independent types which he believed to exist among animals, +he was more than prepared for it. Let us take a single definite +example of his position. In his work on the Medusae, he had shewn how a +large number of creatures, at first sight diverse, were really +modifications of a single great type, and he used language which, now +that all zooelogists accept evolution in the fullest way, requires no +change to be understood: + + "What has now been advanced will, perhaps, be deemed evidence + sufficient to demonstrate,--first, that the organs of these + various families are traceable back to the same point in the way + of development; or, secondly, when this cannot be done, that they + are connected by natural gradations with organs which are so + traceable; in which case, according to the principles advanced in + 57, the various organs are homologous, and the families have a + real affinity to one another and should form one group.... It + appears, then, that these five families are by no means so + distinct as has hitherto been supposed, but that they are members + of one great group, organised upon one simple and uniform plan, + and, even in their most complex and aberrant forms, reducible to + the same type. And I may add, finally, that on this theory it is + by no means difficult to account for the remarkable forms + presented by the Medusae in their young state. The Medusae are the + most perfect, the most individualised animals of the series, and + it is only in accordance with what very generally obtains in the + animal kingdom, if, in their early condition, they approximate + towards the simplest forms of the group to which they belong." + +Such words, written before 1849, only differ from those that would +have been written by a convinced evolutionist by a hair's breadth. But +Huxley was not an evolutionist then: it was Darwin's work, containing +a new exposition of evolution and the new principle of natural +selection, that convinced him, not of natural selection but of +evolution. At Oxford, in 1860, it was for evolution, and not for +natural selection, that he spoke; and throughout his life afterwards, +as he expressed it, it was this "ancient doctrine of evolution, +rehabilitated and placed upon a sound scientific foundation, since, +and in consequence of, the publication of _The Origin of Species_," +that furnished him with the chief inspiration of his work. The clear +accuracy of his original judgment upon Darwin's work has been +abundantly justified by subsequent history. Since 1859 the case for +evolution has become stronger and stronger until it can no longer be +regarded as one of two possible hypotheses in the field, but as the +only view credible to those who have even a moderate acquaintance with +the facts. In 1894, thirty years after the famous meeting at Oxford, +the British Association again met in that historic town. The +President, Lord Salisbury, a devout Churchman and with a notably +critical intellect, declared of Darwin: + + "He has, as a matter of fact, disposed of the doctrine of the + immutability of species.... Few now are found to doubt that + animals separated by differences far exceeding those that + distinguish what we know as species have yet descended from + common ancestors." + +Huxley, in replying to the address, used the following words: + + "As he noted in the Presidential Address to which they had just + listened with such well deserved interest, he found it stated, on + what was then and at this time the highest authority for them, + that as a matter of fact the doctrine of the immutability of + species was disposed of and gone. He found that few were now + found to doubt that animals separated by differences far + exceeding those which they knew as species were yet descended + from a common ancestry. Those were their propositions; those were + the fundamental principles of the doctrine of evolution." + +On the other hand, Huxley all through his life, while holding that +natural selection was by far the most probable hypothesis as to the +mode in which evolution had come about, maintained that it was only a +hypothesis, and, unlike evolution, not a proved fact. In 1863, in a +course of lectures to workingmen, he declared: + + "I really believe that the alternative is either Darwinism or + nothing, for I do not know of any rational conception or theory + of the organic universe which has any scientific position at all + beside Mr. Darwin's.... But you must recollect that when I say I + think it is either Mr. Darwin's hypothesis or nothing; that + either we must take his view, or look upon the whole of organic + nature as an enigma, the meaning of which is wholly hidden from + us; you must understand that I mean that I accept it + provisionally, in exactly the same way as I accept any other + hypothesis." + +In 1878 he wrote: + + "How far natural selection suffices for the production of species + remains to be seen. Few can doubt that, if not the whole cause, + it is a very important factor in that operation; and that it must + play a great part in the sorting out of varieties into those + which are transitory and those which are permanent." + +The difficulty in accepting natural selection as more than a +hypothesis is simply that we have no experimental knowledge of its +being able to produce the mutual infertility which is so striking a +character of species. This difficulty is, in the first place, the +difficulty of proving a negative. It might be possible to prove that +its operation actually does produce species; it will always be +impossible to prove that, in the past, natural selection, and no other +known or unknown agency or combination of agencies, had a share in +the process. All naturalists are now agreed that, as a matter of +historical fact, it was the propounding of natural selection by Darwin +that led to the acceptance of evolution, to the fact that evolution +"takes its place alongside of those accepted truths which must be +reckoned with by philosophers of all schools." The difficulty as to +natural selection still exists, and there is no better way to express +it than in Huxley's words, written in the early sixties: + + "But, for all this, our acceptance of the Darwinian hypothesis + must be provisional so long as one link in the chain of evidence + is wanting; and, so long as all the animals and plants certainly + produced by selective breeding from a common stock are fertile + with one another, that link will be wanting; for, so long, + selective breeding will not be proved to be competent to do all + that is required of it to produce natural species.... I adopt Mr. + Darwin's hypothesis, therefore, subject to the production of + proof that physiological species may be produced by selective + breeding; just as a physical philosopher may accept the + undulatory theory of light, subject to the proof of the existence + of the hypothetical ether; or as the chemist adopts the atomic + theory, subject to the proof of the existence of atoms; and for + exactly the same reasons, namely, that it has an immense amount + of _prima facie_ probability; that it is the only means at + present within reach of reducing the chaos of observed facts to + order; and, lastly, that it is the most powerful instrument of + investigation which has been presented to the naturalists since + the invention of the natural system of classification, and the + commencement of the systematic study of embryology."--_Man's + Place in Nature_, p. 149.[E] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote E: Further details on the subject of this chapter may be +obtained in Clodd's excellent volume, _Pioneers of Evolution_, where +an account of the history of the idea of evolution from the earliest +times is given; and in Poulton's _Charles Darwin and the Theory of +Natural Selection_, where there is a particularly valuable chapter +upon Huxley's relation to Darwinism.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +VERTEBRATE ANATOMY + + 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. + + +We have seen that some of the most important of the contributions made +by Huxley to zooelogical knowledge were in the field of the lower +animals, especially of those marine forms for the study of which he +had so great opportunities on the _Rattlesnake_. A great bulk of his +zooelogical work, however, related to the group of back-boned animals. +These, by their natural affinities and anatomical structure, are more +closely related to man, and, as Huxley began his scientific work as a +medical student, the groundwork of all his knowledge was study of the +anatomy and physiology of man. Moreover, throughout the greater part +of his working life, he had more to do with the extinct forms of life. +The vertebrate animals, from the great facility for preservation which +their hard skeleton presents, as well as from the extremely important +anatomical characters of the skeleton, bulk more largely in the study +of palaeontology than does any other group. In each of the great +groups of vertebrate animals, in fishes, amphibia, reptiles, birds, +and mammals, Huxley did important work. Much of this is embodied in +his treatise on _Vertebrate Anatomy_, but to some particular parts of +it special attention may now be directed, as much because these serve +as excellent examples of his method of work as because of their +intrinsic importance. + +The skull is the most striking feature in the skeleton of vertebrate +animals, and to the theory and structure of the vertebrate skull +Huxley paid special attention, and his views and summary of the views +of others form the basis of our modern knowledge. This work was put +before the public in the course of a series of lectures on Comparative +Anatomy given in 1863, while Huxley was Hunterian Professor at the +Royal College of Surgeons, and the beginnings of it were contained in +a Croonian lecture to the Royal Society in 1858. + +The theory of the skull which held the field was known as the +vertebral theory. The great bulk of the nervous system of vertebrate +animals consists of a mass of tissue lying along the dorsal line of +the body and enclosed in a cartilaginous or bony sheath. The nerve +tissue is the brain and spinal cord; the sheath is the skull in front +and the vertebral column along the greater part of the length of the +animal. The brain may be taken simply as an anterior portion of the +nerve mass, corresponding in a general way to an expansion of the +spinal cord in the region of the anterior limbs and an expansion in +the region of the hind limbs, the latter indeed having recently been +shown in some extinct creatures to surpass the brain in size. In a +similar simple fashion the skull may be taken as an expanded anterior +part of the vertebral column, serving as an expanded box for the +brain, just as in the regions of the pectoral and pelvic expansions +of the cord there are similar expansions of the surrounding bony case. +We know now, from greater knowledge of its embryological development, +that the brain contains structures quite peculiar to itself, and +differs from the spinal cord in kind as well as in size; but, at the +same time, when the vertebral theory of the skull was inaugurated, +embryological knowledge and the importance of its relation to +anatomical structure were less considered. What Huxley did was to show +that the skull, in its mode of origin and real nature, was not merely +an expanded portion of the vertebral column, but that it differed from +it in kind. + +The hypothesis of the vertebral structure of the skull was due both to +Goethe, the great German poet, and Oken, a most able but somewhat +mystic German anatomist. An attempt had been made by a well-known +English anatomist to cast on Goethe the stigma of having tried to rob +Oken of the credit for this theory. Huxley set that matter finally at +rest, disproving and repelling with indignation the unworthy +suggestion. Oken gave out his theory in 1807, and described how it had +been first suggested to his mind by the accident of picking up a dried +and battered sheep's skull, in which the apparent vertebral structure +was very obvious, as, indeed, anyone may see at a glance. It was in +1820, long after the theory had been made current, that the poet first +publicly narrated that in a similar way he had long before come to the +same conclusion; but Huxley was able to show that, although announcing +it later, Goethe had in reality anticipated the anatomist. A passage +occurs in a letter to a friend, of a date in 1790, which admits of no +doubt. "By the oddest happy chance, my servant picked up a bit of an +animal's skull in the Jews' cemetery at Venice, and, by way of a +joke, held it out to me as if he were offering me a Jew's skull. I +have made a great step in the formation of animals." It is an +interesting trait in Huxley's character, to find him zealous in +defence of the reputation of a great man, even although that man had +been dead more than half a century; but it may be added that his just +zeal was at least stimulated by the fact that the maligner of Goethe +was Owen, the conduct of whom, with regard to Darwin and Huxley, +Huxley had had just reason for resenting. + +The theory, then, which had dropped stillborn from Goethe, but which +Oken developed, was simply that the skull consisted of a series of +expanded vertebrae. Each vertebra consists of a basal piece or centrum, +the anterior and posterior faces of which are closely applied to the +face of an adjoining vertebra, and of a bony arch or ring which +encloses and protects the nervous cord. Oken supposed that there were +four such vertebrae in the skull, the centra being firmly fused and the +arches expanded to form the dome of the skull. Quite correctly, he +divided the skull into four regions, corresponding to what he called +an ear vertebra, at the back, through which the auditory nerves +passed; a jaw vertebra, in the sphenoidal region, through which the +nerves to the jaws passed; an eye vertebra in front, pierced by the +optic nerves, and again in front a nose vertebra, the existence of +which he doubted at first. Quite rightly, he discriminated between the +ordinary bones of the skull and the special structures surrounding the +inner ear which he declared to be additions derived from another +source. So far it cannot be doubted that the vertebral theory made a +distinct advance in our knowledge of the skull. It was to a certain +extent, however, thrown into disrepute by various fantastic theories +with which Oken surrounded it. Later on, Cuvier removed from it these +wilder excrescences, and amplified the basis of observation upon which +the underlying theory of the unity of type of the skull throughout the +vertebrates was based. Cuvier, however, came to reject the theory, +except so far as it applied to the posterior or occipital segment of +the skull. Later on, Owen resuscitated the theory, first throwing +doubt on the merit of Goethe, and then suggesting that Oken, instead +of relying on the observed facts, had deduced the whole theory from +his own imagination. Owen, although he made no new contribution to +fact or theory in this matter, practically claimed the whole credit of +it as a scientific hypothesis. + +When Huxley took up the subject, the position was that the vertebral +theory was in full possession of the field, under the auspices of +Owen. Huxley began afresh from observed facts. The first object of his +investigation was to settle once for all the question as to whether +the skulls of all vertebrates were essentially modifications of the +same type. He took in succession the skulls of man, sheep, bird, +turtle, and carp, and showed that in all these there were to be +distinguished the same four basi-cranial regions: the basi-occipital, +basi-sphenoid, pre-sphenoid, and ethmoid. These were essentially +identical with the centra of the four vertebrae of Oken. Similarly, he +showed the composition of the lateral and dorsal walls, proving the +essential identity of the structures involved and of their relations +to the nerve exits in the great types he had chosen. In the series of +lectures delivered before the College of Surgeons, he extended his +observations to a much larger series of vertebrates, and substantially +laid down the main lines of our knowledge of the skull. In two +important respects his statements were not merely a codification of +existing knowledge, but an important extension of it. He distinguished +the different modes in which the jaws may be suspended to the skull, +and established for these different kinds of suspensoria the names +which have ever since been employed. He proved clearly what had been +suggested by Oken, that the region of the ear is a lateral addition to +the skull, and he distinguished in it three bones, his names for which +have since become the common property of anatomists. Finally, he made +it plain beyond any possible doubt that the skulls of all vertebrates +were built upon a common plan. + +Having established the facts, he proceeded to enquire into the theory. +There was now a new method for investigating such problems, the method +of embryology, which, practically, had not been available to Oken, and +of which neither Cuvier nor Owen had made proper use. By putting +together the investigations of a number of embryologists, by adding to +these himself, and, lastly, by interpreting the facts which his +investigations into comparative anatomy had brought to light, he +shewed that the vertebral theory could not be maintained. He shewed, +by these methods, that, though both skull and vertebral column are +segmented, the one and the other, after an early stage, are fashioned +on lines so different as to exclude the possibility of regarding the +details of each as mere modifications of a common type. "The spinal +column and the skull start from the same primitive condition, whence +they immediately begin to diverge." "It may be true to say that there +is a primitive identity of structure between the spinal or vertebral +column and the skull; but it is no more true that the adult skull is +a modified vertebral column than it would be to affirm that the +vertebral column is a modified skull." Taking the embryological facts, +he shewed that the skull arose out of elements quite different from +those of the vertebral column. The notochord alone is common to both. +The skull is built up of longitudinal cartilaginous pieces, now known +as the "parachordals" and "trabeculae," of sense capsules enclosing the +nose and ear, and of various roofing bones. In the historical +development of the skull three grades become apparent; a primitive +stage, as seen in Amphioxus, where there is nothing but a fibrous +investment of the nervous structures; a cartilaginous grade, as seen +in the skate or shark, where the skull is formed of cartilage, very +imperfectly hardened by earthy deposits; a bony stage, seen in most of +the higher animals. He shewed that in actual development of the higher +animals these historical grades are repeated, the skull being at first +a mere membranous or fibrous investment of the developing nervous +masses, then becoming cartilaginous, and, lastly, bony. He made some +important prophetic remarks as to the probable importance that future +embryological work would give to the distinction between cartilage and +membrane bones--a prophecy that has been more than fully realised by +the investigations of Hertwig and of others. Our present knowledge of +the skull differs from Huxley's conception practically only in a +fuller knowledge of details. We know now that throughout the series +there is a primitive set of structures common to all animals higher in +the scale than Amphioxus, and forming the base and lateral walls of +the skull. This is termed the Chondrocraninm, because it is laid down +in cartilage; it is composed of the separate elements which Huxley +indicated, and, in different animals, as Huxley suggested, the exact +limits of the ossification of the primitive cartilages differ in +extent, but occur in homologous situations. This primitive skull is +roofed over by a series of membrane bones which have no connection in +origin with the other portions of the skull, and which have no +representative in the vertebral column, but which are the direct +descendants of the bony scales clothing the external skin in +cartilaginous fishes. In one respect only was Huxley erroneous. Partly +by inadvertence, and partly because the minute details of vertebrate +embryology became really familiar to zooelogists only after the +elaborate work of Balfour of Cambridge, Huxley, in his account of the +formation of the first beginnings of the skeleton in the embryo, made +confusion between the walls of the primitive groove, which, in +reality, give rise to the nervous structures, and those embryonic +tissues which form the skeletal system. + +The next great piece of work which we may take as typical of Huxley's +contributions to vertebrate anatomy, is his classical study on the +classification of birds. The great group of birds contains a larger +number of species than is known in any other group of vertebrates, +and, in this vast assemblage of forms there is strikingly little +anatomical difference. The ostrich and the humming-bird might perhaps +be taken as types of the extremest differences to be found, and yet, +although these differ in size, plumage, adaptations, habits, mode of +life, and almost everything that can separate living things, the two +conform so closely to the common type of bird structure that knowledge +of the anatomy of one would be a sufficient guide, down to minute +details, for dissection of the other. None the less, there are +hundreds of thousands of species of birds between these two types. It +is not surprising that to reduce this vast assemblage of similar +creatures to an ordered system of classification has proved one of the +most difficult tasks attempted by zooelogists. Before Huxley, it had +been attempted by a number of distinguished zooelogists; but, for the +most part, these had relied too much on merely external characters and +on superficial modifications in obvious relation to habits. When +Huxley, in the course of a set of lectures on Comparative Anatomy, was +about to approach the subject of birds he was asked by a zooelogist how +he proposed to treat them. "I intend," he replied, "to treat them as +extinct animals." By that he meant that it was his purpose to make a +prolonged study of their skeletal structures the basis of his +grouping, following the lines which Cuvier, Owen, and he himself had +pursued so successfully in the case of the fossil remains of +vertebrates. The result was that this first systematic study of even +one set of the anatomical characters of the group completely reformed +the method by which all subsequent workers have tried to grapple with +the problem; ornithology was raised from a process akin to +stamp-collecting to a reasoned scientific study. The immediate +practical results were equally important. He was able to shew that +among the innumerable known forms there were three grades of +structure. The lowest had already been recognised and named by +Haeckel; it consisted of the Saururae, or reptile-like, birds, and +contained a single fossil form, Archaeopteryx, distinguished from all +living birds by the presence of a hand-like wing in which the +metacarpal bones were well developed and freely movable, and by the +possession of a long lizard-like tail actually exceeding in length +the remainder of the spinal column. The next group of Ratites, +although it contained only the Ostrich, Rhea, Emu, Cassowary, and +Apteryx, he shewed to be equivalent in anatomical coherence to the +third great group of Carinates, which includes the vast majority of +living birds. In his arrangement of the latter group, he laid most +stress on the characters of the bony structures which form the palate, +and by this simple means was able to lay down clearly at least the +main lines of a natural classification of the group. + +Huxley's work upon birds, like his work in many other branches of +anatomy, has been so overlaid by the investigations of subsequent +zooelogists that it is easy to overlook its importance. His employment +of the skeleton as the basis of classification was succeeded by the +work of others who made a similar use of the muscular anatomy, of the +intestinal canal, of the windpipe, of the tendons of the feet, and +many other structures which display anatomical modifications in +different birds. The modern student finds that all these new sets of +facts are much greater in bulk than the work of Huxley, and it is easy +for him to remain in ignorance that they were all suggested and +inspired by the method which Huxley employed. He finds that further +research has supplanted some of Huxley's conclusions, and it is easy +for him to remain in ignorance that the conclusions themselves +suggested the investigations which have modified them. Huxley's +anatomical work was essentially living and stimulating, and too often +it has become lost to sight simply because of the vast superstructures +of new facts to which it gave rise. + +Closely associated with vertebrate anatomy is the subject of +geographical distribution. In 1857 the study of this important +department of zooelogy was placed on a scientific basis, practically +for the first time, by a memoir on the geographical distribution of +birds published in the _Journal_ of the Linnaean Society of London. It +was known in a general way that different kinds of creatures were +found in different parts of the world, but little attempt had been +made to map out the world into regions characterised by their animal +and vegetable inhabitants, as the political divisions of the world are +characterised by their different governments and policies. Mr. +Sclater, who two years later became secretary of the Zooelogical +Society of London, in his memoir introduced the subject in the +following words: + + "It is a well-known and universally acknowledged fact that we can + choose two portions of the globe of which the respective fauna + and flora shall be so different that we should not be far wrong + in supposing them to have been the result of distinct creations. + Assuming, then, that there are, or may be, more areas of creation + than one, the question naturally arises how many of them are + there, and what are their respective extents and boundaries; or, + in other words, what are the most natural primary ontological + divisions of the earth's surface?" + +Mr. Sclater's answer was that there are six great regions; +Neotropical, Nearctic, Palaearctic, Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian, +and his answer, with minor alterations and the addition of a great +wealth of detail, has been accepted by zooelogy. + +Two years later, however, Darwin gave a new meaning and a new +importance to Sclater's work, by the new interpretation he caused to +be placed on the words "centres of creation." Sclater's facts and +areas remained the same; Darwin rejected the idea of separate +creations in the older sense of the words, and laid stress on the +impossibility of accounting for the resemblances within a region and +for the differences between regions by climatic differences and so +forth. He raised the questions of modes of dispersal and of barriers +to dispersal, of similarities due to common descent, and of the +modifying results produced by isolation. He gave, in fact, a theory of +the "creations" which Mr. Sclater had shewn to be a probable +assumption. It was in the nature of things that Huxley should make a +contribution to a set of problems so novel and of so much importance +to zooelogy. In 1868, in the course of a memoir on the anatomy of the +gallinaceous birds and their allies, he made a useful attempt, nearly +the first of its kind, to correlate anatomical facts with geographical +distribution. Having shewn the diverging lines of anatomical structure +that existed in the group of creatures he had been considering, he +went on to shew that there was a definite relation between the +varieties of structure and the different positions on the surface of +the globe occupied at the present time by the creatures in question. +He made, in fact, the geographical position a necessary part of the +whole idea of a species or of a group, and so introduced a conception +which has become a permanent part of zooelogical science. + +With regard to the number and limits of the zooelogical regions into +which the world may be divided, Huxley raised a number of problems +which have not yet reached a full solution. Mr. Sclater had divided +the world into six great regions: the Nearctic, including the +continent of North America, with an overlap into what is called South +America by geographers; the Palaearctic, comprising Europe and the +greater part of Asia; the Oriental, containing certain southern +portions of Asia, such as India south of the Himalayas and many of the +adjacent islands; the Ethiopian, including Africa, except north of +the Sahara, and Madagascar; the Australian, containing Australia and +New Zealand and some of the more southeastern of the islands of Malay; +the Neotropical, including South America. Huxley first called +attention to certain noteworthy resemblances between the Neotropical +and the Australian regions of Sclater, and held that a primary +division of the world was into _Arctogaea_, comprising the great land +masses of the Northern Hemisphere with a part of their extension +across the equator, and _Notogaea_, which contained Australia but not +New Zealand and South America. Although this acute suggestion has not +been generally accepted as a modification of Mr. Sclater's scheme, it +called attention in a striking fashion to some very remarkable +features in the distribution of animals. Subsequent writers have +considerably extended Huxley's conception of the similarities to be +found among the more southern land areas. They have pointed out that +the most striking idea of the distribution of land and water on the +surface of the globe is to be got by considering the globe alternately +from one pole and from the other. In the south, a clump of ice-bound +land, well within the Antarctic Circle, surrounds the pole. All else +is a wide domain of ocean broken only where tapering and isolated +tongues of land, South America, the Cape, Australia, lean down from +the great land masses of the north. On the other hand, all the great +land masses expand in the Northern Hemisphere, and shoulder one +another round the North Pole. America is separated from Asia only by +the shallowest and narrowest of straits; an elevation of a few fathoms +would unite Greenland with Europe. Science points definitely to some +part of the great northern land area as the centre of life for at +least the larger terrestrial forms of life. We know that these arose +successively, primitive birds like the ostriches being older than +higher forms like the parrots and singing birds; the pouched +marsupials preceding the antelopes and the lion; the lemurs coming +before the man-like apes. Each wave of life spread over the whole area +producing after its kind; then, pressing round the northern land area, +it met a thousand different conditions of environment, different +foods, enemies, and climates, and broke up into different genera and +species. But there was never a wave of life that was not followed by +another wave. In the struggle for existence between the newer and the +older forms, the older forms were gradually driven southwards towards +the diverging fringes of the land masses. The vanquished left behind +them on the field of battle only their bones, to become fossils. +Sometimes succeeding waves swept along to the extreme limits of the +land, and many early types were utterly destroyed. But others found +sanctuary in the ends of the South, and such survivors of older and +earlier types of life cause a similarity between the southern lands +that Huxley called Notogaea, although the extent of his region must be +increased. + +Recently, however, there has been a recurrence to Huxley's suggested +union of South America and Australia, based on new evidence of a +direct kind, quite different from that which had just been given. +Various groups of naturalists have stated that there are similarities +between the invertebrate inhabitants of Australia and of South America +of a kind which makes the existence of a direct land connection in the +Southern Hemisphere extremely probable. Moreover, Ameghino has +recently described some marsupial fossils from South America which, he +states, belong to the Australian group of Dasyuridae, and Oldfield +Thomas has described a new mammal from South America which is unlike +the opossums of America and like the diprotodonts of Australia. So +that, while the general opinion has been against Huxley's division, +Notogaea, in the strict meaning which he gave to it, there has recently +been an opinion growing in its favour. + +Huxley also made minor alterations in Mr. Sclater's scheme by forming +an additional circumpolar region for the Northern Hemisphere, and by +elevating New Zealand into a separate region, distinct from Australia. +On these points there is a balance of opinion against his views. + +Before leaving the subject of Huxley's contributions to vertebrate +anatomy, the actual details of which would occupy far too much space, +it is necessary to mention the great importance to zooelogy of the new +terms and new ideas he introduced into classification. His mind was, +above all things, orderly and comprehensive, and while, in innumerable +minute points, from the structure of the palate of birds to the +structure of the roots of human hair (actually the subject of Huxley's +first published contribution to scientific knowledge), he added to the +number of known facts, he did even more important work in +co-ordinating and grouping together the known body of facts. To him +are due not only the names, but the idea, that the mammalian animals +fall into three grades of ascending complexity of organisation: the +reptile-like Prototheria, which lay large eggs, and which have many +other reptilian characters; the Metatheria, or marsupial animals; the +Eutheria, or higher animals, which include all the common animals from +the mole or rabbit up to man. In a similar fashion, he grouped the +vertebrates into three divisions, and named them: Ichthyopsida, which +include the fish and Amphibia, creatures in which the aquatic habit +dominates the life history and the anatomical structure; Sauropsida, +including birds and reptiles, on the close connection between which he +threw so much light; Mammalia. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MAN AND THE APES + + Objections to Zooelogical 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. + + +Even before the publication of _The Origin of Species_ there was a +considerable nervousness in the minds of the more orthodox as to +discussions on the position of the human species in zooelogical +classification. Men of the broadest minds, such as Lyell, who himself +had suffered considerably from outside interference with the +scientific right to publish scientific conclusions, was strongly +opposed to anything that seemed to tend towards breaking down the +barrier between man and the lower creatures. Sir William Lawrence, a +very distinguished and able man, had been criticised with the greatest +severity, and had been nearly ostracised, for a very mild little book +_On Man_; and Huxley tells us that the electors to the Chair of a +Scotch University had refused to invite a distinguished man, to whom +the post would have been acceptable, because he had advocated the view +that there were several species of man. The court political leaders, +and society generally, resented strongly anything that seemed at all +likely to disturb the somewhat narrow orthodoxy prevalent in those +times; and, as there were comparatively few posts open to scientific +men, and comparatively greater chances of posts being made for men of +talent and ability who adhered to the respectable traditions, those +who tampered with so serious a question as the place of man were +likely to burn their fingers severely. However, the difficulties of +discussing these problems were much greater immediately after 1859. +One of the most surprising things in the history of this century is +the sudden intensity of the opposition of the public, particularly the +respectable and religious public, to zooelogical writing upon man, +immediately after the publication of the _Origin_. Before that time +anatomists did not necessarily hesitate to point out the close +resemblance between the anatomy of man and that of the higher apes, +and the difficulties anatomists had in making anatomical distinction +of value between them. Thus Professor Owen, who, as a writer, was +rather unusually nervous about expressing facts to which any objection +might be raised by those outside the strictly scientific world, had +written the following paragraph in the course of an essay on the +characters of the class Mammalia, published, in 1857, in the _Journal +of the Proceedings of the Linnaean Society_: + + "Not being able to appreciate or conceive of the distinction + between the psychical phenomena of a chimpanzee and of a + Boschisman or of an Aztec, with arrested brain-growth, as being + of a nature so essential as to preclude a comparison between + them, or as being other than a difference of degree, I cannot + shut my eyes to the significance of that all-pervading similitude + of structure--every tooth, every bone, strictly homologous--which + makes the determination of the difference between _Homo_ and + _Pithecus_ the anatomist's difficulty." + +It is true, he went on to explain his belief in the existence of +certain characters in the brain which seemed to him to justify the +separation of man in a different group from that in which the apes +were placed; but it is certain that he regretted having said anything +which seemed to support the Darwinian view; and, two years later, when +the opposition to Darwin was in its acutest stage, Owen withdrew his +words. His "Reade Lecture," delivered in the University of Cambridge, +was in all respects a reprint of the essay from which we have just +quoted, but the apparently dangerous words were omitted. More than +that, the points insisted on in the essay as being sufficient for the +purpose of separating man in zooelogical classification were elevated +into a reason against descent. Although Huxley, in several addresses +and publications, disproved the existence of the alleged differences, +and although Sir William Flower gave an actual demonstration shewing +the essential identity of the brain of man and of the apes in the +matter in question, Owen never admitted his error. + +[Illustration: CHARLES DARWIN +From the painting by Hon. John Collier in the National Portrait +Gallery] + +It is not surprising that, if an anatomist so distinguished and acute +as was Owen allowed his judgment to be completely overborne by the +storm of prejudice against Darwinism, those who were not anatomists +should have held up to ridicule all idea of comparison between man and +the apes. In _The Origin of Species_ itself, no elaborate attempt had +been made to set forth the anatomical arguments in favour of or +against a community of descent for man and the apes. But it was made +sufficiently plain, and the public laid hold of the point eagerly, +that the doctrine of descent was not meant to exclude man from the +field of its operation. Huxley, in the course of his ordinary work as +Professor of Biology, had, among many other subjects, naturally +turned his attention to the anatomy and classification of the +higher animals. When Owen's essay appeared, he found that he was +unable to agree with many of the conclusions contained in it, and had +set about a renewed investigation of the matter. Thus it happened +that, when the question became prominent, in 1860, Huxley was ready +with material contributions to it. He believed, moreover, that, as +Darwin was not specially acquainted with the anatomy and development +of vertebrates, there was an opportunity for doing a real service to +the cause of evolution. Accordingly, in 1860, he took for the subject +of a series of lectures to workingmen the "Relation of Man to the +Lower Animals," and, in 1862, expanded the lectures into a volume +called _Man's Place in Nature_. When it was ready, he was prepared to +say with a good conscience that his conclusions "had not been formed +hastily or enunciated crudely." + + "I thought," he wrote in the preface to the 1894 edition, "I had + earned the right to publish them, and even fancied I might be + thanked, rather than reproved, for so doing. However, in my + anxiety to promulgate nothing erroneous, I asked a highly + competent anatomist and very good friend of mine to look through + my proofs, and, if he could, point out any errors of fact. I was + well pleased when he returned them without any criticism on that + score; but my satisfaction was speedily dashed by the very + earnest warning, as to the consequences of publication, which my + friend's interest in my welfare led him to give; but, as I have + confessed elsewhere, when I was a young man there was just a + little--a mere _soupcon_--in my composition of that tenacity of + purpose which has another name, and I felt sure that all the evil + things prophesied would not be so painful to me as the giving up + of that which I had resolved to do, upon grounds which I + conceived to be right. So the book came out, and I must do my + friend the justice to say that his forecast was completely + justified. The Boreas of criticism blew his hardest blasts of + misrepresentation and ridicule for some years; and I was even as + one of the wicked. Indeed, it surprises me, at times, to think + how anyone who had sunk so low could have emerged into, at any + rate, relative respectability." + +Further, in the same preface, Huxley strongly advises others to +imitate his action in this matter. There are now, and no doubt there +always will be, truths "plainly obvious and generally denied." Whoever +attacks the current ideas is certain, unless human nature changes +greatly, to encounter a bitter opposition, and there will always be +those among his friends who recommend him to temper truth by prudence. +Huxley's advice is different: + + "If there is a young man of the present generation who has taken + as much trouble as I did to assure himself that they are truths, + let him come out with them, without troubling his head about the + barking of the dogs of St. Ernulphus. _Veritas praevalebit_--some + day; and, even if she does not prevail in his time, he himself + will be all the better and wiser for having tried to help her. + And let him recollect that such great reward is full payment for + all his labour and pains." + +Although they were written so long ago, the lectures on "Man's Place +in Nature" are still the best existing treatise on the subject, and we +shall give an outline of them, mentioning the chief points in which +further work has been done. Information concerning the man-like apes +was scattered in very different places, in the grave records of +scientific societies, in the letters of travellers and missionaries, +in the reports of the zooelogical societies which had been in +possession of living specimens. The facts had to be sifted out from a +great mass of verbiage and unfounded statement. With a characteristic +desire for historical accuracy, more usual in a man of letters than in +an anatomist, Huxley began with a study of classical and mediaeval +legends of the existence of pigmies and man-like creatures; but, while +recognising that legends of satyrs and fauns were presages of the +discovery of man-like apes, he was unable to find any actual record +earlier than that contained in Pigafetta's _Description of the Kingdom +of Congo_, drawn up from the notes of a Portuguese sailor and +published in 1598. The descriptions and figures in this work +apparently referred to chimpanzees. From this date onwards he traces +the literature of the animals in question, and then proceeds to give +an account of them. + +There are four distinct kinds of man-like apes: in Eastern Asia the +Orangs and the Gibbons (although some later writers differ from Huxley +in removing the Gibbons from the group of anthropoids); in Western +Africa, the Chimpanzees and the Gorillas. All these have certain +characters in common. They are inhabitants of the old world; they all +have the same number of teeth as man, possessing four incisors, two +canines, four premolars, and six true molars in each jaw, in the adult +condition, while the milk dentition, as in man, consists of twenty +teeth,--four incisors, two canines, and four molars in each jaw. Since +Huxley wrote, a large bulk of additional work upon teeth has been +published, and we now know that man and the anthropoid apes display +the same kind of degenerative specialisation in their jaws. Simpler +and older forms of mammals had a much larger number of teeth, and +these differed among themselves more than the teeth of the higher +forms. In the Anthropoids and Man, the jaws are proportionately +shorter and less heavy than in simpler forms, and, in correspondence +with this, the number of the teeth has become reduced, while the teeth +themselves tend to form a more even row. The canine or eye-teeth are +relatively smaller in the gorilla than in primitive mammals; they are +still smaller in the lower races of man; while in ordinary civilised +man they do not project above the others. The shortening of the jaw is +still proceeding, and, although in lower races of man the last molar +or wisdom tooth is almost as large as the molars in front of it, in +the higher races the wisdom tooth is much smaller and frequently does +not develop at all, or begins to decay very soon after its appearance. +If the process of extinction of lower races were to proceed much +further, so that civilised white races became the only human +inhabitants of the earth, then the gap between the Anthropoids and Man +would be wider than it now is; man would be characterised by the +presence of one tooth less than the anthropoids, just as the +anthropoids and some lower monkeys are characterised by having one +tooth less than monkeys still lower. + +In all, the nostrils have a narrow partition and look downwards as in +man. The arms are always longer than the legs, the difference being +greatest in the orang and least in the chimpanzee. We know now that in +the lower races of man, the arms are proportionately longer than in +higher races, and it has recently been shewn that, although there is a +general proportion between the length of the long bones and the height +of the whole body in man, so that the height may be calculated with an +average error from these bones, yet the probable error is greater when +the calculation is made from the arms than when it is made from the +legs. In fact, the length of arm as compared to the length of leg and +to whole height is a more variable feature in man than the length of +leg. + +In all the anthropoids, the forelimbs end in hands with longer or +shorter thumbs, and the great toe, always smaller than in man, is far +more movable and can be opposed like a thumb to the other toes. Since +Huxley wrote, a considerable amount of evidence has been collected +shewing that partial opposability of the toe in man is not uncommon, +and that there is evidence as to a tendency to increase of length of +the great toe within historical times. None of the great apes have +tails, and none of them have the cheek pouches common among lower +monkeys. + +Huxley then gives an account of the natural history of these animals, +an account which still remains the best in literature. He sums up the +habits of the Asiatic forms as follows: + +1. They may readily move along the ground in the erect, or semi-erect +position, and without direct support from the arms. + +2. They may possess an extremely loud voice, so loud as to be readily +heard one or two miles. + +3. They may be capable of great viciousness and violence when +irritated; and this is especially true of adult males. + +4. They may build a nest to sleep in. + +He finds the same general characters in the case of the gorilla and +chimpanzee, but in their case there was not quite so reliable evidence +upon which to go. + +Although, since Huxley wrote, there has been much greater opportunity +of studying anthropoid apes, both in confinement and in their native +haunts, there is not much to add to his account. Some little time ago, +the world was interested by the assertion of a clever American that he +had discovered a kind of language used by the higher apes, and that he +was able to communicate with them. Mr. Garnier, the person in +question, declared his intention of going out to tropical Africa and +establishing himself in a strong cage in the forests inhabited by +gorillas and chimpanzees, in the hope that, impelled by curiosity, +they would look upon him as we look on monkeys in a zooelogical garden, +and that he would thus be able to make his knowledge and records of +monkey language more perfect. As a matter of fact he went to Africa, +and on his return published a volume which aroused the indignation of +naturalists. There was internal evidence that he had gone no further +than the garden of a coast station, and his pretended account of the +habits of monkeys as they lived in their native haunts contained +nothing that was not already known. There is no doubt but that the +anthropoid apes, like many other animals, use modulations of their +voice to express emotional states; that, in fact, they have love-cries +and cries of warning, of alarm, and of pleasure; but there is not the +smallest evidence to suppose that in the case of the anthropoids these +cries approach more nearly to speech than the cries of any other of +the higher mammals. + +Since Huxley's volume was published, a large amount of information has +been published by Darwin, Romanes, and others upon the mental +capacities of anthropoids kept in confinement, and the result of this +has been to prove that the anthropoids, in especial the chimpanzees, +possess mental powers more akin to those of man than are to be found +in the most intelligent of the quadrupeds. We may cite some instances +of these higher powers. Vosmaern had a tame female orang-outang that +was able to untie the most intricate knot with fingers or teeth, and +took such pleasure in doing it that she regularly untied the shoes of +those who came near her. The female chimpanzee called Sally, that +lived for many years in the Zooelogical Society's Gardens in London, +was taught by its keeper and by Romanes an interesting variety of +"tricks" involving at least the rudiments of what may be called human +intelligence. Among other feats, it would pick up from the floor and +present to the keeper or to a visitor, a stated number of straws up to +five. Many monkeys seem nearly purely destructive in their dealings +with objects within their reach; but Leutemann tells of an +orang-outang which "tried to put to its proper use whatever was given +to him. To my great surprise he attempted to put on a pair of gloves. +He supported himself on a light walking cane and, when it bent under +him, made ridiculous motions to right it again." Brehm tells of a +chimpanzee: + + "After eating, he at once begins to clean up. He holds a stick of + wood in front of him, or puts his hands in his master's slippers, + and slides about the room, then takes a cloth and scrubs the + floor. Scouring, sweeping, and dusting are his favourite + occupations; and, when he once gets hold of the cloth, he never + wants to give it up." + +Falkenstein has given a detailed description of a gorilla which was +remarkable for his delicacy in eating. + + "He would take a cup or glass with the greatest care, using both + hands to carry it to his mouth, and setting it down so carefully + that I do not remember having lost a single piece of crockery + through him, though we had never tried to teach him the use of + such vessels, wishing to bring him to Europe as nearly in his + natural condition as possible." + +These and a multitude of similar observations which have been made +since Huxley wrote are typical of the increase of our knowledge on the +habits and capacities of the anthropoid apes. They all serve to show +that in them the instinct for experimental investigation of +everything with which they are surrounded, and their imitative +faculties are peculiarly great. The importance of this, from the point +of view of Huxley's argument, is great. The difference between the +instincts of the lower animals and the intelligence of man is that +instincts are to a large extent fixed and mechanical. The proper +performance of an instinct demands the presence of exactly the right +external conditions for its accomplishment. In the absence of these +conditions, the call to perform the instinctive action is equally +great, and results in useless performances. In many of the higher +animals these elaborate instincts are more general in their character, +and are supplemented by a considerable but varying aptitude for +modification of instinctive action to suit varieties of surrounding +circumstances. As this intelligence becomes more and more developed, +the blind, mechanical instinct becomes weaker. A large number of +instances might be given of such instincts modified by dawning +intelligence. The chief factors in producing the change are, as has +been shewn by Professor Groos, the possession of a general instinct to +imitate and to experiment, and the existence of a period of youth in +which the young creature may practise these instincts, and so prepare +itself for the more serious purposes of adult life. The anthropoid +apes seem to possess these experimental instincts to an extent much +greater than that observed in any other class of animals, and, as they +have a long period of youth, they have the opportunity of putting them +into practice to the fullest possible extent. + +From the natural history of the anthropoid apes, Huxley passed to +consideration of their relation to man, prefacing his observations +with a passage defending the utility of the enquiry, a passage +necessary enough in these days of prejudice, but now chiefly with +historical interest: + + "It will be admitted that some knowledge of man's position in the + animate world is an indispensable preliminary to the proper + understanding of his relations to the universe; and this again + resolves itself in the long run into an enquiry into the nature + and the closeness of the ties which connect him with those + singular creatures whose history has been sketched in the + preceding pages. + + "The importance of such an enquiry is, indeed, intuitively + manifest. Brought face to face with these blurred copies of + himself, the least thoughtful of men is conscious of a certain + shock; due perhaps not so much to disgust at the aspect of what + looks like an insulting caricature, as to the awakening of a + sudden and profound mistrust of time-honoured theories and + strongly rooted prejudices regarding his own position in nature, + and his relations to the underworld of life; while that which + remains a dim suspicion for the unthinking, becomes a vast + argument, fraught with the deepest consequences, for all who are + acquainted with the recent progress of the anatomical and + physiological sciences." + +Huxley then proceeded to elaborate the argument from development for +the essential identity of man and the apes. This argument has now +become more or less familiar to us all, as it has gained additional +support from recent extension of embryological knowledge, and as it +has been used in every work on evolution since Huxley first laid +stress on it. The adult forms of animals are much more complex than +their embryonic stages, and the series of changes passed through in +attaining the adult condition make up the embryological history of the +animal. Huxley took the embryology of the dog as an example of the +process in the higher animals generally, and as it had been worked out +in detail by a set of investigators. The dog, like all vertebrate +animals, begins its existence as an egg; and this body is just as much +an egg as that of a fowl, although, in the case of the dog, there is +not the accumulation of nutritive material which bloats the egg of the +hen into its enormous size. Since Huxley wrote, it has been shewn +clearly that among the mammalian animals there has been a gradual +reduction in the size of the egg. The ancestors of the mammals laid +large eggs, like those of birds or reptiles; and there still exist two +strange mammalian creatures, the Ornithorhynchus and Echidna of +Australia, which lay large, reptilian-like eggs. The ancestors of most +living mammalia acquired the habit of retaining the eggs within the +body until they were hatched; and, as a result of this, certain +structures which grow out from the embryo while it is still within the +egg and become applied to the inner wall of the porous shell for the +purpose of obtaining air, got their supply of oxygen, not from the +outer air, but from the blood-vessels of the maternal tissues. When +this connection (called the placenta) between embryo and mother +through the egg-shell became more perfect, not only oxygen but +food-material was obtained from the blood-vessels of the mother; and, +in consequence, it became unnecessary for the eggs to be provided with +a large supply of food-yolk. Among existing marsupial animals, which, +on the whole, represent a lower type of mammalian structure than +ordinary mammals, there is more food-yolk than in ordinary mammals, +and less food-yolk than in the two egg-laying mammals. In the ordinary +mammals, such as the rabbit, dog, monkey, and man, there is +practically no yolk whatever deposited in the egg; the egg is of +minute size, and the embryo obtains most of its food from the maternal +blood. + +The small egg of the mammal divides into a number of cells, which form +a hollow sphere; on the upper surface of this the development of +organs begins with the formation of a depression which indicates the +future middle line of the animal, and is, in fact, the beginning of +the nervous system. Under this is formed a straight rod of gelatinous +material, the foundation of the vertebral column, and the body of the +embryo is gradually pinched off from the surface of the hollow sphere. +After tracing the details of this process, Huxley proceeded as +follows: + + "The history of the development of any other vertebrate animal, + lizard, snake, frog or fish, tells the same story. There is + always, to begin with, an egg, having the same essential + structure as that of the dog; the yolk of that egg always + undergoes division, or segmentation, as it is often called; the + ultimate products of that segmentation constitute the building + materials for the body of the young animal; and this is built up + round a primitive groove, in the floor of which a notochord is + developed. Furthermore, there is a period in which the young of + all these animals resemble one another, not merely in outward + form, but in all essentials of structure, so closely, that the + differences between them are inconsiderable, while in their + subsequent course they diverge more and more widely from one + another. And it is a general law, that, the more closely any + animals resemble one another in adult structure, the longer and + the more intimately do their embryos resemble one another; so + that, for example, the embryos of a snake and of a lizard remain + like one another longer than do those of a snake and of a bird; + and the embryos of a dog and of a cat remain like one another for + a far longer period than do those of a dog and a bird; or of a + dog and an opossum; or even than those of a dog and a monkey." + +This general rule, that the longer the paths of embryonic development +of two animals keep identical the more nearly the two animals are +related, when Huxley wrote, was founded on a much smaller number of +facts than now are known. Since 1860 an enormous bulk of embryological +investigation has been published, and the total result has been to +confirm Huxley's position in the fullest possible way. A certain +number of exceptions have been found, but these exceptions are so +obviously special adaptations to special circumstances that their +existence only makes the general truth of the proposition more clear. +The most common kind of exception occurs when two closely related +animals live under very different conditions. For instance, many +marine animals have close allies that in comparatively recent times +have taken to live in fresh water. The conditions of life in fresh +water are very different, especially for delicate creatures +susceptible to rapid changes of temperature, or unable to withstand +strong currents. Thus most of the allies of the fresh-water crayfish, +which live in the sea, lay eggs from which there are soon hatched +minute, almost transparent larvae, exceedingly unlike the adult. In the +comparatively equable temperature of sea-water, and in the usual +absence of strong currents, these small larvae, as Huxley shewed later +in his volume on the _Crayfish_, live a free life, obtaining their own +food, and by a series of slow transformations gradually acquire the +adult form. In fresh water, however, the delicate larvae would be +unable to live, and the mode of development is different. The series +of slow transformations is condensed, and takes place almost entirely +inside the egg-shell; so that, when hatching occurs, the young +crayfish is exceedingly like the adult. Apart from such special cases, +it is true that the study of development affords a clear test of +closeness of structural affinity. + +Huxley then proceeds to discuss the development of man. + + "Is he something apart? Does he originate in a totally different + way from dog, bird, frog, and fish, thus justifying those who + assert him to have no place in nature, and no real affinity with + the lower world of animal life? Or does he originate in a similar + germ, pass through the same slow and gradually progressive + modifications, depend on the same contrivances for protection and + nutrition, and finally enter the world by the help of the same + mechanism? The reply is not doubtful for a moment, and has not + been doubtful any time these thirty years. Without question, the + mode of origin, and the early stages of the development of man + are identical with those of animals immediately below him in the + scale; without doubt, in these respects, he is far nearer the + apes than the apes are to the dog." + +Then, on lines with which, by continuous repetition and expansion by +authors subsequent to him, we have now become familiar, Huxley +compared, stage by stage, the development of man with that of other +animals, and shewed, first, its essential similarity, and then that in +every case where it departed from the development of the dog it +resembled more closely the development of the ape. He went on to +review the anatomy of man: + + "Thus, identical in the physical processes by which he + originates,--identical, in the early stages of his + formation--identical in the mode of his nutrition before and + after birth, with the animals which lie immediately below him in + the scale,--Man, if his adult and perfect structure be compared + with theirs exhibits, as might be expected, a marvellous likeness + of organisation. He resembles them as they resemble one + another--he differs from, them as they differ from one another. + And, though these differences cannot be weighed and measured, + their value may be readily estimated; the scale or standard of + judgment, touching that value, being afforded and expressed by + the system of classification of animals now current among + zooelogists." + +Having explained the general system of zooelogical classification, he +tried to dispel preliminary prejudice by inducing his readers or +bearers to take an outside view of themselves. + + "Let us endeavour for a moment to disconnect our thinking selves + from the mask of humanity; let us imagine ourselves scientific + Saturnians, if you will, fairly acquainted with such animals as + now inhabit the earth, and employed in discussing the relations + they bear to a new and singular 'erect and featherless biped,' + which some enterprising traveller, overcoming the difficulties of + space and gravitation, has brought from that distant planet for + our inspection, well preserved, may be, in a cask of rum. We + should all, at once, agree upon placing him among the mammalian + vertebrates; and his lower jaw, his molars, and his brain, would + leave no room for doubting the systematic position of the new + genus among those mammals whose young are nourished during + gestation by means of a placenta, or what are called the + placental mammals. + + "Further, the most superficial study would at once convince us + that, among the orders of placental mammals, neither the whales, + nor the hoofed creatures, nor the sloths and ant-eaters, nor the + carnivorous cats, dogs, and bears, still less the rodent rats and + rabbits, or the insectivorous moles and hedgehogs, or the bats, + could claim our _Homo_ as one of themselves. + + "There would remain, then, but one order for comparison, that of + the apes (using that word in its broadest sense), and the + question for discussion would narrow itself to this--Is Man so + different from any of these apes that he must form an order by + himself? Or does he differ less from them than they differ from + one another,--and hence must take his place in the same order + with them? + + "Being happily free from all real or imaginary personal interest + in the results of the enquiry thus set afoot, we should proceed + to weigh the arguments on one side and on the other, with as much + judicial calmness as if the question related to a new opossum. + We should endeavour to ascertain, without seeking either to + magnify or diminish them, all the characters by which our new + mammal differed from the apes; and if we found that these were of + less structural value than those which distinguish certain + members of the ape order from others universally admitted to be + of the same order, we should undoubtedly place the newly + discovered tellurian genus with them." + +In pursuit of this method, and taking the gorilla as the type for +immediate comparison with man, he passed in review the various +anatomical structures, shewing that in every case man did not differ +more from the gorilla than that differed from other anthropoids. We +shall take a few examples of his method and results, reminding our +readers, however, that Huxley carried his comparisons into every +important part of the anatomical structure. + +There is no part of the skeleton so characteristically human as the +bones which form the pelvis, or bony girdle of the hips. The expanded +haunch-bones form a basin-like structure which affords support to the +soft internal viscera during the habitually upright position, and +gives space for the attachment of the very large muscles which help +man to assume and support that attitude. In the gorilla this region +differs considerably from that in man. The haunch-bones are narrower +and much shallower, so that they do not form so convenient a +supporting basin; they have much less surface for the attachment of +muscles. The gibbon, however, differs more vastly from the gorilla +than that differs from man. The haunch-bones are flat and narrow, and +totally devoid of any basin-like formation; the passage through the +pelvis is long and narrow, and the ischia have outwardly curved +prominences, which, in life, are coated by callosities on which the +animal habitually rests, and which are coarse, corn-like patches of +skin wholly absent in the gorilla, in the chimpanzee, in the orang, +and in man. + +In the characters of the hands, the feet, and the brain, certain real +or supposed structural distinctions between man and the apes had been +relied upon. + + "Man has been defined as the only animal possessed of two hands + terminating his fore-limbs, and of two feet terminating his + hind-limbs, while it has been said that all the apes possess four + hands; and he has been affirmed to differ fundamentally from all + the apes in the characters of his brain, which alone, it has been + strangely asserted and reasserted, exhibits the structures known + to anatomists as the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu of the + lateral ventricle, and the hippocampus minor. + + "That the former proposition should have gained general + acceptance is not surprising--indeed, at first sight, appearances + are much in its favour; but, as for the second, one can only + admire the surpassing courage of its enunciator, seeing that it + is an innovation which is not only opposed to generally and + justly accepted doctrines, but which is directly negatived by the + testimony of all original enquirers who have specially + investigated the matter; and that it has neither been, nor can + be, supported by a single anatomical preparation. It would, in + fact, be unworthy of serious refutation except for the general + and natural belief that deliberate and reiterated assertions must + have some foundation." + +The last remarks referred, of course, to the statements of Owen, which +had made a great impression at the time and the result of which still +lingers in some of the worse-informed treatises attacking evolution. +Huxley gave a lucid account of the general structure and arrangement +of the brain in the vertebrate series, explaining the well-known fact +that from fish up to man the general ground-plan of the brain is +identical, but that there is a progressive increase in the complexity +and in the size of some parts compared with others. Next, he showed +that, so far from its being possible to erect any barrier in the +structure of the brain between man and the apes, there exists among +the mammals an almost complete series of gradations from brains a +little higher than that of the rabbit to brains a little lower than +that of man. He laid great stress on + + "the remarkable circumstance that though, so far as our present + knowledge extends, there _is_ one structural break in the series + of forms of simian brains, this hiatus does not lie between man + and the man-like apes, but between the lower and the lowest + simians; or, in other words, between the old-and new-world apes + and monkeys, and the lemurs. Every lemur which has yet been + examined, in fact, has its cerebellum partially visible from + above, and its posterior lobe, with the contained posterior cornu + and hippocampus minor, more or less rudimentary. Every marmoset, + American monkey, old-world monkey, baboon, or man-like ape, on + the contrary, has its cerebellum entirely hidden, posteriorly, by + the cerebral lobes, and possesses a large posterior cornu, with a + well-developed hippocampus minor." ... "So far from the posterior + lobe, the posterior cornu, and the hippocampus minor being + structures peculiar to, and characteristic of man, as they have + over and over again been asserted to be, even after the + publication of the clearest demonstration of the reverse, it is + precisely these structures which are the most marked cerebral + characters common to man with the apes. They are among the most + distinctly simian peculiarities which the human organism + exhibits." ... "Man differs from the chimpanzee or the orang, so + far as cerebral structure goes, less than these do from the + monkeys, and the difference between the brains of the chimpanzee + and of man is almost insignificant, when compared with that + between the chimpanzee brain and that of a lemur." + +Although Huxley found no structural differences between the brains of +man and of anthropoid apes, he was careful to lay great stress on the +important difference in size and weight. A full-grown gorilla is +nearly twice as heavy as a European woman, and yet the heaviest known +gorilla brain probably does not exceed twenty ounces in weight, while +healthy adult human brains probably never weigh less than thirty-one +or thirty-two ounces. This difference is not of systematic importance; +for cranial capacities shew that relatively and absolutely there is a +greater difference in brain-weight between the lowest and highest +human beings than there is between the highest ape and the lowest +human being. + +In dealing with the suggestion that man differs from the apes in being +bimanous, while the apes are quadrumanous, Huxley first explained and +discussed what the exact differences between hands and feet are. He +shewed that in man the foot is absolutely distinguished from the hand +by three structural points, although the two organs are similar in +general ground-plan. These structural points are: + +1. The arrangement of the tarsal bones. + +2. The possession of a short flexor and short extensor muscle of the +digits. + +3. The possession of a muscle named _peronaeus longus_. + +Then he described the foot of the gorilla, and shewed that although it +was superficially hand-like, it possessed all the structural +characters that distinguish a foot from a hand. Tracing the structure +of the foot downwards through the series of anthropoids and monkeys, +he established clearly that, while important differences existed in +nearly every single creature, the differences between the gorilla and +man were not greater than those between the gorilla and other +anthropoids, and less than between the gorilla and lower monkeys. + +This wonderful series of lectures ranks very high among the important +works of Huxley. It is true that a considerable proportion of the work +was not absolutely original, but it had all been specially verified by +him. It was a task undertaken with the greatest courage, and with a +care equal to the courage; and it settled conclusively for all time +the impossibility of making between man and the anthropoids any +anatomical barriers greater than those which exist between the +different although closely related members of any of the other family +groups in the animal kingdom. The advance of knowledge has only added +to the details of Huxley's argument; it has not made any +reconstruction of it necessary. A writer on the same subject to-day +would to all certainty make use of the same general methods. The chief +differences, perhaps, that would be made are two: First, greater +stress would be laid on the distinction, first made by Huxley himself, +between intermediate and linear types. (See p. 87). To use the popular +phrase, a great deal of water has passed under the bridges since the +separation of man from the ape-like progenitors common to him and to +the existing anthropoids. It has already been pointed out that the +gradual extinction of lower races of man is widening the apparent gap +between existing man and existing apes; and evidence accumulates that +many still more primitive and more ape-like races of man than the +lowest existing savages have disappeared from the surface of the +earth. Moreover, we know that existing anthropoids are the degenerate +and scattered remnants of what was once a much more widely spread and +more important group. We have some reason for believing the contrary, +and no reason for believing that the surviving anthropoids represent +the most man-like apes that have lived. + +The second great point in which a modern writer would amend Huxley's +statement of the case is more purely anatomical. One result of +Darwin's work has been that anatomists attend much more closely to the +slight variations of anatomical structure to be found among +individuals of the same species. A comparison between an individual +human body and the body of an individual gorilla is not now considered +sufficient. The comparison must be made between the results of +dissection of a very large number of men and of a very large number of +gorillas. The anatomy of a type is not the anatomy of an individual; +it is a kind of central point around which there oscillate the +variations presented by the individuals belonging to the type. So far +as this newer method has been applied, it has been found that the +variations of the gorilla type frequently, in the case of individual +organs, overlap the variations of the human type, and that the +structure of man differs from the structure of any anthropoid type +only in that the abstract central point of its variations is slightly +different from the abstract central point of the variations presented +by individual orangs, gorillas, and chimpanzees. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SCIENCE AS A BRANCH OF EDUCATION + + 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. + + +Less than half a century ago, there was practically no generally +diffused knowledge of even the elements of science and practically no +provision for teaching it. Medical students, in the course of their +professional education, received some small instruction in botany, +chemistry, and physiology; in the greater universities of England and +the Continent there were not in all a dozen professorships of science +apart from special branches of medicine; in the Scottish universities +there were one or two dreamy chairs of "Natural and Civil History," +the occupiers of which were supposed to dispense instruction in half a +dozen sciences. There was no scientific teaching at the public +schools; there were practically no books available for beginners in +science, and even the idea of guides to laboratory work had not been +invented. Huxley, addressing in 1854 a particularly select audience in +St. Martin's Hall, London, spoke to them of the + + "utter ignorance as to the simplest laws of their own animal + life, which prevails among even the most highly educated persons + in this country." "I am addressing," he said, "I imagine, an + audience of cultivated persons; and yet I dare venture to assert + that, with the exception of those of my hearers who may chance to + have received a medical education, there is not one who could + tell me what is the meaning and use of an act which he performs a + score of times every minute, and whose suspension would involve + his immediate death:--I mean the act of breathing--or who could + state in precise terms why it is that a confined atmosphere is + injurious to health." + +The power to express the precise meaning of even a common +physiological act is probably not yet possessed by all educated +people: but no one can doubt that there is now a very generally +diffused knowledge of and interest in the ordinary processes of living +bodies. It is almost impossible for any of us to escape some amount of +scientific education at school, at college, from lectures, or from +books. Certainly those of us who have a natural inclination towards +knowledge of that kind can hardly fail to have the opportunity of +acquiring it. Every library abounds in elementary and advanced +scientific books; every university and many schools have their +lectures and laboratories for science, and there is scientific +teaching involved in every educational curriculum. To attempt a +complete account of how this radical change in the attitude of the +world to science has come about would be to attempt to write the +history of European civilisation in the last half-century. A thousand +causes have been contributory; but among these causes two have been of +extraordinary importance--an idea and a man. The idea is the +conception of organic evolution, and the man was Huxley. The idea of +evolution clothed the dead bones of anatomy with a fair and living +flesh, and the new body left the dusty corners of museums to pervade +the world, arousing the attention and interest of all. A large part of +the prodigious mental activities of Huxley was devoted to compelling +the world to take an interest in biological science. Had his life-work +been no more than this side of it, it would have been of commanding +importance. A mere enumeration of the modes in which he assisted in +arousing attention to science among all classes would fill many pages. +Almost before he was settled in London, in the lecture from which we +quoted at the beginning of this chapter he urged the "educational +value of the natural history sciences." In 1869 in a speech in +Liverpool; in 1870 at University College, London; in 1874 as his +Rectorial address in the University of Aberdeen; in 1876 at the +opening ceremonial of the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore; in +the same year at South Kensington; in 1877 in a separate essay; in +1881 in an address to the International Medical Congress: at these +different times and addressing different and important audiences he +continued to urge the absolute necessity of a knowledge of nature. A +well-known and eloquent passage from an address on "a liberal +education" delivered to working men in 1868 contains the gist of his +reiterated argument: + + "Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of + every one of us would, one day or other, depend on his winning or + losing a game of chess, don't you think that we should all + consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and + the moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen + eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check? Do you + not think that we should look with a disapprobation amounting to + scorn upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which + allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a + knight? + + Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the + fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and more or less + of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing + something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and + complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for + untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two + players in a game of his or her own. The chess-board is the + world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of + the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the + other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always + fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he + never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for + ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are + paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the + strong shows delight in strength, and one who plays ill is + checkmated--without haste, but without remorse." + +Huxley wished that this scientific education should begin at an early +period of every child's training. In 1869 he wrote: + + "Let every child be instructed in those general views of the + phaenomena of nature for which we have no exact English name. The + nearest approximation to a name for what I mean which we possess + is physical geography; the Germans have a better, 'Erdkunde' + (earth knowledge or geology in its etymological sense), that is + to say, a general knowledge of the earth, and what is on it and + in it and about it. If anyone who has experience of the ways of + young children will call to mind their questions, he will find + that so far as they can be put in any scientific category, they + will come under this head of 'Erdkunde.' The child asks, 'What is + the moon, and why does it shine?' 'What is this water, and where + does it run?' 'What is the wind?' 'What makes these waves in the + sea?' 'Where does this animal live, and what is the use of that + plant?' And if not snubbed and stunted by being told not to ask + foolish questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving + of a young child; nor any bounds to the slow but solid accretion + of knowledge and development of the thinking faculty in this way. + To all such questions, answers which are necessarily incomplete, + though true as far as they go, may be given by any teacher whose + ideas represent real knowledge and not mere book learning: and a + panoramic view of nature, accompanied by a strong infusion of the + scientific habit of mind, may thus be placed within the reach of + every child of nine or ten." + +In 1880 Huxley, in association with Professor Roscoe, the chemist, and +Professor Balfour Stewart, the physicist, took a great practical step +toward securing the widest possible extension of elementary knowledge +in science. They became general editors, for the English publishing +house of Macmillan, of a series of "Science Primers." These were +written in simple language, suitable for those with no preliminary +knowledge of science, but were the work of the chief authorities in +the leading branches of science. They were published at what was then +the phenomenally cheap price of a shilling, and they sold in almost +incredible numbers. Huxley himself wrote the introductory volume to +this great series of tracts, taking for his subject the simplest and +most natural phenomena of the world and the simplest chains of cause +and effect that can be observed around us. The keynote of the little +book was that knowledge of nature could be gained only by observation +and experiment, and that for these the ordinary things in the world +around us provided ample material. A few years later he wrote a more +advanced volume on the same subject. He had now found an English name +for the German _Erdkunde_, and his book on _Physiography_ was simply +an account of the leading things and forces of nature. A traveller +set down in a foreign land will at once get into difficulties unless +he has provided himself with a guide to the geography, the manners and +customs, and the regulations of the country in which he finds himself. +Huxley's aim was to provide a similar guide to nature; an outline of +elementary knowledge of the world into which we all come as strangers. +He wrote of force and energy, of the forms of water, of heat and cold, +of the atmosphere, of winds and tides and weather, and of the main +features of the lives of plants and animals. There was nothing new in +what he wrote; he simply took from the chief sciences their leading +principles and elementary facts, and set them forth in plain and +simple language so that all could read and understand. The novelty was +that an attempt should be made to bring these facts within the reach +of all. The idea proved extremely infectious; in Europe and America, +in many languages and by many authors, Huxley's main lines were +followed, with the result that a new branch of education, and almost +of science, was created. + +The body of man and the processes of life, in the earlier part of the +century, were almost as unknown to most people as were the structure of +the earth and the great processes of nature. What was known of human +anatomy and physiology was contained in ponderous treatises, written in +difficult and technical language suitable only for students of medicine +and doctors. It was thought to be not only unnecessary but slightly +coarse for those not in the profession to know anything of the viscera +of digestion, circulation, and so forth. Huxley laid low this great +superstition by his _Elementary Lessons in Physiology_, a little volume +first published in 1866, which ran through many editions. In it he wrote +primarily for teachers and learners in boys' and girls' schools, and +selected from the great bulk of knowledge and opinion called human +physiology only the important and well-established truths. So successful +was he in his selection that, notwithstanding the immense increase in +knowledge since he wrote, the book still remains an adequate and useful +elementary treatise, and by this time must have given their main +knowledge of the human body to hundreds and thousands of readers who +otherwise would have remained ignorant. + +The books of which we have been writing were addressed to the general +public, but, in addition, Huxley wrote several, of which three are +specially important, for those students who devote themselves +specially to anatomy. _The Crayfish_, his famous volume in the +International Scientific Series, has been called by Professor Howes, +the assistant and successor of Huxley at the Royal College of Science, +"probably the best biological treatise ever written." Many naturalists +have written elaborate monographs on single animals: Lyonet worked for +years on the willow caterpillar, Strauss Durckheim devoted an even +minuter attention to the common cockchafer, and the great Bojanus +investigated almost every fibre in the structure of the tortoise. The +volumes produced by these anatomists were valuable and memorable, and +occupy an honoured place in the library of science, but Huxley's aim +was wider and greater. He showed how careful study of one of the +commonest and most insignificant of animals leads, step by step, from +every-day knowledge to the widest generalisations and the most +difficult problems of zooelogy. He made study of a single creature an +introduction to a whole science, and taught students to regard any +form of life not merely as a highly complicated and deeply interesting +anatomical study, but as a creature that is only one out of an +innumerable host of living things, every fibre in its body, every +rhythm in its functions proclaiming the degree and nature of its +relationship to other animals. R. Louis Stevenson, writing of his +native town, tried to give "a vision of Edinburgh, not as you see her, +in the midst of a little neighbourhood, but as a boss upon the round +world, with all Europe and the deep sea for her surroundings. For +every place is a centre to the earth, whence highways radiate, or +ships set sail for foreign ports; the limit of a parish is not more +imaginary than the frontier of an empire." It is this wider sweep, +this attempt to see and to teach not merely the facts about things but +the relations of these facts to the similar facts in other things, +that makes the difference between the new knowledge and the old. The +questions to be asked and answered are not merely, What are the +structures in this animal? but, How and why do they come to be what +they are? Huxley was a ruthless enemy of the books and teachers which +or who made the mere acquisition of details of knowledge their chief +object. + + "I remember," he wrote, "in my youth there were detestable books + which ought to have been burned by the hands of the common + hangman, for they contained questions and answers to be learned + by heart, of this sort, 'What is a horse? The horse is termed + _Equus caballus_; belongs to the class Mammalia; order, + Pachydermata; family, Solidungula.' Was any human being the wiser + for learning that magic formula? Was he not more foolish inasmuch + as he was deluded into taking words for knowledge?" + +Huxley himself admitted his difficulty in remembering apparently +meaningless facts, and occasionally aided his memory by inventing for +them a humorous significance. Professor Howes relates a story of this +kind. While examining the papers of candidates for some examination, +Huxley came across one in which the mitral or bicuspid valve of the +heart was erroneously described as being placed in the right cavity. +"Poor little beggar," said Huxley; "I never could get them myself +until I reflected that a bishop could never be in the right." This +insistence on the uselessness of formal knowledge applied only to +those who were being taught or who were learning from books or +lectures. Of the value and discipline of knowledge of facts gained at +first hand from objects themselves either in original investigation or +with the aid of books, Huxley had the highest possible opinion. By +such a method of work alone he believed it possible to distinguish +what we believe on authority from what we have convinced ourselves to +be true, and, as we shall see later, he regarded it as the most +important duty of a man to have acquired the habit of classifying the +mass of ideas in his brain into those which he knew and those which he +thought to be true from having read or heard or imagined them. + +The two other of the three great treatises for anatomical students are +the _Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals_, published in 1871, +and the _Manual of the Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals_, published in +1877. Of these two volumes it is sufficient to say that they formed +the chief introduction to the study of animal zooelogy for many years, +and that a large number of the best-known zooelogists of the end of +this century received from them their first instruction in the +science. As text-books they have been superseded lately by larger +volumes in which there is found more space for some of the recent +advances in knowledge, especially comparative embryology, and the more +intricate knowledge of the structure of the soft parts of marine +invertebrates made possible by the newer and more successful methods +of preserving delicate tissues. Just before Huxley ceased his regular +work as a teacher at the Royal College of Science, there arrived a +series of marine embryos, beautifully preserved and prepared for +microscopic work by the zooelogists at the International Zooelogical +Station at Naples. Huxley is reported to have exclaimed at their +beauty, and to have said: "You young men cannot realise your +advantages; you have brought to you for study at your leisure in +London, creatures that I had to lash my microscope to the mast to get +a glimpse of." Huxley's books were written for students with fewer +advantages, and, naturally, laid more stress on the harder skeletal +parts and such structures as could be more easily preserved; but with +this inevitable limitation they still serve as luminous and +comprehensive guides to the subjects of which they treat. There is no +doubt but that if he had been a younger man when the new technical +methods made their appearance, he would have adopted them and their +results in his volumes. One of the first great pieces of work which +utilised methods more like those now used in all laboratories than +those employed during the greater part of Huxley's life as a teacher +was the classical investigation by Van Beneden into the changes in the +egg of Ascaris which accompany the process of fertilisation. When +Huxley read the memoir he exclaimed, "All this by the use of glacial +acetic acid--is it possible!" At once, Professor Howes relates, he +repeated the whole investigation himself, and, when satisfied, +declared that the "history of the histological investigation of the +future would be the history of its methods." Not only have the +chemical substances used in preparing tissues for examination greatly +increased since Huxley's time as an active worker, but a very +important method of investigation has come into general use. In +Huxley's time tissues or animals too large or too opaque to be +examined microscopically as whole structures were either teased by +needles or were cut with a razor by hand into comparatively thick +slices. The process of cutting, however practised the operator, was +tedious and uncertain, and it was almost impossible to cut a piece of +tissue into a series of thin slices without losing or destroying +considerable portions. Microtomes, with various accessory mechanical +appliances, have now been invented, and by means of these not only are +slices of great tenuity made with ease, but there is little difficulty +in cutting the most delicate organism into a ribbon of consecutive +slices. Such new methods have made almost a revolution in the study of +zooelogy, particularly of the lower forms of life and of the embryonic +stages of higher animals, and books written before these methods +became common have naturally been superseded. + +Huxley did far more for the teaching of science than the preparation +of books, however useful these were. He was the practical inventor of +the laboratory system of teaching zooelogical science, and all over the +world the methods invented by him have been adopted in university +laboratories and technical schools. He had always declared that since +zooelogy was a physical science, the method of studying it must needs +be analogous to that which is followed in other physical sciences. If +a man wishes to be a chemist, it is necessary not only that he should +read chemical books and attend chemical lectures, but that he should +actually perform the fundamental experiments in the laboratory for +himself, and thus learn exactly what the words which he reads in his +books and hears from his teachers, mean. "If you want a man to be a +tea-merchant, you don't tell him to read books about China or about +tea, but you put him into a tea-merchant's office where he has the +handling, the smelling, and the tasting of tea. Without the sort of +knowledge which can be gained only in this practical way, his exploits +as a tea-merchant will soon come to a bankrupt termination." The great +and obvious difficulty in the practical teaching of biology appeared +to be the immense number of different kinds of animals and plants in +existence. A human life would not suffice for the examination of a +hundredth part of these. Huxley met the difficulty by the "type" +system. + + "There are certainly more than 100,000 species of insects, and + yet anyone who knows one insect, if a properly chosen one, will + be able to have a fair conception of the structure of the whole. + I do not mean to say he will know that structure thoroughly, or + as well as is desirable that he should know it; but he will have + enough real knowledge to enable him to understand what he reads, + to have genuine images in his mind of these structures which + become so variously modified in all the forms of insects he has + not seen. In fact, there are such things as types of form among + animals and vegetables, and for the purpose of getting a definite + knowledge of what constitutes the leading modifications of animal + and plant life, it is not needful to examine more than a + comparatively small number of animals and plants." + +The type system in itself was not absolutely new. Rolleston, the +Linacre professor at Oxford, in his _Forms of Animal Life_ had +devised the method of teaching comparative anatomy by the study of a +graded series of animals. But his method depended on the existence of +a series of dissections and preparations made by a skilled craftsman; +the tradition of teaching by authority instead of by investigation was +maintained, although the authority of books and lectures was aided by +museum specimens in glass bottles, the actual basis of the book being +a series of dissections prepared by Mr. Charles Robertson, Rolleston's +laboratory assistant, for the great International Exhibition of 1861. +The authorities of Huxley's students were to be found in nature +itself. The green scum from the nearest gutter, a handful of weed from +a pond, a bean-plant, some fresh-water mud, a frog, and a pigeon were +the ultimate authorities of his course. His students were taught how +to observe them, and how to draw and record their observations. +However familiar the objects, each student had to verify every fact +afresh for himself. The business of the teacher was explanation of the +methods of verification, insistence on the accomplishment of +verification. It was a training in the immemorial attitude of the +scientific mind, codified by Huxley and made an integral part in +national education. + +As a matter of fact it was comparatively late in his life as a teacher +that Huxley had complete opportunity for putting into practice his +scheme for the laboratory teaching of biology. In 1854 there was no +laboratory attached to the Natural History Department of the School of +Mines. Lectures alone were given, and the only opportunity the student +had of any practical acquaintance with the facts was in a short +interview with the professor at the lecture table after the lecture. +This condition continued practically to 1872. But a few years before +that Huxley and his colleagues got up a kind of pronunciamento +deploring the existing state of affairs. In his evidence before the +Royal Commission of 1870 Huxley said: "There is a complete want in the +School of Mines, as it now exists, of any means of teaching several of +the subjects practically. For example, I am set there to teach natural +history without a biological laboratory and without the means of +shewing a single dissection." Against strong internal opposition and +at considerable pecuniary loss Huxley and some of his colleagues +succeeded, in 1872, in getting the School of Mines transferred to +South Kensington, where it became the Royal College of Science. For +the first course of instruction given in the new buildings, Huxley +obtained the aid of Prof. M. Foster, Prof. Rutherford, and Prof. Ray +Lankester. The laboratory course originated by Huxley and shaped by +him with these three distinguished assistants became the model of the +regular courses given subsequently, and, with various slight +modifications, has since been adopted almost universally. Later on, +Huxley described it as follows: + + "I lecture to a class of students daily for about four months and + a half, and my class have, of course, their text-books; but the + essential part of the whole teaching, and that which I regard as + really the most important part of it, is a laboratory for + practical work, which is simply a room with all the appliances + needed for ordinary dissection. We have tables properly arranged + in regard to light, microscopes and dissecting instruments, and + we work through the structure of a certain number of plants and + animals. As, for example, among the plants we take the + yeast-plant, a Protococcus, a common mould, a Chara, a fern, and + some flowering plant; among animals we examine such things as an + Amoeba, a Vorticella, and a fresh-water polyp. We dissect a + starfish, an earthworm, a snail, a squid, and a fresh-water + mussel. We examine a lobster and a crayfish, and a black beetle. + We go on to a common skate, a codfish, a frog, a tortoise, a + pigeon, and a rabbit, and that takes us about all the time we + have to give. The purpose of this course is not to make skilled + dissectors, but to give every student a clear and definite + conception, by means of sense images, of the characteristic + structure of each of the leading modifications of the animal + kingdom; and that is perfectly possible by going no further than + the length of that list of forms which I have enumerated. If a + man knows the structure of the animals I have mentioned, he has a + clear and exact, however limited apprehension of the essential + features of the organization of all those great divisions of the + animal and vegetable kingdoms to which the forms I have mentioned + severally belong. And it then becomes possible to him to read + with profit; because every time he meets with the name of a + structure, he has a definite image in his mind of what the name + means in the particular creature he is reading about, and + therefore the reading is not mere reading. It is not mere + repetition of words; but every term employed in the description, + we will say of a horse, or of an elephant, will call up the image + of the things he had seen in the rabbit, and he is able to form a + distinct conception of that which he has not seen, as a + modification of that which he has seen." + +Huxley himself was originally a medical man; all through his life he +was chiefly interested in the biological sciences which underlie a +scientific practice of medicine, and as teacher and examiner he had +much to do with the shaping of medical education in London. Acting in +various public capacities, as a member of commissions dealing with +medical education, or as a witness before them, in magazine articles +and in public speeches he made many contributions to the problems to +be faced in medical education. Some of these related to the conditions +peculiar to medical training in London. In the greatest city of the +world there was during Huxley's life and there is still nothing +comparable with the great universities of Europe and America, of +Scotland and Ireland. Some dozen hospitals, supported partly by +endowments, partly by charities, attempt each to maintain a complete, +independent medical school. As the requirements of medical education +in staff, laboratories, and general equipment has advanced, these +hospitals have made heroic efforts to advance with them. +Notwithstanding the zeal and public spirit of the staff and managers +of the hospitals, this want of system has naturally resulted in a +multiplication of inefficient institutions and a number of makeshift +arrangements. Huxley repeatedly urged the concentration of all this +diffuse effort into a few centres, but this inevitable reform has not +yet become possible. + +A second important consideration, and one that has a much wider +application, relates to the kind of person by whom the scientific +sides of medical teaching should be given. Primitively, all the +instruction to medical students was given by those actually engaged in +the practice of medicine. Huxley was strongly of the opinion that the +teachers of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and so forth, should be +specialists devoted to these subjects for life, and not merely +surgeons and physicians who engaged in teaching until their practice +grew sufficiently to monopolise their attention. + + "I get every year," he said, "the elaborate reports of Henle and + Meissner--volumes of I suppose 400 pages altogether--and they + consist merely of abstracts of the memoirs and works which have + been written on Anatomy and Physiology--only abstracts of them. + How is a man to keep up his acquaintance with all that is doing + in the physiological world--in a world advancing with enormous + strides every day and every hour--if he has to be distracted with + the cares of practice?" + +There would always be found men, he declared, who would make the +choice between the wealth which may come by successful practice and a +modest competency, when that modest competency was to be combined with +a scientific career and the means of advancing knowledge. It was to +those who made the latter choice that he would entrust the teaching of +the sciences underlying medicine; partly because from the mere +mechanical reason of time these men would be better able to keep pace +with the most recent advances in knowledge, and partly because their +teaching would be stimulated by their own work in advancing knowledge. +In this great matter the world is rapidly advancing towards the +standard of Huxley; as each new appointment is made it becomes more +and more probable that the man chosen will be a teacher and +investigator rather than a practitioner. + +In another general question of the politics of medical education +Huxley took a strong line, and the tendency of change is toward his +view. One of the first results of the awakening of medical education +in the middle of this century was a tendency to throw an almost +intolerable burden of new subjects upon the medical student. In the +revolt from the old apprenticeship system, in which the student, from +the very first, gave his chief attention to practice, and was left +almost to himself to pick up a scanty knowledge of the principles and +theories underlying his profession, the pendulum swung too far the +other way, and there was almost no branch of the biological and +physical sciences in which he was not expected to go through a severe +training. On the old system the greater part of his time was spent in +the wards of the hospital; on the new system it was only at an +advanced stage of his career that he entered the wards at all, a +great part of his time and energy being spent in the purely scientific +teaching of the medical college. Huxley, although he had largely aided +in the overthrow of the happy-go-lucky older system, of which Mr. Bob +Sawyer was no exaggerated type, was equally severe on the reckless +extensions of the new system. "If I were a despot," he said, "I would +cut down the theoretical branches to a very considerable extent." He +would discard comparative anatomy and botany, materia medica, and +chemistry and physics, except as applied to physiology, from the +medical student's course. At first sight, this seems a hard saying, +but it is to be remembered that at that time the normal curriculum of +a medical student lasted only four years, a space of time barely +sufficient for the necessary minimum of purely medical and surgical +work. Huxley's view was that chemistry and physics, botany and +zooelogy, should be part of the general education, not of the special +medical education; he wished students to spend one or two years after +their ordinary career at school in work on these elementary scientific +subjects, and then to begin their medical course free from the burden +of extra-professional subjects. With certain limits due to the +different local conditions in different teaching centres Huxley's +system is being adopted. In most cases the authorities in medical +education are unable to leave the whole responsibility of the +elementary education in science to the schools from which medical +students come, as the conditions under which scientific subjects are +still taught in schools leave much to be desired. The average length +of the medical curriculum has been extended and the elementary +scientific subjects are taken first, sometimes at the medical +colleges, sometimes in the scientific departments of universities. +The interesting general point of view is that Huxley, although himself +a biologist and teacher of biology, took too broad an outlook on the +general policy of education to insist upon his own subject to the +detriment of the precise practical objects of the training of medical +students. + +In the days of Huxley's greatest activity, while by the natural force +of events and by his special efforts science was becoming more and +more recognised as a necessary and important branch of general +education, the cry was raised against it that scientific education was +not capable of giving what is called culture. A scientific man was +regarded as a mere scientific specialist, and science was considered +to have no place in, and in fact to be an enemy of, "liberal +education." In 1880, at Birmingham, Huxley attacked this view in a +speech delivered at the opening of the Mason College. Sir Josiah +Mason, the benevolent founder of that great institution, had made it +one of the conditions of the foundation that the College should make +no provision for "mere literary instruction and education." This gave +Huxley a text for raising the whole question of the relation of +science to culture. He declared that he held very strongly by two +convictions. + + "The first is, that neither the discipline nor the subject matter + of classical education is of such direct value to the student of + physical science as to justify the expenditure of valuable time + on either; and the second is, that for the purpose of attaining + real culture, an exclusively scientific education is at least as + effectual as an exclusively literary education." + +He quoted from Matthew Arnold, then in the zenith of his fame as a +chief apostle of culture, and shewed that there were two propositions +involved in the "literary" view of culture. The first was that a +"criticism of life" was the essence of culture; the second, that +literature contained the materials which sufficed for the construction +of such a criticism. With the first proposition he had no dispute, +taking the view that culture was something quite different from +learning or technical skill. "It implies the possession of an ideal, +and the habit of critically estimating the value of things by +comparison with a theoretic standard. Perfect culture should supply a +complete theory of life, based upon a clear knowledge alike of its +possibilities and its limitations." Against the second proposition he +urged in the first place that it was self-evident that after having +learned all that Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity have thought and +said, and all that modern literature has to tell us, it was still +necessary to have a deeper foundation for criticism of life. An +acquaintance with what physical science had done, particularly in +later years, was as necessary to criticism of life as any of the +literary materials. Next, following the biological habit of examining +anything by studying its development, he shewed how the connection +between "culture" and study of classical literature had come into +existence. For many centuries Latin grammar, with logic and rhetoric, +studied through Latin, were the fundamentals of education. A liberal +education was possible only through study of the language in which all +or nearly all the materials for it were written. With the changes +produced by the Renascence there came a battle between Latin and +Greek, and Greek came to be part of a liberal education. Later on, +there came a similar battle between the classical and modern +languages, and now the modern languages have included and absorbed +all the necessary material for knowledge and criticism. Those who +cling to classics as the basis of culture and education are clinging +to old weapons long after these have ceased to be effective, simply +because at one time in history only these weapons were available in +the struggle for knowledge. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +GENERAL PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION + + 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." + + +In the last chapter, the special relation of Huxley to scientific +education was described, and, naturally enough, it is in special +connection with scientific education that his influence is best known. +But he was keenly interested in all the larger problems of general, +university, and technical education, and he played a great part in +shaping the lines upon which these problems have been solved in +England. + +In the years immediately before 1870, all England was wrestling with +the great problem of elementary education, in the arrangements for +which it was far behind not only the leading European countries but +even its sister-kingdom, Scotland. In 1870 there came into operation +an Act of Parliament for the regulation of elementary education under +the supervision of locally elected school boards. Hitherto elementary +education had been controlled by the Established Church, and by other +denominational religious bodies, and the quality and quantity of the +instruction provided, for financial and various other reasons, had +been extremely unsatisfactory. But a long and furious battle had raged +around the religious question; elementary education was now to be +national, compulsory, and universal; where religious bodies maintained +schools that complied with certain fixed standards of efficiency, +attendance of children at these was to be regarded as satisfactory, +and in addition to the ordinary subjects, such theological and +religious teaching as the supporting bodies chose might be added. But +in the schools for all and sundry, under the control of boards +representing the whole population, and deriving that part of their +income represented by the subscriptions of the religious bodies in the +denominational schools from public rates, levied on the whole +population, was any definite creed to be inculcated? The extreme +Church party, perhaps naturally, held that the creed established by +law in the land should be taught in these new schools; extreme +supporters of other creeds, and a majority of ordinary people of all +creeds or of no creeds, objected to a new establishment of a sectarian +doctrine, even though that sectarian doctrine were the doctrine of the +national religion. The final result of the dispute as codified in the +Act of Parliament was what was known as the Cowper-Temple Clause: "No +religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of any +particular denomination shall be taught in the school." The actual +value of any clause, however it may appear to be a fair compromise, +depends on the spirit in which it is practically interpreted, and no +sooner had the Act been passed than the battle was renewed again over +the interpretation of the clause. Many of the Church controversialists +held that the liberal or more advanced party intended to exclude all +reference to the Bible or to religion, on the plea that some sect +could be found to which the most attenuated expression of religion +would appear to be against the plain meaning of the clause, and +Huxley, who had been in the forefront of the controversy, and who was +a candidate for the first London School Board, was decried as an enemy +of the Bible and of all religion and morality because he had expressed +what he called a secular interpretation of the clause. In an article +published in the _Contemporary Review_ immediately after the election, +Huxley explained precisely what he took the clause to mean, and, +afterwards, at all events during the existence of the Board to which +he was elected, succeeded in carrying out his intentions in the main. + +His first general point was to deprecate the action of those +extremists of both sides who tried to make the education of children a +mere battle-ground of religious dogmas. He then laid down what he +conceived to be the lines of most general utility upon which, under +the provisions of the Act, the education of children should be +conducted. In the foreground he placed physical training and drill, as +of supreme importance to young children, especially in the case of the +poor children of large towns. + + "All the conditions of the lives of such are unfavourable to + their physical well-being. They are badly lodged, badly housed, + badly fed, and live from one year's end to another in bad air, + without a chance of a change. They have no play-grounds; they + amuse themselves with marbles and chuck-farthing, instead of + cricket and hare-and-hounds; and if it were not for the + wonderful instinct which leads all poor children of tender years + to throw themselves under the feet of cab-horses whenever they + can, I know not how they would learn to use their limbs with + agility." + +This, humanitarianism as it was, was not the mere emotional sentiment +of the typical humanitarian; he went on to give the soundest practical +reasons for physical development. + + "Whatever doubts people may entertain about the efficacy of + natural selection, there can be none about artificial selection; + and the breeder who should attempt to make, or keep up, a fine + stock of pigs, or sheep, under the conditions to which the + children of the poor are exposed, would be the laughing stock + even of the bucolic mind. Parliament has already done something + in this direction by declining to be an accomplice in the + asphyxiation of school children. It refuses to make any grant to + a school in which the cubical contents of the school-room are + inadequate to allow of proper respiration." + +He wished to see physical training put on the same system. + +The second great point upon which he laid stress was the necessity of +providing training in domestic economy, cookery, and other household +accomplishments, for poor girls. These demands of Huxley seem simple +and obvious, now that by his efforts and the efforts of others they +have been accomplished, but in England, even thirty years ago, it +required more than an ordinary prevision and boldness to insist upon +them. + +Huxley passed next to the burning question of the time. He treated it +in the broadest and least sectarian spirit. + + "The boys and girls for whose education the School Boards have to + provide, have not merely to discharge domestic duties, but each + of them is a member of a social and political organisation of + great complexity, and has, in future life, to fit himself into + that organisation, or be crushed by it. To this end it is surely + needful, not only that they should be made acquainted with the + elementary laws of conduct, but that their affections should be + trained, so as to love with all their hearts that conduct which + tends to the attainment of the highest good for themselves and + their fellow-men, and to hate with all their hearts that opposite + course of action which is fraught with evil." + +He then proceeded to point out the distinction between the affection +which is called religion, and the science which is called theology, +and, without entering into the question as to whether the latter were +or were not a true science, he insisted on the danger of a confusion +between the two. + + "We are divided into two parties--the advocates of so-called + 'religious' teaching on the one hand, and those of so-called + 'secular' teaching on the other. And both parties seem to me to + be not only hopelessly wrong, but in such a position that if + either succeeded completely, it would discover, before many years + were over, that it had made a great mistake and done serious evil + to the cause of education. For, leaving aside the more far-seeing + minority on either side, what the religious party is crying for + is mere theology, under the name of religion; while the + secularists have unwisely and wrongfully admitted the assumption + of their opponents, and demand the abolition of all religious + teaching, when they only want to be free of theology--burning + your ship to get rid of the cockroaches." ... "If I were + compelled to choose for one of my own children, between a school + in which real religious instruction is given, and one without it, + I should prefer the former, even though the child might have to + take a good deal of theology with it. Nine-tenths of a dose of + bark is mere half-rotten wood; but one swallows it for the sake + of the particles of quinine, the beneficial effect of which may + be weakened, but is not destroyed, by the wooden dilution, unless + in the case of a few exceptionally tender stomachs. Hence, when + the great mass of the English people declare that they want to + have the children in the elementary schools taught the Bible, and + when it is plain from the terms of the Act, the debates in and + out of Parliament, and especially the emphatic declarations of + the Vice-President of the Council that it was intended that such + Bible-teaching should be permitted, unless good cause for + prohibiting it could be shewn, I do not see what reason there is + for opposing that wish." + +He went on to explain that, although he had always been strongly in +favour of secular education, by that term he meant only education +without theology, and he praised the English Bible in language as +noble as has ever been applied to it by the most ardent of +theologians. + + "The Pagan moralists lack life and colour, and even the noble + Stoic, Marcus Antoninus, is too high and refined for an ordinary + child. Take the Bible as a whole; make the severest deductions + which fair criticism can dictate for shortcomings and positive + errors; eliminate, as a sensible lay-teacher would do, if left to + himself, all that is not desirable for children to occupy + themselves with; and there still remains in this old literature a + vast residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. And then consider the + great historical fact that, for three centuries, this book has + been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in + English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain, + and is as familiar to noble and simple, from Land's End to + John-o'-Groat's House, as Dante and Tasso once were to the + Italians; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, + and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary form; and, + finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his + village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and + other civilisations, and of a great past, stretching back to the + furthest limits of the oldest nations in the world. By the study + of what other book could children be so much humanised and made + to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession + fills, like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval + between two eternities; and earns the blessings and the curses of + all time, according to its effort to do good and hate evil, even + as they also are earning their payment for their work." + +Lastly, he laid down the lines of the general education to be given. +He pointed out that already in the existing schools a very +considerable burden of work was imposed on the children in the form of +catechism, lists of the kings of Israel, geography of Palestine, and +that when these fantastic modes of education had been eliminated there +was plenty of time and energy to be employed. The instruction in +physical training was more than half play; that in the domestic +subjects had an engrossing interest of its own. He proposed, first, +the necessary discipline in the means for acquiring knowledge, the +tools for employing it, that is to say, reading, writing, and +arithmetic. After that, he believed that a certain amount of +knowledge, of intellectual discipline, and of artistic training should +be conveyed in the elementary schools, and for these purposes he +proposed to teach some rudiments of physical science, drawing, and +singing. + +In most respects the progress of primary education in England has been +a continuous progress along these lines suggested by Huxley, and he +may be regarded as in this fashion one of the great shapers of the +destinies of his race, for nothing can have a bearing more important +on the character and fate of a race than the manner of training +provided for the masses of individuals composing it. It is only in the +matter of the religious instruction that the course of events has been +widely different from the neutral exposition of the Bible as suggested +by him. In 1870 a great majority of the people of England who +reflected upon the matter at all, and all those who accepted current +ideas without reflection, accepted the Bible as an inspired, direct, +and simple authority on all great matters of faith and morality. +Therefore, when Huxley, as by far the most important man among those +who advocated a secular education, was an advocate and not in the +least an opponent of Bible teaching, they were well content to let the +matter rest. There were, it is true, a certain number of zealots who +entered the boards with the avowed purpose, on the one hand, of +getting as much dogmatic teaching and interpretation added as it might +be possible to smuggle in, and, on the other, to reduce the simplest +Bible teaching to a minimum. But the vast majority of persons were out +of sympathy with these fanaticisms. Since 1870, however, a gradual +change has occurred in the attitude of the majority to the Bible in +England. The growth of the new criticism and of knowledge of it has +produced the result that now only a small minority of reflecting +people in England accept the Bible in the old simple way; the majority +thinks that it requires interpretation and explanation by the +authority of the Church. And so a new battle over dogma has begun; +moderate Church people no longer accept the compromise of Huxley, but +strive for an interpretation which must be dogmatic, and there is a +new dispute as to what may be regarded as undenominational religion. +When a majority of reasonable persons accepted Huxley's suggestions of +simple Bible teaching they did so not because they believed, as he +did, that the Bible was simply great literature, great tradition, and +great morality, but because they believed it to be direct, inspired +authority. It is a curious coincidence that Huxley himself did so much +to spread knowledge of the new criticism, and that a first result of +this diffusion was to overthrow the compromise arranged largely by his +influence, and which for many years provided a middle way in which +sensible persons avoided the extremes of theological and +anti-theological zealots. + +Early in the course of his career as a member of the London School +Board, Huxley crystallised his views as to the general policy of +education in a phrase which perhaps has done more than any other +phrase ever invented to bring home to men's minds the ideal of a +national system of education. "I conceive it to be our duty," he said, +"to make a ladder from the gutter to the university along which any +child may climb." We have seen the nature of his views as to the +lowest rungs of this ladder; we may now turn to his work and views as +to the higher stages. He expressed these views in occasional speeches +and articles, and he had many important opportunities in aiding to +carry them into actual practice. He was a member of a number of +important Royal Commissions: Commission on the Royal College of +Science for Ireland, 1866; Commission on Science and Art Instruction +in Ireland, 1868; Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and the +Advancement of Science, 1870-75; Royal Commission to enquire into the +Universities of Scotland, 1876-78; Royal Commission on the Medical +Acts, 1881-82. From the beginning, he was closely associated with the +Science and Art Department, the operations of which threw a web of +education, intermediate between primary and university education, all +over Britain. A number of the teachers under that department were +trained by him, and as examiner to the department he took the greatest +care to reduce to a minimum the evils necessarily attendant on the +mode of payment by results. A certain number of teachers made it +their chief effort to secure the largest possible number of grants. +Huxley regarded these as poachers of the worst kind, and did all he +could to foil them. He did all he could to promote systematic +practical instruction in the classes, and to aid teachers who desired +to learn their business more thoroughly. He insisted again and again +upon the popular nature of the classes; their great advantage was that +they were accessible to all who chose to avail themselves of them +after working hours, and that they brought the means of instruction to +the doors of the factories and workshops. The subjects which he +considered of most importance were foreign languages, drawing, and +elementary sciences, and he wished them to be used first of all by +those who were handicraftsmen and who therefore left the elementary +schools at the age of thirteen or fourteen. + +In a lecture given at the formal opening of the Johns Hopkins +University at Baltimore in 1876, and in a Rectorial address to the +University of Aberdeen two years earlier, Huxley laid down the general +lines of university education as he conceived it. He began by +supposing that a good primary education had already been received. + + "Such an education should enable an average boy of fifteen or + sixteen to read and write his own language with ease and + accuracy, and with a sense of literary excellence derived from + the study of our classic writers; to have a general acquaintance + with the history of his own country and with the great laws of + social existence; to have acquired the rudiments of the physical + and psychological sciences, and a fair knowledge of elementary + arithmetic and geometry. He should have obtained an acquaintance + with logic rather by example than by precept; while the + acquirement of the elements of music and drawing should have been + a pleasure rather than work." + +He had not much to say for secondary or intermediate education, partly +because at that time, in England at least, the secondary schools were +in a hopeless state of incapacity, and differed from primary schools +not only in their greater expense, their adaptation to the +class-spirit which demanded the separation of the boys of the upper +and middle classes from those in the lower ranks of society, but +chiefly in the futility of the education given at the majority of +them. But where intermediate schools did exist, he demanded that they +should keep on the same wide track of general knowledge, not +sacrificing one branch of knowledge for another. He held that the +elementary instruction to which he had referred embraced all the real +kinds of knowledge and mental activity possible to man. The university +could add no new fields of mental activity, no new departments of +knowledge. What it could do was to intensify and specialise the +instruction in each department. + + "Thus literature and philology, represented in the elementary + school by English alone, in the university will extend over the + ancient and modern languages. History, which like charity, best + begins at home, but, like charity, should not end there, will + ramify into anthropology, archaeology, political history, and + geography, with the history of the growth of the human mind and + of its products, in the shape of philosophy, science, and art, + and the university will present to the student libraries, museums + of antiquities, collections of coins, and the like, which will + efficiently subserve these studies. Instruction in the elements + of political economy, a most essential but hitherto sadly + neglected part of elementary education, will develop in the + university into political economy, sociology, and law. Physical + science will have its great divisions, of physical geography, + with geology and astronomy; physics; chemistry and biology; + represented not merely by professors and their lectures, but by + laboratories in which the students, under guidance of + demonstrators, will work out facts for themselves and come into + that direct contact with reality which constitutes the + fundamental distinction of scientific education. Mathematics will + soar into its highest regions; while the high peaks of philosophy + may be scaled by those whose aptitude for abstract thought has + been awakened by elementary logic. Finally, schools of pictorial + and plastic art, of architecture, and of music will offer a + thorough discipline in the principles and practice of art to + those in whom lies nascent the rare faculty of aesthetic + representation, or the still rarer powers of creative genius." + +Early in the seventies the problems connected with what is called +technical education became prominent in the minds of the most +far-seeing of this nation. It became plain that England was not +advancing with the same strides as some other nations in arts and +manufactures, and the most obvious difference between England and the +rivals whose advance was causing anxiety lay in her deficiency in +education. Science or knowledge of nature lies at the root of all the +arts and manufactures, and it was our relation to scientific teaching +and research that required investigation. Naturally enough, Huxley +took the keenest interest in this question and made large +contributions to its solution, contributions which have not yet been +put completely into operation. He insisted most strongly upon a point +that we as a nation have not yet completely grasped. There is no +difference between applied science and any other kind of science. The +chemistry of manufactures, the physics of industrial machinery, the +biology of agriculture and of fisheries, are not different from other +chemistries and physics and biologies. They are merely special cases +of the application of the same general fund of knowledge, and the same +general principles of investigation. Huxley wished that the term +"applied science" had never been invented, or that it could be +destroyed. A man cannot study the chemistry of dyeing or make advances +in it unless he be a thoroughly trained chemist in the full sense of +the word. More than that, many of the greatest discoveries, using the +word "great" as applied to commercial advantage rather than to +abstract progress in knowledge, have been made by those who were +pursuing research for its own sake rather than for any immediate +commercial advantage to be derived from it. Hence he regarded it of +vital importance, from the mere point of view of the prosperity of the +country, that there should be a sufficiently large number of +scientific men provided with the means for research in the shape of +income and appliances. The most immediately utilitarian fashion for +the nation to encourage science, was to encourage science in its +highest and most advanced aspects. This meant the endowment of +research and the support of universities and other institutions in +which research might be conducted, and Huxley strove unceasingly for +the benefit of all such great organisations. One of the last public +occasions of his life was his appearance as leader of a deputation to +urge upon the government the formation of a real university in London +which should unite the scattered institutions of that great city and +promote the highest spheres of the pursuit of knowledge. He held the +view, strongly, that a useful combination was to be made by uniting +the functions of teaching and investigation. A teacher taught better +when his mind was kept fresh by the advances he himself was making, +and an investigator, by having a moderate amount of teaching to do, +gained from the need of forcing his mind from time to time to take +broad surveys of the whole field a part of which he was engaged in +tilling. The first great object, then, in promoting science so as to +reap the most direct national advantage from it, was to encourage +science in its highest and widest forms. It cannot be said that +England has yet learned this lesson. The number of institutions in +Germany where advanced investigation is continuously pursued is +absolutely and relatively greater than the number in England. + +The second part of technical education is that to which general +attention is more commonly given. It consists of the kind of training +to be given to the great army of workers in the country. In regard to +this, as in regard to research work, Huxley insisted on the absence of +distinction between technical or applied science and science without +such a limiting prefix. So far as technical instruction meant definite +teaching of a handicraft, he believed that it could be learned +satisfactorily only in the workshop itself. + + "The workshop is the only real school for a handicraft. The + education which precedes that of the workshop should be entirely + devoted to the strengthening of the body, the elevation of the + moral faculties, and the cultivation of the intelligence; and, + especially, to the imbuing of the mind with a broad and clear + view of the laws of that natural world with the components of + which the handicraftsman will have to deal. And, the earlier the + period of life at which the handicraftsman has to enter into the + actual practice of his craft, the more important is it that he + should devote the precious hours of preliminary education to + things of the mind, which have no direct and immediate bearing on + his branch of industry, though they lie at the foundation of all + the realities." + +He compared his own handicraft as an anatomist with the handicrafts of +artisans, and declared that the kind of preliminary training he would +choose for himself or for his pupils was precisely the training he +would provide for them. He did not wish that one who proposed to be a +biologist should learn dissection during his school-days; that would +come later, and, in the meantime, broader and deeper foundations had +to be laid. These were the ordinary subjects of a liberal education: +physical training, drawing, and a little music, French and German, the +ordinary English subjects, and the elements of physical science. +Against such costly schemes of education for the whole population of a +nation, many objections have been urged. Of these, perhaps the chief +is that the majority of human beings even in the most civilised +country are not capable of profiting by or taking an interest in, or +certainly of advancing far in, most subjects. Huxley met such +objections in a spirit of the widest statesmanship. There were two +reasons for making the general education of all what he called a +liberal education. The first was that, even in a liberal education +such as he advocated, no subject was pursued beyond the broad +elementary stages, and that during the early years of life, while the +framework and the character were forming, it was of first-rate +importance not to stunt either by lack of material. The second great +principle was that until any individual had had the opportunity, it +was impossible to say whether or no he would profit much or little, +and the gain to the whole nation by not missing any of those who were +born with unusual natural capacity was more than worth the cost of +affording opportunities to all. + + "The great mass of mankind have neither the liking, nor the + aptitude, for either literary or scientific or artistic pursuits; + nor, indeed, for excellence of any sort. Their ambition is to go + through life with moderate exertion and a fair share of ease, + doing common things in a common way. And a great blessing and + comfort it is that the majority of men are of this mind; for the + majority of things to be done are common things, and are quite + well enough done when commonly done. The great end of life is not + knowledge but action. What men need is as much knowledge as they + can assimilate and organise into a basis for action; give them + more and it may become injurious. One knows people who are as + heavy and stupid from undigested learning as others are from + over-fulness of meat and drink. But a small percentage of the + population is born with that most excellent quality, a desire for + excellence, or with special aptitude of some sort or another.... + Now, the most important object of all educational schemes is to + catch these exceptional people, and turn them to account for the + good of society. No man can say where they will crop up; like + their opposites, the fools and the knaves, they appear sometimes + in the palace, and sometimes in the hovel; but the great thing to + be aimed at, I was almost going to say, the most important end of + all social arrangements, is to keep these glorious sports of + Nature from being either corrupted by luxury or starved by + poverty, and to put them into the position in which they can do + the work for which they are specially fitted.... I weigh my words + when I say that if the nation could purchase a potential Watt or + Davy or Faraday, at the cost of a hundred thousand pounds down, + he would be dirt cheap at the money." + +The beginning and end of the whole matter was that a national system +of education was above all things a "capacity-catcher," designed to +secure against the loss of the incalculable advantages to be gained by +cultivating the best genius born in the land. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CITIZEN, ORATOR, AND ESSAYIST + + 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. + + +A great body of fine work in science and literature has been produced +by persons who may be described as typically academic. Such persons +confine their interest in life within the boundaries of their own +immediate pursuits; they are absorbed so completely by their +avocations that the hurly-burly of the world seems needlessly +distracting and a little vulgar. No doubt the thoughts of those who +cry out most loudly against disturbance by the intruding claims of the +world are, for the most part, hardly worth disturbing; the attitude to +extrinsic things of those who are absorbed by their work is aped not +infrequently by those who are absorbed only in themselves. None the +less it is important to recognise that a genuine aversion from affairs +is characteristic of many fine original investigators, and it is on +such persons that the idea of the simple and childlike nature of +philosophers, a simplicity often reaching real incapacity for the +affairs of life, is based. There was no trace of this natural +isolation in the character of Huxley. He was not only a serious +student of science but a keen and zealous citizen, eagerly conscious +of the great social and political movements around him, with the full +sense that he was a man living in society with other men and that +there was a business of life as well as a business of the laboratory. +We have seen with what zeal he brought his trained intelligence to +bear not only on his own province of scientific education, but on the +wider problems of general education, and yet the time he gave to these +was only a small part of that which he spared from abstract science +for affairs. In scientific institutions as in others, there is always +a considerable amount of business, involving the management of men and +the management of money, and Huxley's readiness and aptitude led to +his being largely occupied with these. For many years he was Dean of +the Royal College of Science at South Kensington, and for a +considerable time he served the Geological Society and the Royal +Society as secretary. In all these posts, Huxley displayed great +capacity as a leader of men and as a manager of affairs, and +contributed largely to the successful working of the institutions +which he served. + +In England, when troublesome questions press and seem to call for new +legislation, it frequently happens that the collection and sifting of +evidence preliminary to legislation is a task for which the methods +and routine of Parliament are unsuitable. The Queen, acting through +her responsible advisers, appoints a Royal Commission, consisting of a +small body of men, to which is entrusted the preliminary task of +collecting and weighing evidence, or of making recommendations on +evidence already collected. To such honourable posts Huxley was +repeatedly called. He served on the following Commissions: 1. Royal +Commission on the Operation of Acts relating to Trawling for Herrings +on the Coast of Scotland, 1862. 2. Royal Commission to Enquire into +the Sea Fisheries of the United Kingdom, 1864-65. 3. Commission on the +Royal College of Science for Ireland, 1866. 4. Commission on Science +and Art Instruction in Ireland, 1868. 5. Royal Commission on the +Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1870-71. +6. Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of +Science, 1870-75. 7. Royal Commission on the Practice of Subjecting +Live Animals to Experiments for Scientific Purposes, 1876. 8. Royal +Commission to Enquire into the Universities of Scotland, 1876-78. 9. +Royal Commission on the Medical Acts, 1881-82. 10. Royal Commission on +Trawl, Net, and Beam-Trawl Fishing, 1884. This is a great record for +any man, especially for one in whose life work of this kind was +outside his habitual occupation. It was no doubt in special +recognition of the important services given his country by such work, +as well as in general recognition of his distinction in science, that +he was sworn a member of Her Majesty's Privy Council, so attaining a +distinction more coveted than the peerage. + +The voluminous reports of the Commissions shew that Huxley, very far +from being a silent member of them, took a large part in framing the +questions which served to direct witnesses into useful lines, and that +his clear and orderly habit of thought proved as useful in the +elucidation of these subjects as they were in matters of scientific +research. For the most part, the problems brought before the +Commissions have lost their interest for readers of later years, but +there are matters still unsettled on which the opinions of Huxley as +expressed then remain useful. The Commission of 1876, for instance, +dealt with vivisection, a matter on which the conscience of the +ordinary man is not yet at rest. Although Huxley was intensely +interested in the problems of physiology, and although at one time he +hoped to devote his life to them, fortune directed otherwise, and the +investigations for which he is famed did not in any way involve the +kind of experiments known as vivisection. The greater part of his work +was upon the remains of creatures dead for thousands of years or upon +the lifeless skeletons of modern forms. On the other hand, he was +keenly interested in the progress of physiological science, he had +personal acquaintance with most of the distinguished workers in +physiology of his time at home and abroad, and from this knowledge of +their character and aspirations he was well able to judge of the +wholesale and reckless accusations brought against them. He was a man +full of the finest humanity, with an unusual devotion to animals as +pets, and with knowledge of the degrees of pain involved in +experimenting on living creatures. He insisted strongly on the +necessity of limiting or abolishing pain, wherever it was possible; he +agreed that any experiments which involved pain should not be +permitted for the purpose of demonstrating known elementary facts. +But, from his knowledge of the incalculable benefits which had been +gained from experimental research, and from his confidence in those +who conducted it, he declined to give support to the misguided +fanatics who desired to make such experimental research a penal +offence, even when conducted by the most skilled experts for the +highest purposes. + +Huxley contributed his share to the great questions which agitated +the public not only by service on Commissions, but by delivering a +large number of public addresses and writing a large number of essays +on topics of special interest. Much of his work on scientific, +educational, and general subjects took its first shape in the form of +addresses given to some public audience. University audiences in +England, Scotland, and America were familiar to him, and from time to +time he addressed large gatherings of a mixed character. But probably +his favourite audience was composed of working men, and he had the +greatest respect for the intelligence and sympathy of hearers who like +himself passed the greater portion of their time in hard work. +Professor Howes, his pupil, friend, and successor, writes of him: + + "He gave workmen of his best. The substance of _Man's Place in + Nature_, one of the most successful and popular of his writings, + and of his _Crayfish_, perhaps the most perfect zooelogical + treatise ever published, was first communicated to them. In one + of the last communications I had with him, I asked his views as + to the desirability of discontinuing the workmen's lectures at + Jermyn Street, since the development of workmen's colleges and + institutes was regarded by some as rendering their continuance + unnecessary. He replied, almost with indignation, 'With our + central situation and resources we ought to be in a position to + give the workmen that which they cannot get elsewhere,' adding + that he would deeply deplore any such discontinuance." + +Huxley had no natural facility for speech. He tells us that at first +he disliked it, and that he had a firm conviction that he would break +down every time he opened his mouth. The only two possible faults of a +public speaker which he believed himself to be without, were "talking +at random and indulging in rhetoric." With practice, he lost this +earlier hesitancy, and before long became known as one of the finest +speakers of his time. Certain natural gifts aided him; his well-set +figure and strong features, of which the piercing eyes and firm, +trap-like mouth were the most striking, riveted attention, while his +voice had a wide range and was beautifully modulated. But it was above +all things the matter and not the manner of his speech that commanded +success. He cared little or nothing for the impression he might +make--everything for the ideas which he wished to convey. He was +concerned only to set forth these ideas in their clear and logical +order, convinced in his own mind that, were the facts as he knew them +placed before the minds of his hearers, only one possible result could +follow. The facts had convinced him: they must equally convince any +honest and intelligent person placed in possession of them. He had not +the smallest intention of overbearing by authority or of swaying by +skilfully aroused emotion. Such weapons of the orator seemed to him +dishonest in the speaker and most perilous to the audience. For him, +speaking on any subject was merely a branch of scientific exposition; +when emotion was to be roused or enthusiasm to be kindled the +inspiration was to come from the facts and not from the orator. The +arts he allowed himself were those common to all forms of exposition; +he would explain a novel set of ideas by comparison with simpler ideas +obvious to all his listeners; and he sought to arrest attention or to +drive home a conclusion by some brilliant phrase that bit into the +memory. These two arts, the art of the phrase-maker and the art of +explaining by vivacious and simple comparison, he brought to a high +perfection. The fundamental method of his exposition was simply the +method of comparative anatomy, the result of a habit of thinking which +makes it impossible to have any set of ideas brought into the mind +without an immediate, almost unconscious, overhauling of the memory +for any other ideas at all congruous. In a strict scientific +exposition Huxley would choose from the multitude of possible +comparisons that most simple and most intelligible to his audience; +when in a lighter vein, he gave play to a natural humour in his +choice. Instances of his method of exposition by comparison abound in +his published addresses. Let us take one or two. In the course of an +address to a large mixed audience so early in his public career as +1854, in making plain to them the proposition, somewhat novel for +those days, that the natural history sciences had an educational +value, he explained that the faculties employed in that subject were +simply those of the common sense of every-day life. + + "The vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical + faculties, by no mental processes other than those which are + practised by every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs + of life. A detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks + made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that by + which Cuvier restored the extinct animals of Montmartre from + fragments of their bones. Nor does that process of induction and + deduction by which a lady, finding a stain of a peculiar kind on + her dress, concludes that somebody has upset the inkstand + thereon, differ in any way, in kind, from that by which Adams and + Leverrier discovered a new planet." + +In one of his addresses to working men on _Man's Place in Nature_ he +shewed that from time to time in the history of the world average +persons of the human race have accepted some kind of answer to the +insoluble riddles of existence, but that from time to time the race +has outgrown the current answers, ceasing to take comfort from them. + + "In a well-worn metaphor a parallel is drawn between the life of + man and the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly; but + the comparison may be more just as well as more novel, if for its + former term we take the mental progress of the race. History + shews that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of + knowledge, periodically grows too large for its theoretical + coverings, and bursts them asunder to appear in new habiliments, + as the feeding and growing grub, at intervals, casts its too + narrow skin and assumes another, itself but temporary. Truly, the + imago state of man seems to be terribly distant, but every moult + is a step gained, and of such there have been many." + +As another instance, the following from his address on a "Liberal +Education" may be taken. He had been discussing the intellectual +advantage to be derived from classical studies, and had been +comparing, to the disadvantage of the latter, the intellectual +discipline which might be got from a study of fossils with the +discipline claimed by the ordinary experts upon education to be the +results of classical training. He wished to anticipate the obvious +objection to his argument: that the subject-matter of palaeontology had +no direct bearing on human interests and emotions, while the classical +authors were rich in the finest humanity. + + "But it will be said that I forget the beauty and the human + interest, which appertain to classical studies. To this I reply + that it is only a very strong man who can appreciate the charms + of landscape as he is toiling up a steep hill, along a bad road. + What with short-windedness, stones, nits, and a pervading sense + of the wisdom of rest and be thankful, most of us have little + enough sense of the beautiful under these circumstances. The + ordinary schoolboy is precisely in this case. He finds Parnassus + uncommonly steep, and there is no chance of his having much time + or inclination to look about him till he gets to the top. And + nine times out of ten he does not get to the top." + +The last example we shall take comes from a speech made after dinner +at a much later period of his life. The occasion was a complimentary +dinner to the editor of the English scientific periodical _Nature_, +which had been for long the leading semi-popular journal of English +science. Huxley, in proposing the health of the editor, declared that +he did not quite know how to say what he wanted to say, but that he +would explain by a story. + + "A poor woman," he said, "was brought into one of our hospitals + in a shockingly battered condition. When her wounds had been + cleaned and sewn, and when the care of the surgeons had restored + her to comparative comfort, someone said to her, 'I am afraid + your husband has been knocking you about.' 'What!' she said, 'my + Jim bash me? no it worn't by him; he's always been more like a + friend to me than a husband.' That," went on Huxley, "is what I + wish to say about our guest of to-night. In all our intercourse + with him he has been more like a friend to us than an editor." + +It is impossible to make a real distinction between the essays and the +addresses of Huxley. Many of the most important of his addresses, as +for instance his Romanes lecture on "Evolution and Ethics," were +written and printed before he delivered them; most of them were +carefully prepared, and revised and printed after delivery. It is +therefore not remarkable to find a close resemblance in matter and +manner between what was originally spoken and what was published +without a _viva voce_ delivery. Everything that may be said of the one +set applies with an equal fitness to the other set. There are many +who assert with confidence that Huxley is one of the great masters of +English, and although an examination of this opinion involves +discussion of the elusive quality termed "style," it is necessary to +attempt it. + +In that totality which consists of an essay or of a printed address, +and of which we are, most of us, ready to discuss the style, there are +at least three separable elements, each contributing after its kind to +the effect on our minds. When the general effect is to throw us into a +state of pleasure, it is our habit to qualify the style with an +adjective of praise, selecting the adjective according to the degree +of restraint or of enthusiasm with which we are accustomed to express +our emotions; when the general effect is to throw us into a condition +of boredom or of distaste, we make a corresponding choice of +appropriate adjectives. When we wish to be specially critical we pass +a little way beyond an empirical judgment by pleasure or annoyance and +take into account the degree of harmony between matter and manner. In +such a frame of mind we discount the pleasure obtained from verbal +quips, if these occur in a grave exposition, or that received from +solemn and stately harmonies of language if these be employed on +insignificant trifles. In a condition of unusual critical exaltation +we may even admit an excellence of language and phrasing though these +have as their contents ideas which we dislike, or press towards +conclusions from which we dissent. But if we desire to make an exact +appreciation of literary style, it is requisite to examine separately +the three elements which contribute to the effect produced on us by +any written work. These three elements are the words or raw materials +employed, the building of words into sentences and of sentences into +paragraphs, which may be designated as the architectural work, and, +finally, the ideas conveyed, that is to say, the actual object of the +writing. + +Huxley was a wide and omnivorous reader, and so had an unusually large +fund of words at his disposal. His writings abound with quotations and +allusions taken from the best English authors, and he had a profound +and practical belief in the advantage to be gained from the reading of +English. "If a man," he wrote, "cannot get literary culture out of his +Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes, and +Bishop Berkeley, to mention only a few of our illustrious writers--I +say, if he cannot get it out of these writers, he cannot get it out of +anything." He had at least a fair knowledge of Greek in the original, +and a very wide acquaintance with Greek phrasing and Greek ideas +derived from a study of Greek authors in English versions. He had an +unusual knowledge of Latin, both of the classical writers and of the +early Church fathers and mediaeval writers on science and metaphysics. +French and German, the two foreign languages which are a necessary +part of the mental equipment of an English-speaking man of science, +were familiar to him. Finally, he had of necessity the wide and varied +vocabulary of the natural and technical sciences at his disposal. From +these varied sources, Huxley had a fund of words, a store of the raw +material for expressing ideas, very much greater and more varied than +that in the possession of most writers. You will find in his writings +abundant and omnipresent evidence of the enormous wealth of verbal +material ready for the ideas he wished to set forth: a Greek phrase, a +German phrase, a Latin or French phrase, or a group of words borrowed +from one of our own great writers always seemed to await his wish. +General Booth's scheme for elevating the masses by cymbals and dogma +was "corybantic Christianity"; to explain what he thought was the +Catholic attitude to the doctrine of evolution, he said it would have +been called _damnabilis_ by Father Suarez, and that he would have +meant "not that it was to be damned, but that it was an active +principle capable of damning." Huxley was like a builder who did not +limit himself while he was constructing a house to the ordinary +materials from the most convenient local quarry, but who collected +endlessly from all the quarries and brickfields of the world, and +brought to his heaps curiously wrought stones taken from a thousand +old buildings. The swift choice from such a varied material gave an +ease and appearance of natural growth to his work; it produced many +surprising and delightful combinations, and it never sacrificed +convenience of expression to exigencies of the materials for +expression. On the other hand, Huxley lacked the sedulous concern for +words themselves as things valuable and delightful; the delight of the +craftsman in his tools; the dainty and respectful tribute paid to the +words themselves; in fine, he took little pleasure in words themselves +and used them as counters rather than as coins. Careful reflection and +examination will make it plain that the pleasure to be got from +Huxley's style is not due in any large measure to his choice and +handling of words. There is no evidence that he deliberately and +fastidiously preferred one word to another, that he took delight in +the savour of individual words, in the placing of plain words in a +context to make them sparkle, in the avoidance of some, in the +deliberate preference of other words,--in fact, in all the conscious +tricks and graces that distinguish the lover of words from their mere +user. + +A close examination discovers a similar absence from Huxley's work of +the second contributory to the total effect produced by written words. +Anything that may be said about absence of artistry in the use of +words, may be said as to absence of artistry in building of the words +into sentences, of the sentences into paragraphs and pages. In the +first place, actual infelicities of sentence-building are frequent. +Clause is piled on clause, qualifying phrases are interpolated, the +easy devices of dashes and repetitions are employed wherever +convenience suggests them. It is striking to find how infrequent is +the occurrence of passages marked in any way by sonorous rhythm or by +the charm of a measured proportion. The purple passages themselves, +those which linger in the memory and to which the reader turns back, +linger by their sense and not by their sound. For indeed the truth of +the matter is that Huxley's style was a style of ideas and not of +words and sentences. The more closely you analyse his pages the more +certainly you find that the secret of the effect produced on you lies +in the gradual development of the precise and logical ideas he wished +to convey, in the brilliant accumulation of argument upon argument, in +the logical subordination of details to the whole, in fact, in the +arts of the convinced, positive, and logical thinker, who knew exactly +what he meant you to know and who set about telling you it with the +least possible concern for the words he used or for the sentences into +which he formed his words. The ideas and their ordering are the root +and the branches, the beginning and the end of his style. To put it +in another way: it would be extremely easy to translate any of +Huxley's writings into French or German, and they would lose extremely +little of the personal flavour of their author. The present writer has +just been reading French translations of Huxley's _Physiography_ and +_Crayfish_, made at different times by different translators. At first +reading it seems almost miraculous how identically the effect produced +by the original is reproduced by the French rendering, but the secret +is really no secret at all. Huxley produced his effects by the +ordering of his ideas and not by the ordering of his words. From the +technical point of view of literary craftsmanship, he cannot be +assigned a high place; he is one of our great English writers, but he +is not a great writer of English. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE OPPONENT OF MATERIALISM + + 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. + + +The prosecution of independent thinking in any branch of knowledge +leads to the ultimate problems of philosophy. The mathematician cannot +ponder over the meaning of his figures, the chemist that of his +reactions, the biologist that of his tissues and cells, the +psychologist that of sensations and conceptions, without being tempted +from the comparatively secure ground of observations and the +arrangement of observations into the perilous regions of metaphysics. +Most scientific men return quickly, repelled and perhaps a little +scared by the baffling confusion of that windy region of thought where +no rules of logic seem incontrovertible, no conclusions tenable, and +no discussions profitable. Huxley, however, not only entered into +metaphysical questions with enthusiasm, but gave a great deal of time +to the study of some of the great metaphysical writers. His views are +to be found scattered through very many of his ordinary scientific +writings, but are specially set forth in a volume on _Hume_, which he +wrote for Mr. John Morley's series, _English Men of Letters_, and in +essays on Berkeley and on Descartes, all of which are republished in +the _Collected Essays_. He contrived to preserve, in the most +abstrusely philosophical of these writings, a simplicity and clarity +which, although they have not commended him to professional +metaphysicians, make his attitude to the problems of metaphysics +extremely intelligible. The greatest barrier and cause of confusion to +the novice in metaphysics is that the writings of most of the great +authorities are overburdened by their great knowledge of the history +of philosophy. Huxley, in a characteristic piece of "parting advice" +in the preface to his work on Hume attacked this confusion between the +history of a subject and the subject itself. + + "If it is your desire," he wrote, "to discourse fluently and + learnedly about philosophical questions, begin with the Ionians + and work steadily through to the latest new speculative treatise. + If you have a good memory and a fair knowledge of Greek, Latin, + French, and German, three or four years spent in this way should + enable you to attain your object. If, on the contrary, you are + animated by the much rarer desire for real knowledge; if you want + to get a clear conception of the deepest problems set before the + intellect of man, there is no need, so far as I can see, for you + to go beyond the limits of the English tongue. Indeed, if you are + pressed for time, three English authors will suffice, namely, + Berkeley, Hume, and Hobbes." + +The first and perhaps the greatest problem in metaphysics can be put +very shortly. What is the reality behind the apparent universe of +matter and mind we see around us? Or, rather, what do we know of that +reality? To the uninitiated in philosophical thinking it seems +sufficiently plain that there are two entities, body and soul in man, +matter and mind in the whole universe; and various types of +intelligent dogmatists, ranging from the sturdy if somewhat stupid +shrewdness of Dr. Johnson to the agile casuistry of Catholic +metaphysicians, have supported this simple verdict of "common sense." +Trouble begins, however, with any attempt to analyse the relations +between what we call "matter" and what we call "mind." It appears, for +instance, that what we call matter we only know in terms of mind. In +an essay on Descartes's _Discourse on Method_, Huxley explains this by +simple examples. + + "I take up a marble and I find it to be a red, round, hard, + single body. We call the redness, the roundness, the hardness and + the singleness, 'qualities' of the marble; and it sounds, at + first, the height of absurdity to say that all these qualities + are modes of our own consciousness, which cannot even be + conceived to exist in the marble. But consider the redness, to + begin with. How does the sensation of redness arise? The waves of + a certain very attenuated matter, the particles of which are + vibrating with vast rapidity, but with very different velocities, + strike upon the marble, and those which vibrate with one + particular velocity are thrown off from its surface in all + directions. The optical apparatus of the eye gathers some of + these together, and gives them such a course that they impinge + upon the surface of the retina, which is a singularly delicate + apparatus connected with the terminations of the fibres of the + optic nerve. The impulses of the attenuated matter, or ether, + affect this apparatus and the fibres of the optic nerve in a + certain way; and the change in the fibres of the optic nerve + produces yet other changes in the brain; and these, in some + fashion unknown to us, give rise to the feeling, or + consciousness, of redness. If the marble could remain unchanged, + and either the vibrations of the ether, or the nature of the + retina, could be altered, the marble would seem not red, but some + other colour. There are many people who are what are called + colour-blind, being unable to distinguish one colour from + another. Such an one might declare our marble to be green; and + he would be quite as right in saying that it is green as we are + in declaring it to be red. But then, as the marble itself cannot + be both green and red, at the same time, this shews that the + quality redness must be in our consciousness and not in the + marble." + +In similar fashion he shewed that the hardness, roundness, and even +the singleness of the marble were, so far as we know, states of our +consciousness and not in the marble. The argument is capable of +application to all that we call matter, and it thus appears, on +analysis, that what we know of matter is simply a series of states of +our consciousness, or mind. In similar fashion, it turns out that what +we call mind is, so far as practical experience goes, always +associated with and dependent on what we call matter. We have no +direct knowledge of thinking without a brain, or of consciousness +without a body. Alterations and changes in matter, as for instance in +the tissues and nutrition of the body, are, so far as our experience +goes, inseparably associated with mental operations. In the animal +kingdom we see the development of the mind creeping slowly after the +development of the material nervous system, until, in man, the most +complex mind and most complex consciousness of which we have knowledge +accompany the most complex body and brain. + +Two great rival solutions to this fundamental problem are Materialism +and Idealism. Materialism supposes that what we call matter is the +real substance of the universe, and that mind is merely one of the +forms of its activity. The advance of physical science has done much +to make the materialistic hypothesis more plausible. When matter was +believed to be inert, the mere vehicle or theatre of forces, +materialism remained a singularly crude and unsatisfying position. But +now that science has shewn all that we call matter--the most solid +metals and the most attenuated vapours, the most stable and resisting +inorganic bodies, and the unstable tissues of living bodies--to be +alike in restless, orderly motion, to be, in fact, motion itself and +not the thing moved, to be changeable but indestructible, passing +through phases but eternal, there seems less difficulty in assuming it +to be the ultimate reality, and mind and consciousness to be its most +highly specialised qualities. Huxley, while stating this view plainly +enough, refused to accept it as a legitimate conclusion from the +facts. + + "For anything that may be proved to the contrary, there may be a + real something which is the cause of all our impressions; that + sensations, though not likenesses, are symbols of that something; + and that the part of that something, which we call the nervous + system, is an apparatus for supplying us with a sort of algebra + of fact, based on these symbols. A brain may be the machinery by + which the material universe becomes conscious of itself. But it + is important to notice that, even if this conception of the + uuiverse and of the relation of consciousness to its other + components should be true, we should, nevertheless, be still + bound by the limits of thought, still unable to refute the + arguments of pure idealism. The more completely the materialistic + position is admitted, the easier it is to show that the + idealistic position is unassailable, if the idealist confines + himself within the limits of positive knowledge." + +However we attempt to form what philosophers call "ejects," to imagine +that what is really in our consciousness is really the world outside +ourselves, these ejects remain mere phenomena of our minds. Matter +itself and its changes may, in the long run, be but modes of motion, +but "our knowledge of motion is nothing but that of a change in the +place and order of our sensations; just as our knowledge of matter is +restricted to those feelings of which we assume it to be the cause." +Huxley's exact position in regard to materialism is most plain in his +expositions of the writings of Berkeley, with whom began in England +the greatest movement towards an idealistic philosophy. + + "Berkeley faced the problem boldly. He said to the materialists: + 'You tell me that all the phenomena of nature are resolvable into + matter and its affections. I assent to your statement, and now I + put to you the further question, What is matter? In answering + this question you shall be bound by your own conditions; and I + demand, in the terms of the Cartesian axiom, that you in turn + give your assent only to such conclusions as are perfectly clear + and obvious.'" + +Huxley then goes on to state the general lines of the arguments by +which Berkeley arrived at the apparently paradoxical conclusion "that +all the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth--in a word, all +those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world," have an +existence only so far as they are in a perceiving mind. And he +proceeds at length to explain the immense importance of the truths +underlying Berkeley's position. + + "The key to all philosophy lies in the clear apprehension of + Berkeley's problem--which is neither more nor less than one of + the shapes of the greatest of all questions, 'What are the limits + of our faculties?' And it is worth any amount of trouble to + comprehend the exact nature of the argument by which Berkeley + arrived at his results, and to know by one's own knowledge the + great truth which he discovered--that the honest and rigorous + following up of the argument which leads us to materialism + inevitably carries us beyond it." + +Huxley, however, while he opposed a materialistic explanation of the +universe with the strength of exposition and acute reasoning at his +disposal, did not pass directly into the other camp and become a pure +idealist. + + "Granting the premisses," he wrote, "I do not see any escape from + Berkeley's conclusion, that the substance of matter is a + metaphysical unknown quantity, of the existence of which there is + no proof. What Berkeley does not seem to have so clearly + perceived is that the non-existence of a substance of mind is + equally arguable; and that the result of the impartial + application of his reasonings is the reduction of the all to + co-existences and sequences of phenomena, beneath and beyond + which there is nothing cognoscible." + +Hume had written: "What we call a mind is nothing but a heap or +collection of different perceptions, united together by certain +relations, and supposed, though falsely, to be endowed with a perfect +simplicity and identity." Here was mind rejected for the same negative +reasons as matter, and Huxley was as ready to point out that while we +can know nothing of the + + "substance of the thinking thing, we go beyond legitimate + reasoning if we therefore deny its existence." ... "Hume may be + right or wrong, but the most he or anyone else can prove in + favour of his conclusions is, that we know nothing more of the + mind than that it is a series of perceptions. Whether there is + something in the mind that lies beyond the reach of observation, + or whether perceptions themselves are the products of something + which can be observed and which is not mind, are questions which + can in no wise be settled by direct observation." + +In another passage he writes: + + "To sum up. If the materialist affirms that the universe and all + its phenomena are resolvable into matter and motion, Berkeley + replies, True; but what you call matter and motion are known to + us only as forms of consciousness; their being is to be conceived + or known; and the existence of a state of consciousness, apart + from a thinking mind, is a contradiction in terms. I conceive + that this reasoning is irrefragable. And therefore, if I were + obliged to choose between absolute materialism and absolute + idealism, I should feel compelled to accept the latter + alternative. Indeed, upon this point Locke does, practically, go + as far in the direction of idealism as Berkeley, when he admits + that the 'simple ideas which we receive from sensation and + reflection are the boundaries of our thoughts, beyond which the + mind, whatever efforts it would make, is not able to advance one + jot.'" + +Locke went further, and Huxley agreed with him. He declared that the +mind cannot "make any discoveries when it would pry into the nature +and hidden cause of these ideas." We must, in fact, definitely reject +what we know as matter as the absolute reality of the universe, for it +becomes very plain that what we call matter we know merely as +affections of our own consciousness. In a sense, then, so far as it is +opposed to materialism, idealism, according to Huxley, must be the +philosophical position of a scientific man. But the idealism is not +the absolute idealism of Berkeley, as we have no logical right to deny +or to affirm the existence of absolute matter or of absolute mind. The +real truth of the philosophy of science lies in a separation between +metaphysical theory and actual pursuits. In ultimate philosophical +theory it is impossible to rest content with a plain natural +conception of the universe. When any conception of matter, or of its +affections, is pushed as far as analysis can take us, what we know +resolves itself into affections of mind, into what without +metaphysical finesse may be called ideas. But this empirical idealism +must be taken positively as being merely the limits of our knowledge, +and it must carry with it neither an undue exaltation of mind nor an +undue depreciation of matter. + + "The Platonic philosophy is probably the grandest example of the + unscientific use of the imagination extant; and it would be hard + to estimate the amount of detriment to clear thinking effected, + directly and indirectly, by the theory of ideas, on the one hand, + and by the unfortunate doctrine of the baseness of matter, on the + other." + +Materialism was dismissed by Huxley as being an inadequate +philosophical explanation of the universe, and as being based on a +logical delusion. There remains, however, a practical application of +the word in which the conceptions it involves are almost an inevitable +part of science, and which was strenuously urged by Huxley. In the +earlier days of the world and of science almost all the phenomena of +nature were regarded as random or wilful displays of living +intelligence. The earth itself and the sun, the moon, and the stars +were endowed with life; legions of unseen intelligences ruled the +operations of nature, and although these might be bribed or +threatened, pleased or made angry, their actions were regarded as +beyond prediction or control. The procession of the seasons, the +routine of day and night, the placid appeasement of the rains, the +devastating roar of storms, the shining of the rainbow, the bubbling +of springs, the terrors of famine and pestilence; all these--the +varying environment which makes or mars human life--were regarded as +inevitable and capricious. The whole progress of physical science has +been attended with a gradual elimination of these supernatural +agencies and with a continual replacement of them by conceptions of +physical sequence. + + "In singular contrast with natural knowledge, the acquaintance of + mankind with the supernatural appears the more exact, and the + influence of supernatural doctrine on conduct the greater, the + further we go back in time and the lower the stage of + civilisation submitted to investigation. Historically, indeed, + there would seem to be an inverse relation between supernatural + and natural knowledge. As the latter has widened, gained in + precision and trustworthiness, so has the former shrunk, grown + vague and questionable; as the one has more and more filled the + sphere of action, so has the other retreated into the region of + meditation, or vanished behind the screen of mere verbal + recognition. Whether this difference of the fortunes of + Naturalism and Supernaturalism is an indication of the progress, + or of the regress of humanity, of a fall from or an advance + towards the higher life, is a matter of opinion. The point to + which I wish to direct attention is that the difference exists + and is making itself felt. Men are growing seriously alive to the + fact that the historical evolution of humanity, which is + generally, and I venture to think, not unreasonably, regarded as + progress, has been and is being accompanied by a co-ordinate + elimination of the supernatural from its originally large + occupation of men's thought." + +Every stage in this long process, every new attempt to place physical +phenomena in a chain of direct causation has been denounced as +dangerous and degrading materialism, and in this sense Huxley was not +only an adherent but one of the foremost champions of materialism. As +everyone knows, some of the greatest advances in this process of +co-ordinating physical phenomena were made during Huxley's life; and +his vigorous onslaughts on those who tried to thwart all attempts at +material explanations in favour of unknown agencies made him specially +open to abusive criticism. The battle was almost invariably between +those who had not special knowledge and those in possession of it, and +it occurred in practically the whole field of science, but +particularly in the biological sciences. A single example will serve +to shew what is meant by materialism in this sense and the attitude of +Huxley to it. The study of the human mind naturally has attracted the +attention of thinkers almost since the beginning of philosophy, but +until this century, with a few crude exceptions, it has been conducted +entirely apart from anatomy and physiology. Advances in these physical +sciences, however, have changed that, and the modern psychologist has +to begin by being a physiologist and anatomist. + + "Surely no one who is cognisant of the facts of the case, + nowadays, doubts that the roots of psychology lie in the + physiology of the nervous system. What we call the operations of + the mind are the functions of the brain, and the materials of + consciousness are products of cerebral activity. Cabanis may have + made use of crude and misleading phraseology when he said that + the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile; but the + conception which that much-abused phrase embodies is, + nevertheless, far more consistent with fact than the popular + notion that the mind is a metaphysical entity seated in the head, + but as independent of the brain as a telegraph operator is of his + instrument. It is hardly necessary to point out that the doctrine + just laid down is what is commonly called materialism. I am not + sure that the adjective 'crass,' which appears to have a special + charm for rhetorical sciolists, would not be applied to it. But + it is, nevertheless, true that the doctrine contains nothing + inconsistent with the purest idealism." + +The whole doctrine of evolution is similarly a materialistic account +of natural phenomena, in the popular and not the philosophical meaning +of the term. But even within this popular meaning, it is extremely +necessary to have an exact conception of the limits within which +Huxley was materialistic. Take for instance the question of the origin +of life. It would be one of the greatest achievements of physical +science could it shew that life was not inco-ordinate with non-living +physical phenomena, but was a special case of them. Huxley knew that +this advance had not yet been made. + + "It may be that, by-and-by, philosophers will discover some + higher laws of which the facts of life are particular cases--very + possibly they will find out some bond between physico-chemical + phenomena on the one hand, and vital phenomena on the other. At + present, however, we assuredly know of none; and I think we shall + exercise a wise humility in confessing that, for us at least, + this successive assumption of different states (external + conditions remaining the same)--this spontaneity of action--if I + may use a term which implies more than I would be answerable + for--which constitutes so vast and plain a practical distinction + between living bodies and those which do not live, is an ultimate + fact; indicating as such, the existence of a broad line of + demarcation between the subject matter of biological and of all + other science." + +In another passage he wrote: + + "Looking back through the prodigious vista of the past I find no + record of the commencement of life, and therefore I am devoid of + any means of forming a definite conclusion as to the conditions + of its appearance. Belief, in the scientific sense of the word, + is a serious matter, and needs strong foundations. To say, + therefore, in the admitted absence of evidence, that I have any + belief as to the mode in which the existing forms of life have + originated, would be using words in a wrong sense. But + expectation is permissible where belief is not; and if it were + given me to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time + to the still more remote period when the earth was passing + through physical and chemical conditions which it can no more see + again than a man can recall his infancy, I should expect to be a + witness of the evolution of living protoplasm from non-living + matter. I should expect to see it appear under forms of great + simplicity, endowed, like existing fungi, with the power of + determining the formation of new protoplasm from such matters as + ammonium carbonates, oxalates, and tartrates, alkaline and earthy + phosphates, and water, without the aid of light. That is the + expectation to which analogical reasoning leads me, but I beg you + once more to recollect that I have no right to call my opinion + anything but an act of philosophical faith." + +Since these words were written the reasons for Huxley's "philosophic +faith" have been strengthened by later discoveries, and perhaps a +majority of biologists would take the view that except for practical +purposes there is no sound reason for placing living and inorganic +aggregations of matter in totally different categories. But even if +the main outline of the theory of evolution were proved beyond the +possibility of doubt, if we could trace existing plants and animals +backwards with the accuracy of a genealogist and find that they had +been developed, under purely physical "laws" from a few simple forms, +and if we could understand exactly how these few simple forms of +living matter took origin from non-living matter, we would not, if we +followed Huxley, be able to rest in a purely materialistic position. +As he, in different words, repeatedly said: + + "It is very desirable to remember that evolution is not an + explanation of the cosmos, but merely a generalised statement of + the method and results of that process. And, further, that, if + there is any proof that the cosmic process was set going by any + agent, then that agent will be the creator of it and of all its + products, although supernatural intervention may remain strictly + excluded from its further course." + +The doctrine of evolution was, for him, no attempt to reinstate the +"old pagan goddess, Chance." Darwin had again and again explained, and +Huxley again and again had called attention to the explanation, that +when words like "chance" and "spontaneous" were used, no more was +intended to be implied than an ignorance of the causes. In the true +sense of the word "chance" did not exist for Huxley and Darwin. So far +as all scientific and common experience goes, every event is connected +with foregoing events in an orderly and inevitable chain of +sequences,--a chain that could have been predicted or predetermined +by any sufficient intelligence. Moreover, Huxley did not believe that +Darwin's views, rightly interpreted, "abolished teleology and +eviscerated the argument from design." They only abolished that crude +expression of teleology which supposed all structures among animals +and plants to have been created in their present forms for their +present purposes. Under the stimulus given to biology by the doctrine +of evolution that science has progressed far beyond conceptions so +rudely mechanical. We know that behind each existing structure there +is a long history of change; of change not only in form and +appearance, but also in function. In the development of living +organisms to-day, as they grow up into tree or animal from seed or +egg, we can trace the record of these changes of form; in some cases +we can follow the actual change of function. But in a wider sense +there is no incongruity between evolution and teleology. + + "There is a wider teleology," Huxley wrote, "which is not touched + by the doctrine of evolution, but is actually based on the + fundamental proposition of evolution. This proposition is that + the whole world, living and not living, is the result of the + mutual interaction, according to definite laws, of the forces + possessed by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of + the universe was composed. That acute champion of teleology, + Paley, saw no difficulty in admitting that the 'production of + things' may be the result of mechanical dispositions fixed + beforehand by intelligent appointment and kept in action by a + power at the centre." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FREEDOM OF THOUGHT + + 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. + + +In the practice of modern law-courts, a witness rarely is allowed to +offer as evidence any statement for which he himself is not the direct +authority. What he himself saw or heard or did with regard to the +matter at issue--these, and not what others told him they had seen or +heard or done, are the limits within which he is allowed to be a +competent witness. As a matter of fact, in the business of life we +have to act differently. A large proportion of our opinions, beliefs, +and reasons for conduct must come to us on the authority of others. We +have no direct experience of the past; of the present we can see +little and only the little immediately surrounding us. In a multitude +of affairs we have to act on authority, to accept from books or from +persons what we have not ourselves the opportunity of knowing. It +would seem, then, to be a primary duty to learn to distinguish in our +minds those matters which we know directly from those matters which we +have accepted on trust; and, secondly, to learn and to apply the best +modes of choosing the good and of rejecting the bad authorities. The +work of the scientific man is a lifelong exercise of these primary +duties. From the first moment he begins to observe living things or to +dissect their dead frameworks, to mix chemical substances, to make +experiments with magnets and wires, he begins to build, and as long as +he continues to work he continues to build for himself a body of +first-hand knowledge. But, however he work arduously or through long +years, he can visit only the smallest portion of the field of nature +in which he is working. It is necessary for him to employ the work of +others, submitting, from time to time such accepted work to the tests +suggested by his own observations. He learns to regard in a different +light all knowledge taken on the authority of others; to distrust it a +little until he has learned to weigh its general credibility by his +own standards, and its particular credibility by subjecting portions +of it to his own tests; to distrust it still more when even small +portions fail to answer his tests, and to reject it altogether when +the percentage of detected error is large. He learns, in fact, what +Huxley called the duty of doubt. + +This duty has not been universally accepted. In the history of +Christian civilisation (and a parallel series of events might be +portrayed from the history of other civilisations), many great +institutions and very many great and good men have condemned and +feared the habit and attitude of doubt in all its forms. Certain +doctrines believed to be of supreme importance to mankind were held to +rest on authority independent of, and perhaps not susceptible to, the +kind of testing employed in science. Around these doctrines there +grew, in time, a body of traditions, customs, new dogmas, and +fantasies; and the duty of belief in the first was extended to cover +the whole system, the central jewel as well as the accretions and +encrustations of time. The domain of religious authority was extended +to the whole field of human thought and of human action, and the more +unreasonable the dominion became, the more strenuously was the duty of +belief urged. The Protestant Reformation was one of the great stages +in the conflict for freedom against the universal tyranny that had +arisen, but the reformers very naturally retained a considerable +portion of the bias against which they had fought. In Protestant +countries, in the first half of this century, the duty of belief in +the Protestant doctrines, traditions, philosophy, history, and +attitude to science reigned supreme, and all weapons, from legitimate +argument to abusive invective and social ostracism, were employed +against those who acted in accordance with the duty of doubt. +Allegations of "unsoundness" or of "free thinking" became barriers to +success in life, and those against whom they were made became lowered +in the esteem of their fellows. + +At the present time, when the advance of science and of civilisation +has almost won the battle for freedom of thought, it is difficult to +realise the strength of the forces against which Huxley and many +others had to fight. Huxley himself said with perfect justice: "I +hardly know of a great physical truth whose universal reception has +not been preceded by an epoch in which most estimable persons have +maintained that the phenomena investigated were directly dependent on +the Divine Will, and that the attempt to investigate them was not +only futile but blasphemous." As a particular instance of this he +cited some episodes in the history of geological science. + + "At the present time, it is difficult to persuade serious + scientific enquirers to occupy themselves, in any way, with the + Noachian Deluge. They look at you with a smile and a shrug, and + say they have more important matters to attend to than mere + antiquarianism. But it was not so in my youth. At that time + geologists and biologists could hardly follow to the end any path + of enquiry without finding the way blocked by Noah and his ark, + or by the first chapter of Genesis; and it was a serious matter, + in this country at any rate, for a man to be suspected of + doubting the literal truth of the Diluvial or any other + Pentateuchal history. The fiftieth anniversary of the foundation + of the Geological Club (in 1824) was, if I remember rightly, the + last occasion on which the late Sir Charles Lyell spoke to even + so small a public as the members of that body. Our veteran leader + lighted up once more; and, referring to the difficulties which + beset his early efforts to create a rational science of geology, + spoke, with his wonted clearness and vigour, of the social + ostracism which pursued him after the publication of the + _Principles of Geology_, in 1830, on account of the obvious + tendency of that noble work to discredit the Pentateuchal + accounts of the Creation and the Deluge. If my younger + contemporaries find this hard to believe, I may refer them to a + grave book _On the Doctrine of the Deluge_, published eight years + later, and dedicated by the author to his father, the then + Archbishop of York. The first chapter refers to the treatment of + the 'Mosaic Deluge,' by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Lyell, in the + following terms: 'Their respect for revealed religion has + prevented them from arraying themselves openly against the + Scriptural account of it--much less do they deny its truth--but + they are in a great hurry to escape from the consideration of it, + and evidently concur in the opinion of Linnaeus, that no proofs + whatever of the Deluge are to be discovered in the structure of + the earth.' And after an attempt to reply to some of Lyell's + arguments, which it would be cruel to reproduce, the writer + continues:--'When, therefore, upon such slender grounds, it is + determined, in answer to those who insist on its universality, + that the Mosaic Deluge must be considered a preternatural event, + far beyond the reach of philosophical enquiry; not only as to the + causes employed to produce it, but as to the effects most likely + to result from it; that determination wears an aspect of + scepticism, which, however much soever it may be unintentional in + the mind of the writer, yet cannot but produce an evil impression + on those who are already predisposed to carp and cavil at the + evidence of Revelation.'" + +The great evil of authority was its tendency to erect itself into some +form of infallibility of universal application. When, for a time, the +geological victory was won, and the supporters of authority had +comforted themselves with reconciliations, there arose the much +greater and more serious opposition between authority and the +conceptions involved in evolution. Huxley, as we have seen in an +earlier chapter, found that all the old weapons of authority were +resumed with a renewed assurance, and his advocacy of the duty of +doubt became not merely the defence of a great principle but a means +of self-defence. The conception of infallible authority had been +transferred by Protestants from the Church to the Bible, and against +this Huxley strove with all his might. It is convenient to reserve a +full treatment of Huxley's attitude to the Bible for a separate +chapter, but at this point a quotation will shew his general view. + +[Illustration: SIR CHARLES LYELL] + + "The truth is that the pretension to infallibility, by whomsoever + made, has done endless mischief; with impartial malignity it has + proved a curse, alike to those who have made it and those who + have accepted it; and its most baneful shape is book + infallibility. For sacerdotal corporations and schools of + philosophy are able, under due compulsion of opinion, to retreat + from positions that have become untenable; while the dead hand of + a book sets and stiffens, amidst texts and formulae, until it + becomes a mere petrifaction, fit only for that function of + stumbling-block, which it so admirably performs. Wherever + bibliolatry has prevailed, bigotry and cruelty have accompanied + it. It lies at the root of the deep-seated, sometimes disguised, + but never absent, antagonism of all varieties of ecclesiasticism + to the freedom of thought and to the spirit of scientific + investigation." + +Moreover, Presbyter is but Priest writ large, and the Protestant +clergy were the leaders in denunciation of every person and every +branch of investigation or of thought in any way connected with +evolution. Huxley was no respecter of persons, and, following the +example of Darwin, he was ready to study carefully any arguments for +or against any scientific doctrines by whomsoever or howsoever brought +forward. The right of criticism and duty of doubt, which he insisted +on for himself, he was extremely willing to extend to others, and, as +a matter of fact he was on terms of intimate friendship with some of +his most distinguished clerical opponents. But to an extent which it +is almost impossible now to realise, the clergy generally abused their +legitimate position and authority, and demanded or assumed a right to +give authoritative opinions on questions which did not come within +their domain. It was the old attempt of the Church to make its +authority felt in all departments of thought and of action, and the +attempt was made in the traditional fashion. Questions of fact were +associated with questions of morality, and those who held one view as +to the meaning and implication of certain facts were denounced as +wicked. Huxley at once carried the war into the enemy's own country: + + "And, seeing how large a share of this clamour is raised by the + clergy of one denomination or another, may I say, in conclusion, + that it really would be well if ecclesiastical persons would + reflect that ordination, whatever deep-seated graces it may + confer, has never been observed to be followed by any visible + increase in the learning or the logic of its subject. Making a + man a Bishop, or entrusting him with the office of ministering to + even the largest of Presbyterian congregations, or setting him up + to lecture to a church congress, really does not in the smallest + degree augment such title to respect as his opinions may + intrinsically possess. And when such a man presumes on an + authority, which was conferred on him for other purposes, to sit + in judgment on matters his incompetence to deal with which is + patent, it is permissible to ignore his sacerdotal pretensions, + and to tell him, as one would tell a mere, common, unconsecrated + layman: that it is not necessary for any man to occupy himself + with problems of this kind unless he so choose; life is filled + full enough with the performance of its ordinary and obvious + duties. But that, if a man elect to become a judge of these grave + questions; still more if he assume the responsibility of + attaching praise or blame to his fellow-men for the conclusions + at which they arrive touching them, he will commit a sin more + grievous than most breaches of the decalogue, unless he avoid a + lazy reliance upon the information that is gathered by prejudice + and filtered through passion, unless he go back to the prime + sources of knowledge--the facts of Nature, and the thoughts of + those wise men who for generations past have been her best + interpreters." + +In the campaign for absolute freedom of thought, for the duty of not +believing anything except on sufficient evidence, Huxley was +frequently met by an argument of superficial strength, and which no +doubt was in the minds of many of his clerical opponents. In the minds +of a majority of people, it was said, and particularly of slightly +educated people, the reasons for right conduct and the distinctions +between right and wrong are firmly associated with the Bible and with +religion. If you allow doubts as to the absolute veracity of the +Bible, or as to the supernatural origin of religion to reach such +persons, you run a grave risk that they will reflect the uncertainty +on the canons of morality. In taking from them what you believe to be +false, inevitably you will unsettle their ideas on moral questions +although you might be in full agreement as to these moral questions. +Huxley refused to accept the asserted association between morality and +particular metaphysical or religious doctrines. + + "Many ingenious persons now appear to consider that the + incompatibility of pantheism, of materialism, and of any doubt + about the immortality of the soul, with religion and morality is + to be held as an axiomatic truth. I confess that I have a certain + difficulty in accepting this dogma. For the Stoics were + notoriously materialists and pantheists of the most extreme + character; and while no strict Stoic believed in the eternal + duration of the individual soul, some even denied its persistence + after death. Yet it is equally certain, that, of all gentile + philosophies, Stoicism exhibits the highest ethical development, + is animated by the most religious spirit, and has exerted the + profoundest influence upon the moral and religious development + not merely of the best men among the Romans, but among the + moderns down to our own day." + +He held the view now generally taken by students of the history of +man, that standards of conduct and religious beliefs arose in separate +ways and developed independently, and that it was only comparatively +recently that "religion took morality under its protection." But he +met the argument in a still more direct fashion by rejecting entirely +the possibility or advisability of founding any system of ethics upon +a false basis. + + "It is very clear to me," he wrote, "that, as Beelzebub is not + to be cast out by Beelzebub, so morality is not to be established + by immorality. It is, we are told, the special peculiarity of the + devil that he was a liar from the beginning. If we set out in + life with pretending to know that which we do not know; with + professing to accept for proof evidence which we are well aware + is inadequate; with wilfully shutting our eyes and our ears to + facts which militate against this or that comfortable hypothesis; + we are assuredly doing our best to deserve the same character." + +Freedom of thought meant for Huxley all that is best in liberalism +applied to life. In an essay on Joseph Priestley, he described the +condition of affairs in England last century, when scientific +investigation and all forms of independent thinking laboured under the +most heavy restrictions that could be imposed by dominant +ecclesiastical and civil prejudice. He pointed out the astounding +changes between these times and the times of to-day. + + "If we ask," he wrote, "what is the deeper meaning of all these + vast changes, there can be but one reply. They mean that reason + has asserted and exercised her primacy over all the provinces of + human activity; that ecclesiastical authority has been relegated + to its proper place; that the good of the governed has been + finally recognised as the end of government, and the complete + responsibility of governors to the people as its means; and that + the dependence of natural phenomena in general on the laws of + action of what we call matter has become an axiom." + +The common ground of those who advocate the duty of belief and those +who insist on the duty of doubt is clear. Both are agreed as to the +necessity of accepting whatever has sufficient evidence to support it; +both agree that there is room for doubt though not necessarily for +rejection in cases where the evidence is contaminated or insufficient. +It is in the application that the difference lies. The scientific +theologian admits the agnostic principle, however widely his results +may differ from those reached by the majority of agnostics. "But, as +between agnosticism and ecclesiasticism, or, as our neighbours across +the Channel call it, clericalism, there can be neither peace nor +truce. The cleric asserts that it is morally wrong not to believe +certain propositions, whatever the results of a strict scientific +investigation of the evidence of these propositions. He tells us that +"religious error is, in itself, of an immoral nature" (Newman). It +necessarily follows that, for him, the attainment of faith, not the +ascertainment of truth, is the highest aim of mental life." + +Huxley helped largely in the modern movement which has made it +impossible to blame people for doubt, and this was what he strove for +most strenuously. Freedom of thought, like freedom of the Press, by no +means implies that what is free must necessarily be good. In both +cases there may be a rank growth of weeds, nurtured in vicious +imagination, and finding a ready market with the credulous mob. For +the detection and rejection of these, the critical method of science +serves as well as it does against the loftier errors supported by +authority. + +It was on Descartes and on Hume that Huxley founded the precise form +in which he urged the duty of doubt, and his exact words are worth +quoting. + + "It was in 1619, while meditating in solitary winter quarters, + that Descartes (being about the same age as Hume when he wrote + the _Treatise on Human Nature_) made that famous resolution, to + "take nothing for truth without clear knowledge that it is such," + the great practical effect of which is the sanctification of + doubt; the recognition that the profession of belief in + propositions, of the truth of which there is no sufficient + evidence, is immoral; the discrowning of authority as such; the + repudiation of the confusion, beloved of sophists of all sorts, + between free assent and merely piously gagged dissent, and the + admission of the obligation to reconsider even one's own axioms + on due demand." + +This was the healthy and active scepticism which took no direct +pleasure in doubting, but used doubt only as a means of making +knowledge doubly secure, and which prevented false ideas being +bolstered up by privilege or by tyranny. + + "The development of exact natural knowledge in all its vast + range, from physics to history and criticism, is the consequence + of the working out, in this province, of the resolution to take + nothing for truth without clear knowledge that it is such; to + consider all beliefs open to criticism; to regard the value of + authority as neither greater nor less than as much as it can + prove itself to be worth. The modern spirit is not the spirit + 'which always denies,' delighting only in destruction; still less + is it that which builds castles in the air rather than not + construct; it is the spirit which works and will work 'without + haste and without rest,' gathering harvest after harvest of truth + into its barns and devouring error with unquenchable fire." + +It is a special weakness of the modern human race to love inventing +descriptive names by which particular modes of thought may be +classified and labelled. In order to meet this demand, Huxley invented +the word _agnosticism_, to serve as a label for his own attitude. The +word rapidly became popular, and attempts were made to read into it +far more than its inventor implied. For him it was no definite body of +doctrine, no creed in any positive sense. It merely expressed the +attitude he assumed towards all problems on which he regarded the +evidence as insufficient. It was a habit of mind rather than a series +of opinions or beliefs; an intellectual weapon and not materials on +which to exercise the intellect. + +Hume had written that "the justest and most plausible objection +against a considerable part of metaphysics was that they are not +properly a science, but arise either from the fruitless efforts of +human vanity, which would penetrate into subjects utterly inaccessible +to the human understanding, or from the craft of popular +superstitions, which, being unable to defend themselves on fair +ground, raise these entangling brambles to cover and protect them." In +these considerations he found reason not for leaving superstition in +possession of its ground, but for making a bold and arduous attack +upon it in its haunts. The great difficulty in the way of carrying the +war into the enemy's own camp was that in those days so-called science +was itself cumbered with many illogical and metaphysical ideas, and +for the first time in the present century the great advances of +physical science, and, in particular, the renewed life poured by +Darwin into the doctrine of evolution, made it possible to bring a new +series of exact arguments against hazy metaphysical dogmas. The +militant side of agnosticism was directed against the camp of +superstition and armed with the new weapons of exact science. Its +stern refusal of belief without adequate evidence was a challenge to +all the supporters of the sanguine philosophy which replaces proof by +assured and emphatic statement and restatement. It is possible, +although rare, for those who hold a positive belief upon evidence, +howsoever insufficient, to leave their doubting neighbours in peace, +and these neighbours, assured in their own beliefs, equally positive +and perhaps equally unfounded, may return the lazy tolerance. But the +agnostic position is at once a reproof and a challenge to all who do +not hold it. Perhaps no one has ever put the agnostic attitude more +clearly than Kant when he wrote that "the greatest and perhaps sole +use of all philosophy of pure reason, is, after all, merely negative, +since it serves, not as an organ on (for the enlargement of +knowledge), but as a discipline for its delimitation: and instead of +discovering truth has only the modest merit of preventing error." It +is precisely because it is addressed against error that agnosticism +brings not peace but a sword; precisely because, instead of adding to +the beliefs of the world, it seeks to examine them and perhaps by the +examination to diminish them, that it aroused passionate resentment. +In this respect it stands entirely separate and apart from any other +similar term, as all these implied a definite acceptance or rejection +of some definite propositions. Agnosticism means none of these things. +Huxley said of it: + + "Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed but a method, the essence + of which lies in a rigorous application of a single principle. + That principle is of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; + as old as the writer who said, 'Try all things, hold fast by that + which is good'; it is the foundation of the Reformation, which + simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to + give reason for the faith that is in him; it is the great + principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of modern + science. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of + the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, + without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In + matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are + certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable. That I take + to be the agnostic faith, which, if a man keep whole and + undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the + face, whatever the future may have in store for him." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE BIBLE AND MIRACLES + + 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. + + +Huxley was by training and habit of mind a naturalist, busy with +dissections and drawings, pursuing his branch of science for itself +and with no concern as to its possible relation to philosophical +speculation or religious dogma. It is possible that, had his life been +passed under different conditions, his intellectual activities might +have been spent entirely on his scientific work. As it was, he became +almost more widely known as a hostile critic of accepted religious +doctrine than as a man of science. Many causes contributed to this +effect, but the chief reason was the contemporary attitude of the +churches to Darwinism. He tells us as a matter of fact that in 1850, +nine years before the appearance of _The Origin of Species_, he had +"long done with the Pentateuchal cosmogony which had been impressed on +his childish understanding as divine truth." In the chapter he +contributed to the _Life of Darwin_ he wrote that in his opinion "the +doctrine of evolution does not even come into contact with theism, +considered as a philosophical doctrine." The reason of his general +attitude to the Bible was simply that his application to it of the +agnostic method led him to the view that there was not sufficient +evidence for the pretensions assigned to it; the reason of his coming +forward as a public and active champion of his views in this matter +was partly to make a counter attack on the enemies of science, and +partly his innate respect for the propagation of truth. He had the +inevitable respect of an Englishman for the English Bible as one of +the greatest books in our language, and we have seen how he had +advocated its adoption in schools. He had the veneration for its +ethical contents common to the best thinkers of all ages since it came +into existence, and few writers have ever employed loftier or more +direct language to express their respect and admiration. As a +venerator of freedom and of liberty he regarded the Bible as the +greatest text-book of freedom. + + "Throughout the history of the Western world," he wrote, "the + Scriptures, Jewish and Christian, have been the great instigators + of revolt against the worse forms of clerical and political + despotism. The Bible has been the _Magna Charta_ of the poor and + of the oppressed; down to modern times no State has had a + constitution in which the interests of the people are so largely + taken into account, in which the duties, so much more than the + privileges, of rulers are insisted upon, as that drawn up for + Israel in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus; nowhere is the + fundamental truth that the welfare of the State, in the long + run, depends on the uprightness of the citizen so strongly laid + down. Assuredly the Bible talks no trash about the rights of man; + but it insists on the equality of duties, on the liberty to bring + about that righteousness which is somewhat different from + struggling for 'rights'; on the fraternity of taking thought for + one's neighbour as for oneself." + +It was not against the Bible but against the applications made of it +and implications read into it that he strove. + + "In this nineteenth century, as at the dawn of modern physical + science, the cosmogony of the semi-barbarous Hebrew is the + incubus of the philosopher and the opprobrium of the orthodox. + Who shall number the patient and earnest seekers after truth, + from the days of Galileo until now, whose lives have been + embittered and their good name blasted by the mistaken zeal of + Bibliolaters? Who shall count the host of weaker men whose sense + of truth has been destroyed in the effort to harmonise + impossibilities--whose life has been wasted in the attempt to + force the generous new wine of science into the old bottles of + Judaism, compelled by the outcry of the same strong party? It is + true that if philosophers have suffered, their cause has been + amply avenged. Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of + every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules; + and history records that whenever science and orthodoxy have been + fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the + lists, bleeding and crushed, if not annihilated; scotched, if not + slain. But orthodoxy is the Bourbon of the world of thought. It + learns not, neither can it forget; and though, at present, + bewildered and afraid to move, it is as willing as ever to insist + that the first chapter of Genesis contains the beginning and the + end of sound science; and to visit, with such petty thunderbolts + as its half-paralysed hands can hurl, those who refuse to degrade + Nature to the level of primitive Judaism." + +These words were written in 1860 and events have moved rapidly since +Huxley wrote them. There is now practically no religious body +containing a proportion of educated persons which does not allow +within it a very wide range of opinion as to the inspiration of the +Scriptures, the Biblical account of the Creation, the miraculous +events of the Old Testament and the recorded miracles of the New. +Within the last few months, Dr. St. George Mivart, a distinguished +Catholic zooelogist and long an opponent of Huxley, has declared that +within the Catholic Church itself a number of educated persons are +prepared to accept most of Huxley's positions, as well as views more +extremely iconoclastic than any advanced by Huxley. Although Dr. +Mivart's outspoken words have called down on him the official thunders +of Rome, it is an open secret that many good Catholics think this +attempted exclusion of modern knowledge to be fraught with grave +danger to the Church. In these matters the Protestant churches have +advanced much farther. + +It was very different when Huxley wrote. The first and gravest +difficulty placed in the way of science was the asserted infallibility +of the Scriptures. In Catholic theology, at least until late in this +century, the general tendency has been to regard the Bible rather as a +quarry for doctrine than as a direct means of grace. The theory of +religion rested on two pillars: the inspired Scriptures containing the +necessary information and the inspired Church to interpret the +Scriptures. Protestant theology had rejected the infallible +inspiration of the Church, and, in consequence, had thrown a greater +burden on the Scriptures. The Scriptures became the Word of God, +verbally and literally true; in its extreme form this doctrine +reverted almost to the ancient Rabbinical maxim that even the vowel +points and accents were of divine origin. In practice, if not in +theory, the halo was extended to cover even the marginal chronology, +then a familiar feature in the editions of the English Bible. The +present writer, even so lately as in 1888 was reproved with violence +by a clergyman of considerable education and position for expressing a +doubt as to the accuracy of these dates. Obviously there was no common +measure between a church holding such views and advancing science. War +was inevitable, until one side or the other should give way. + +Huxley conducted the attack in a series of controversies extending +over many years, and in which his opponents were well-known laymen +such as Mr. Gladstone, Dr. St. George Mivart, the Duke of Argyll, and +many clerical dignitaries of different denominations. The most +important of his contributions to these controversies, as well as +several isolated essays and addresses, have been collected in two +volumes, _Science and the Hebrew Tradition_, and _Science and the +Christian Tradition_. + +The first stage in the controversy, and the stage most immediately +pressing, was to shew that the Bible was misleading and inaccurate as +a record of scientific fact, and that therefore it could not be +brought forward as evidence against scientific doctrines supported by +scientific evidence. The vital matter in this was the account given in +Genesis of the origin of the world. If that disappeared then the whole +ground was gained; science would be left free in its own sphere. + +In a lecture on Evolution, delivered in 1876, Huxley began by +discussing the possibilities as to the past history of nature. He +believed that there were only three hypotheses which had been +entertained or which well could be entertained respecting this +history. The first was to assume that phenomena of nature similar to +those exhibited by the world at present had always existed; in fact +that the universe had existed from all eternity in what might be +termed, broadly, its present condition. The second hypothesis was that +the present condition of things had had only a limited duration, and +that, at some period of the past, what we now know came into existence +without any relation of natural causation to an antecedent state. The +third hypothesis also assumed that the present condition of things had +had a limited duration, but it supposed that that condition had been +derived by natural processes from an antecedent condition, the +hypothesis attempting to set no limits to the series of changes. + +In a certain sense, the first hypothesis recalls the doctrine of +uniformitarianism, which Hutton and Lyell had shaped from a rational +interpretation of the present conditions of nature. But, although it +is no longer necessary to imagine the past history of the earth as a +series of gigantic catastrophes, yet the whole record of science is +against the supposition that anything like the existing state of +nature has had an eternal duration. The record of fossils shews that +the living population of the earth has been entirely different at +different epochs. Geological history shews that, whether these changes +have come about by swift catastrophes, or by slow, enduring movements, +the surface of the globe, its distribution into land and water, the +character of these areas and the conditions of climate to which they +have been subjected have passed through changes on a colossal scale. +Moreover, if we look from this earth to the universe of stars and suns +and planets, we see everywhere evidence of unceasing change. If we use +scientific observation and reason, if we employ on the problem the +only means we possess for attempting its solution, we cannot accept +the hypothesis that the present condition of nature has been eternal. + + "So far as that limited revelation of the nature of things, which + we call scientific knowledge, has yet gone, it tends, with + constantly increasing emphasis, to the belief that, not merely + the world of plants, but that of animals; not merely living + things but the whole fabric of the earth; not merely our planet + but the whole solar system, not merely our star and its + satellites, but the millions of similar bodies which bear witness + to the order which pervades boundless space and has endured + through boundless time, are all working out their predestined + courses of evolution." + +The second hypothesis is familiar to us in the sacred records of many +religious and in the Hebrew Scriptures. Most of these have a +fundamental similarity, inasmuch as they offer pictures in which the +mode and order of creation are given in the minutest detail and with +the simplest kind of anthropomorphism; in which the Creator is +represented with familiar human characteristics. But these general +considerations, so obvious now that we have learned to read the Bible +narrative without passion or prejudice, were not plain to the early +opponents of evolution, and it was necessary, step by step, to shew +not only that the narrative in Genesis could not be reconciled with +known facts if it were accepted in its literal meaning, but that the +most strained interpretation of the language failed to bring it into +accordance with scientific truth. Mr. Gladstone was the latest and +most vigorous of those who attempted to reconcile Genesis with modern +knowledge, and in his controversy with Huxley he brought to bear all +the resources of an acute intellect trained by long practice in the +devices of argument and inspired by a lofty if mistaken enthusiasm. In +the course of his argument he wrote: + + + "But the question is not here of a lofty poem, or a skilfully + constructed narrative; it is whether natural science, in the + patient exercise of its high calling to examine facts, finds that + the works of God cry out against what we have fondly believed to + be His word and tell another tale; or whether, in this nineteenth + century of Christian progress, it substantially echoes back the + majestic sound, which, before it existed as a pursuit, went forth + into all lands. + + First, looking largely at the latter portion of the narrative, + which describes the creation of living organisms, and waiving + details, on some of which (as in v. 24) the Septuagint seems to + vary from the Hebrew, there is a grand fourfold division, set + forth in an orderly succession of times as follows: on the fifth + day + 1. The water-population. + 2. The air-population, + and, on the sixth day, + 3. The land-population of animals. + 4. The land-population consummated in man. + + Now this same fourfold order is understood to have been so + affirmed in our time by natural science, that it may be taken as + a demonstrated conclusion and established fact." + +The defence itself shewed that already a large part of the original +position had been abandoned. The literal meaning and belief in +detailed accuracy were given up and Mr. Gladstone sought to establish +only a general correspondence between the Biblical narrative and the +results of science. But even in that form Huxley shewed the defence to +be untenable. + + "I can meet the statement in the last paragraph of the above + citation," he replied, "with nothing but a direct negative. If I + know anything at all about the results attained by the natural + science of our time, it is a 'demonstrated conclusion and + established fact' that the fourfold order given by Mr. Gladstone + is not that in which the evidence at our disposal tends to shew + that the water, air, and land populations of our globe made their + appearance." + +With the most voluminous detail, he proceeds to shew that there is no +possible relation between the order implied by the narrative and the +order as revealed by science. Let us sum up, by two quotations, the +result of the whole controversy. First, the literal meaning is +untenable. + + "The question whether the earth and the immediate progenitors of + its present living population were made in six natural days or + not is no longer one on which two opinions can be held. The fact + that it did not come so into being stands upon as sound a basis + as any fact of history whatever. It is not true that existing + plants and animals came into being within three days of the + creation of the earth out of nothing, for it is certain that + innumerable generations of other plants and animals lived upon + the earth before its present population. And when, Sunday after + Sunday, men who profess to be our instructors in righteousness + read out the statement, 'In six days the Lord made heaven and + earth, the sea, and all that in them is,' in innumerable + churches, they are either propagating what they may easily know, + and, therefore, are bound to know, to be falsities; or, if they + use the words in some non-natural sense, they fall below the + moral standard of the much abused Jesuit." + +The attenuated meaning equally must be given up. + + "Even if they (the reconcilers) now allow that the words 'the + evening and the morning' have not the least reference to a + natural day, but mean a period of any number of millions of years + that may be necessary; even if they are driven to admit that the + word 'creation,' which so many millions of pious Jews and + Christians have held, and still hold, to mean a sudden act of the + Deity, signifies a process of gradual evolution of one species + from another, extending through immeasurable time; even if they + are willing to grant that the asserted coincidence of the order + of nature with the 'fourfold order' ascribed to Genesis is an + obvious error instead of an established truth, they are surely + prepared to make a last stand upon the conception which underlies + the whole, and which constitutes the essence of Mr. Gladstone's + 'fourfold division, set forth in an orderly succession of times.' + It is that the animal species which compose the water-population, + the air-population, and the land-population, respectively, + originated during three distinct and successive periods of time, + and only during these periods of time.... But even this + sublimated essence of the Pentateuchal doctrine remains as + discordant with natural science as ever." + +There remains the third, or evolutionary hypothesis regarding the +origin of the existing order of nature. As Huxley held it, it was +rigidly limited within the possibilities afforded by the agnostic +attitude. With regard to the real nature, the origin and destiny of +the whole universe, there was not sufficient evidence before the human +mind, if indeed the human mind were capable of receiving such +evidence, to come to any conclusion. For the rest, for the actual +condition of the earth itself, science was gradually accumulating +overwhelming evidence in favour of a continuous evolution, under +natural agencies, from the beginning of life to the existing forms of +animals and plants, and the actual origin of life from inorganic +matter under similarly natural agencies was becoming more and more a +legitimate inference. + +Huxley's relation to the New Testament may be summed up in few words. +It was simply that there was not sufficient evidence for ascribing to +it the supernatural sanction demanded for it by dogmatic theology. + + "From the dawn of scientific Biblical criticism until the present + day, the evidence against the long-cherished notion that the + three synoptic gospels are the work of three independent authors, + each prompted by Divine inspiration, has steadily accumulated, + until, at the present time, there is no visible escape from the + conclusion that each of the three is a compilation consisting of + a groundwork common to all three--the three-fold tradition; and + of a superstructure consisting, firstly, of matter common to it + with one of the others, and, secondly, of matter common to each." + +Again:--"There is no proof, nothing more than a fair presumption, that +any one of the gospels existed, in the state in which we find it in +the authorised version of the Bible, before the second century, or, in +other words, sixty or seventy years after the events recorded." These +considerations with slight differences in details are now practically +admitted among the abler apologists, with the result that, as Huxley +claimed, the New Testament, like the Old, must be treated as +literature rather than as Dogma. As Literature everyone has the right +to examine the contents critically, and, considering the importance +attributed to the contents, the right becomes a duty. No doubt, had +Huxley not lived there would have been others equally ready and +equally able to gain the battle for freedom of thought in its special +application to the claim of the Bible to stand in the way of the +advance of scientific knowledge; but as it is, it cannot be denied +that the existing prevalence of liberal views, inside and outside the +churches, on the nature and interpretation of the Scriptures is +largely due to him. + +After the question of inspiration, the most striking feature of the +Bible is its appeal to miracles and the miraculous element. It is now +necessary to examine the position assumed by Huxley towards these. Two +great _a priori_ difficulties have been brought against accepting any +record of miracles as true. The first of these is very simple, +depending on the history of all times and peoples. It is that the +human race has shewn itself universally credulous in this matter. It +has cried "Wolf!" so readily, so honestly, and on so many occasions +that the cry has ceased to carry conviction with it. Every religion +has its series of miraculous events; every savage tribe and every +uneducated race has its miracle-workers implicitly accepted. In +mediaeval and modern Europe up to our own times, miracles have been so +constantly recorded on testimony of such undoubted integrity that we +must either believe that miracles can be performed by numberless +persons with no other claim to special regard, or that it is +singularly easy to get false but honest evidence regarding them. +Huxley supported the latter alternative strongly, and held the view +that to believe in any particular miracles would require evidence very +much more direct and very much stronger than would be necessary in the +case of inherently probable events. + +The second _a priori_ objection to the credibility of miracles has +been urged more strongly, but was not accepted by Huxley. It is that +miracles are inherently incredible inasmuch as they are "violations of +the order of nature." Hume, attacking miracles, had made this +objection the chief ground of his argument. Huxley paid a logical +respect, at least as great, to the continuity of nature. + + "When the experience of generation after generation is recorded, + and a single book tells us more than Methuselah could have + learned, had he spent every waking hour of his thousand years in + learning; when apparent disorders are found to be only the + recurrent pulses of a slow-working order, and the wonder of a + year becomes the commonplace of a century; when repeated and + minute examination never reveals a break in the chain of causes + and effects; and the whole edifice of practical life is built + upon our faith in its continuity; the belief that that chain has + never been broken and will never be broken, becomes one of the + strongest and most justifiable of human convictions. And it must + be admitted to be a reasonable request, if we ask those who would + have us put faith in the actual occurrence of interruptions of + that order, to produce evidence in favour of their view, not only + equal, but superior, in weight, to that which leads us to adopt + ours." + +But out of the mouth of Hume himself he declared against making the +recorded experience of man, however lengthy and impressive, a +necessary ground for rejecting the possibility of the miraculous. Hume +had said, "Whatever is intelligible and can be distinctly conceived +implies no contradiction, and can never be proved false by any +demonstration, argument, or reasoning, _a priori_." This or the like +applies to most of the recorded miracles. Huxley was extremely careful +not to assert that they were incredible merely because they might +involve conditions outside our existing experience. It is a vulgar +mistake, for which science certainly gives no warrant, to assert that +things are impossible because they contradict our experience. In such +a sense many of the most common modern conveniences of life would have +seemed impossible a century ago. To travel with safety sixty miles an +hour, to talk through the telephone with a friend an hundred miles +away, to receive intelligible messages across the Atlantic by a cable, +and, still more, to communicate by wireless telegraphy would have +seemed impossible until recently. At the present time, the conversion +of a baser metal into gold would be called impossible by everyone with +a little knowledge of elementary chemistry. This last example leads +admirably to a right understanding of the scientific view of +impossibility. The older alchemists, partly from ignorance and partly +from credulity, believed absolutely in the possibility of transmuting +the metals. The advance of chemical science led to definite +conceptions of the differences between compounds and elementary +bodies, and of the independence of these elements. The methods and +reasoning of the alchemists became absurd, and no one would attempt +seriously to transmute the metals on their lines. These advances, +however, do not give us the right to assume that the elements are +absolutely independent, and that transmutation is therefore +impossible. Some of the most recent progress in chemistry has opened +up the suggestion that the elements themselves are different +combinations of a common substance. Huxley applied this particular +argument to the miracle at the marriage of Cana. + + "You are quite mistaken in supposing that anybody who is + acquainted with the possibilities of physical science will + undertake categorically to deny that water may be turned into + wine. Many very competent judges are inclined to think that the + bodies which we have hitherto regarded as elementary are really + composite arrangements of the particles of a uniform primitive + matter. Supposing that view to be correct, there would be no more + theoretical difficulty about turning water into alcohol, ethereal + and colouring matters, than there is, at this present moment, any + practical difficulty in working other such miracles; as when we + turn sugar into alcohol, carbonic acid, glycerine, and succinic + acid; or transmute gas-refuse into perfumes rarer than musk and + dyes richer than Tyrian purple." + +Unless we make the unscientific and preposterous assumption that our +present knowledge of nature and of natural forces is absolute and +complete, it is unscientific and illogical to declare at once that any +supposed events could not have happened merely because they seem to +have contradicted so-called natural laws. + + "Strictly speaking," Huxley wrote, "I am unaware of anything that + has a right to the title of an 'impossibility' except a + contradiction in terms. There are impossibilities logical, but + none natural. A 'round square,' a 'present past,' 'two parallel + lines that intersect,' are impossibilities, because the ideas + denoted by the predicates, round, present, intersect, are + contradictory of the ideas denoted by the subjects, square, past, + parallel. But walking on water, or turning water into wine, or + procreation without male intervention, or raising the dead, are + plainly not impossibilities in this sense." + +The whole matter turns on the question of sufficient evidence. + + "Hume's arguments resolve themselves into a simple statement of + the dictates of common sense which may be expressed in this + canon: 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." + +Again, expressing the same idea in different words, he wrote: + + "Nobody can presume to say what the order of nature must be; all + that the widest experience (even if it extended over all past + time and through all space) that events had happened in a certain + way could justify, would be a proportionately strong expectation + that events will go on so happening, and the demand for a + proportional strength of evidence in favour of any assertion that + they had happened otherwise. It is this weighty consideration, + the truth of which everyone who is capable of logical thought + must surely admit, which knocks the bottom out of all _a priori_ + objections either to ordinary 'miracles' or to the efficacy of + prayer, in so far as the latter implies the miraculous + intervention of a higher power. No one is entitled to say, _a + priori_, that prayer for some change in the ordinary course of + nature cannot possibly avail." + +It was a question of evidence, and not only did the evidence not +convince Huxley, but the thaumaturgic nature of the Biblical miracles +provided him with additional reason for refusing to attach any +extrinsic value to the contents of the book. + +On the other hand, although he declined to accept the Bible as a +miraculous and authentic revelation, again and again he expressed +himself in the strongest terms as to its value to mankind, and as to +the impossibility of any scientific advance diminishing in any way +whatsoever that value. + + "The antagonism between religion and science, about which we hear + so much, appears to me to be purely factitious--fabricated, on + the one hand, by shortsighted religious people who confound a + certain branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the + other, by equally shortsighted scientific people who forget that + science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of + clear intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the + boundaries of that province, they must be content with + imagination, with hope, and with ignorance." + +And again; + + "In the eighth century B.C., in the heart of a world of + idolatrous polytheists, the Hebrew prophets put forth a + conception of religion which appears to me to be as wonderful an + inspiration of genius as the art of Pheidias or the science of + Aristotle. 'And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do + justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' If + any so-called religion takes away from this great saying of + Micah, I think it wantonly mutilates, while if it adds thereto, I + think it obscures, the perfect ideal of religion." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ETHICS OF THE COSMOS + + 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. + + +We have seen that Huxley refused to acquiesce in the current orthodox +doctrine that our systems of morality rested on a special revelation, +miraculous in its origin, and vouched for by the recorded miracles of +its Founder, or by those entrusted by the Founder with miraculous +power. He supported the view that, historically and actually, there is +no necessary connection between religion and morality. The one is an +attempt, in his opinion always unsuccessful, to lift the veil from the +unseen, to know the unknowable; the other is simply the code that +social man, through the ages, has elaborated for his own guidance, and +proved by his own experience. So far as the conduct of life goes, the +morality of one who accepts the agnostic position with regard to +revelation and the unseen universe differs in no respect from the code +taken under the protection of the modern forms of religion. As John +Morley, in his _Essay on Voltaire_ wrote of such a person: + + "There are new solutions for him, if the old have fallen dumb. If + he no longer believe death to be a stroke from the sword of God's + justice, but the leaden footfall of an inflexible law of matter, + the humility of his awe is deepened, and the tenderness of his + pity made holier, that creatures who can love so much should have + their days so shut round with a wall of darkness. The purifying + anguish of remorse will be stronger, not weaker, when he has + trained himself to look upon every wrong in thought, every duty + omitted from act, each infringement of the inner spiritual law + which humanity is constantly perfecting for its own guidance and + advantage, less as a breach of the decrees of an unseen tribunal + than as an ungrateful infection weakening and corrupting the + future of his brothers." + +But there are wider questions than the immediate problems of conduct. A +certain type of mind finds it almost impossible not to attempt ethical +judgments on the whole universe, not to speculate whether the Cosmos, as +we can imagine it from the part of it within the cognisance of man, +offers a spectacle of moral or immoral or of non-moral significance. In +the old times of Greece and in the modern world many have been devoid of +the taste for argument on such subjects. Those who are uninterested in +these abstract discussions are rarely in opposition to the mode of faith +surrounding them, as to reject the doctrines held by the majority of +one's friends and associates implies either a disagreeable disposition +or an unusual interest in ultimate problems; they are usually orthodox +according to their environment--Stoics, Epicureans, Jews, Episcopalians, +Catholics, Quakers, Methodists, Mormons, Mohammedans, Buddhists, or +whatever may be the prevailing dogma around them. The attitude of +indifference to moral philosophy has practically no relation to what may +be considered good or bad moral conduct; those characterised by it live +above or below or round about their own moral standards in a fashion as +variable as that of moral philosophers. Many of the saints, ancient and +modern, have been notorious instances; question them as to their faith +or as to the logical foundation of their renunciations and they will +tell you in simple honesty or make it plain by their answers that they +have no head for logic, that they cannot argue, but only know and feel +their position to be true. In addition to the saints, many of the best +and most of the pleasant people in the world are of this type. + +The type strongly in contrast with the foregoing is found in persons +of a more strenuous, perhaps more admirable but less agreeable +character. The savour of acerbity may be a natural attribute of the +critical character, and it is certainly not lessened where moral +philosophy is the subject-matter of the criticism. The continual +search after solutions of problems that may be insoluble at least +makes the seekers excellent judges of wrong solutions. Like Luther and +Loyola and Kant, they may be able to satisfy themselves, or, like +Huxley, they may remain in doubt, but in either case they are +excellent critics of the solutions of others. They are the firebrands +of faith or of negation; they are possessed by an intellectual fury +that will not let them cease from propagandising. They must go through +the world as missionaries; and the missionary spirit is dual, one side +zealous to proclaim the new, the other equally zealous to denounce the +old. But theirs is the great work, "to burn old falsehood bare," to +tear away the incrustations of time which people have come to accept +as the thing itself, and in their track new and lively truth springs +up, as fresh green follows the devastations of fire. + +To most of us it seems of sufficient importance and of sufficient +difficulty to make our decisions in the little eddies of good and evil +that form as the world-stream breaks round our individual lives. +Huxley strove to interpret the world-stream itself, to translate its +movements into the ethical language of man. As knowledge of the forces +and movements of the Cosmos has increased so has our general +conception been intensified, our conception of it as a wondrous +display of power and grandeur and superhuman fixity of order. But are +the forces of the Cosmos good or evil? Are we, and the Cosmos of which +we are a part, the sport of changeable and capricious deities, the +pawns in a game of the gods, as some of the Greeks held; or of a power +drunkenly malicious, as Heine once cynically suggested; or a +battle-ground for a force of good and a force of evil as in so many +Eastern religions? Are we dominated by pure evil, as some dark creeds +have held, or by pure good, as the religion of the Western world +teaches? And if we are dominated by pure evil, whence come good and +the idea of good, or, if by pure good, whence evil and the idea of +evil? + +Huxley's interest in these great problems appears and reappears +throughout his published writings, but his views are most clearly and +systematically exposed in his "Romanes" lecture on "Evolution and +Ethics" delivered and published at Oxford in 1894, and afterwards +republished with a prefatory essay in the last volume of his +_Collected Essays_. Not long before his death, Professor Romanes, who +had come to live in Oxford, founded a University lectureship, the +purpose of which was that once a year a distinguished man should +address the University on a subject neither religious nor political. +Mr. Gladstone was the first lecturer, and, at the suggestion of the +founder, Huxley was chosen as the second. For years he had been taking +a special interest in both religion and politics, and he was not a +little embarrassed by the restrictions imposed by the terms of the +foundation, for he determined to make ethical science the subject of +his address, and + + "ethical science is, on all sides, so entangled with religion and + politics, that the lecturer who essays to touch the former + without coming in contact with either of the latter, needs all + the dexterity of an egg-dancer, and may even discover that his + sense of clearness and his sense of propriety come into conflict, + by no means to the advantage of the former." + +As Huxley, on that great occasion, ascended the rostrum in the +Sheldonian theatre, very white and frail in his scarlet doctor's +robes, there must have been present in his mind memories of the +occasion, four-and-thirty years before, when he first addressed an +audience in the University of Oxford. Then he was a young man, almost +unknown, rising to lead what seemed a forlorn hope for an idea utterly +repugnant to most of his hearers. Now, and largely by his own efforts, +the idea had become an inseparable part of human thought, and Huxley +himself was the guest to whom the whole University was doing honour. +Graduates from all parts of England had come to hear what, it was +feared, might be his last public speech, and practically every member +of the University who could gain admission was present. The press of +the world attended to report his words as if they were those of a +great political leader, about to decide the fate of nations. Although +his voice had lost much of its old sonorous reach, and although the +old clear rhythms were occasionally broken by hesitancies, the magic +of his personality oriented to him every face. + +It is a curious and striking circumstance, a circumstance fully +recognised by Huxley himself, that in this exposition of his ethical +conception of the Cosmos he reconstructed, on the lines of his +evolutionary philosophy one of the oldest and most widespread +theories, a theory again and again reached by men of different +civilisations and epochs. Manes, the Persian, from whose name the word +"Manicheism" has been coined to denote his doctrine, taught in perhaps +the most explicit fashion that the Cosmos was the battle-ground of two +contending powers,--Ahriman, the principle of evil, and Ormuzd, the +principle of good. This doctrine in some form or other is implicit in +most of the greater religions, some of which have assumed an ultimate +triumph for the principle of good, while others have left the issue +doubtful. The Ahriman of Huxley, the principle of evil, is what he +termed the cosmic process, that great play of forces, by which, in a +ruthless struggle for existence, the fittest (by which is meant the +most suited to the surrounding conditions and not necessarily the +ethically best) have survived at the expense of the less fit. The +Ormuzd, the principle of good, is what Huxley called the Ethical +process, the process by which sentient, intelligent, and moral man has +striven to replace the "old ape and tiger methods" of the cosmic +process, by methods in which justice and mercy, sacrifice and +consideration for others have a part. + +To explain clearly the distinction he made between the ethical and +cosmic processes. Huxley, in the prefatory essay ("Prolegomena") +published in the volume with his Romanes lecture, developed the +analogy of a cultivated garden reclaimed from surrounding wild nature. +He described how the countryside, visible from his windows at +Eastbourne, had certainly been in a "state of nature" about two +thousand years ago when Caesar had set foot in Britain and had made the +Roman camps, the remains of which still mark the chalk downs of +England. + + "Except, it may be, by raising a few sepulchral mounds, such as + those which still, here and there, break the flowing contours of + the Downs, man's hands had made no mark upon it; and the thin + veil of vegetation which overspread the broad-backed heights and + the shelving sides of the coombs was unaffected by his industry. + The native grasses and weeds, the scattered patches of gorse, + contended with one another for possession of the scanty surface + soil; they fought against the droughts of summer, the frosts of + winter, and the furious gales, which swept with unbroken force, + now from the Atlantic, and now from the North Sea, at all times + of the year; they filled up, as they best might, the gaps made in + their ranks by all sorts of overground and underground ravagers. + One year with another, an average population, the floating + balance of the unceasing struggle for existence among the + indigenous plants, maintained itself. It is as little to be + doubted that an essentially similar state of nature prevailed in + this region for many thousand years before the coming of Caesar; + and there is no assignable reason for denying that it might + continue to exist through an equally prolonged futurity except + for the intervention of man." + +This present state of nature, he explained, is only a fleeting phase +of a process that has gone on for millions of years. Under the thin +layer of soil are the chalk cliffs, hundreds of feet thick and +witnesses of the entirely different phases of the struggle that went +on while the cliffs were being formed at the bottom of the chalk sea, +when the vegetation of the nearest land was as different from the +existing vegetation as that is different from the trees and flowers of +an African forest. + + "Before the deposition of the chalk, a vastly longer period + elapsed, throughout which it is easy to follow the traces of the + same process of ceaseless modification and of the same + internecine struggle for existence of living things; and when we + can go no further back, it is not because there is any reason to + think we have reached the beginning, but because the trail of the + most ancient life remains hidden or has become obliterated." + +The state of nature, then, is a fleeting and impermanent process. + + "That which endures is not one or other association of living + forms, but the process of which the Cosmos is the product and of + which these are among the transitory expressions. And in the + living world, one of the most characteristic features of this + cosmic process is the struggle for existence, the competition of + each with all, the result of which is the selection, that is to + say, the survival of those forms which, on the whole, are best + adapted to the conditions which at any period obtain; and which + are, therefore, in that respect, and only in that respect, the + fittest. The acme reached by the cosmic process in the vegetation + of the Downs is seen in the turf with its weeds and gorse. Under + the conditions, they have come out of the struggle victorious; + and, by surviving, have proved that they are the fittest to + survive." + +For three or four years, the state of nature in a small portion of the +Downs surrounding Huxley's house had been put an end to by the +intervention of man. + + "The patch was cut off from the rest by a wall; within the area + thus protected the native vegetation was, as far as possible, + extirpated, while a colony of strange plants was imported and set + down in its place. In short, it was made into a garden. This + artificially treated area presents an aspect extraordinarily + different from that of so much of the land as still remains in + the state of nature outside the wall. Trees, shrubs and herbs, + many of them appertaining to the state of nature in remote parts + of the globe, abound and flourish. Moreover, considerable + quantities of vegetables, fruit, and flowers are produced, of + kinds which neither now exist nor have ever existed except under + conditions such as obtain in the garden and which therefore are + as much works of the art of man as the frames and glass-houses in + which some of them are raised. That the 'state of art' thus + created in the state of nature by man, is sustained by and + dependent on him, would at once become apparent if the watchful + supervision of the gardener were withdrawn, and the antagonistic + influences of the general cosmic process were no longer + sedulously warded off, or counteracted." + +He proceeds to describe how, under such circumstances, the artificial +barriers would decay, and the delicate inhabitants of the garden would +perish under the assaults of animal and vegetable foes. External +forces would reassert themselves and wild nature would resume its +sway. While, in a sense, he had strenuously advocated the unity of all +nature, he found in it two rivals: the artificial products of sentient +man and the forces and products of wild nature. These two he believed +to be in inevitable opposition and to represent the good and the evil +forces of the world. + +In the dim ages of the past, the forces that have gone to the making +of man have been part of the cosmic process. In the endless and +wonderful series of kaleidoscopic changes by which, under the +operation of natural laws, the body, habits, and the character of man +have been elaborated slowly from the natal dust, there is the widest +field for the operation of the most acute intelligence to study and +trace the stages in the process. But if intellectual delight in +studying the process be left out of account, a serious question at +once appears. In the higher stages of evolution the cosmic forces, +ceasing to act merely on insentient matter, have operated on sentient +beings, and in so doing have given rise to the mystery of pain and +suffering. When the less fit of chemical combinations or even of the +lower forms of life perished in the struggle, we may regard the +process with the unemotional eye of pure intelligence. But "pain, the +baleful product of evolution, increases in quantity and in intensity +with advancing stages of animal organisation, until it attains its +highest level in man." And so it comes about that the cosmic process +produces evil, sorrow, and suffering. Consideration of the cosmic +process leads up against the mystery of evil. + +Huxley argued that the various philosophies and civilisations of the +past had led by different paths to a similar conclusion. The primitive +ethical codes of man were not unlike the compacts of a wolf-pack, the +understanding to refrain from mutual attack during the chase of a +common prey. Conceptions of this kind became arranged in codes and +invested with supernatural sanction. But in Hindustan and Ionia alike, +material prosperity, no doubt partly the result of the accepted codes, +produced culture of the intellect and culture of the pleasures. With +these came the "beneficent demon, doubt, whose name is legion and who +dwells amongst the tombs of old faiths." The doubting intellect, +acting on the codes, produced the conception of justice-in-itself, of +merit as divorced from the effect of action on others, the abstract +idea of goodness. + +The old philosopher, turning from this new conception to the Cosmos, +found that incompatible with goodness. Suffering and sorrow, sunshine +and rain, were distributed independently of merit. With Greek and +Semite and Indian the conscience of man revolted against the moral +indifference of nature. Instead of bringing in a verdict of guilty, +they attempted reconciliation in various ways. Indian speculation +invented or elaborated the theory of transmigration, in which the +Karma or soul-character passed from individual to individual, the +algebraic sums of happiness in the whole chain being proportional to +merit. The Stoics were metaphysicians and imagined an immanent, +omnipotent, and infinitely beneficent First Cause. Evil was +incompatible with this, and so they held, against experience, that +either it did not exist, or that it was inflicted for our benefit or +due to our fault. In one fashion or another, all the great systems of +thought had recognised the antagonism and had attempted some +explanation of it. Huxley's view was that the modern world with its +new philosophy was only retreading the toil-worn paths of the old. +Scientific optimism was being replaced by a frank pessimism. Cosmic +evolution might be accountable for both good and evil, but knowledge +of it provided no better reason for choice of the good than did +earlier speculation. The cosmic process was not only non-moral but +immoral; goodness did not lead to success in it, and laws and moral +precepts could only be addressed to the curbing of it. + +In a sense these conclusions of Huxley seemed to lead to absolute +pessimism, but he offered some mitigating considerations. Society +remains subject to the cosmic process, but the less as civilisation +advances and ethical man is the more ready to combat it. The history +of civilisation shows that we have some hope of this, for "when +physiology, psychology, ethics, and political science, now befogged by +crude anticipations and futile analogies, have emerged from their +childhood, they may work as much change on human affairs as the +earlier-ripened physical sciences wrought on material progress." And +so, remembering that the evil cosmic nature in us has the foothold of +millions of years, and never hoping to abandon sorrow and pain, we may +yet, in the manhood of our race, accept our destiny, and, with clear +and steady eyes, address ourselves to the task of living, that we and +others may live better. + +These gloomy views come from Huxley with such weight and authority +that even in a sketch of his life and opinions it may be noticed that +they do not seem necessary deductions from the evolutionary conception +of the world. The first count adduced against the cosmic process is +its connection with suffering. It may be doubted, so far as the animal +world is concerned, if Huxley has not exaggerated the gravity of this. +The two greatest contributors to the modern conception of evolution +are not in agreement with him. Alfred Russel Wallace wrote: + + "On the whole, then, we conclude that the popular idea of the + struggle for existence entailing misery and pain on the animal + world is the very reverse of the truth. What it really brings + about is the maximum of life and of the enjoyment of life with + the minimum of suffering and pain. Given the necessity of death + and reproduction--and without those there could have been no + progressive development of the animal world--and it is difficult + even to imagine a system by which a greater balance of happiness + could have been secured." + +This view was evidently that also of Darwin himself, who thus +concluded his chapter on the struggle for existence: "When we reflect +on this struggle, we may console ourselves with the full belief that +the war of nature is not incessant, that no fear is felt, that death +is generally prompt, and that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy +survive and multiply." As for man himself, though it be true that in +him the consummation of pain is reached, still this is no isolated +fact of far-reaching ethical importance. It is in direct dependence on +the increased physical and mental development of man, and these are +equally necessary for and equally susceptible to increased pleasure +and increased happiness. It is not necessary to regard the cosmic +process as evil. Even when man, in various ages, had elaborated the +conception of abstract goodness, and had endeavoured to make his +justice a doling out of reward and punishment according to merit, it +was not inevitable to bring in a verdict of guilty against the Cosmos. +It is quite true that, in all the ages, man has seen the sun shine on +the unjust as on the just. But it is an easy reflection that the world +could not turn round on individual merit, and if few are so guilty as +to deserve the agonies of grief that may come to all, still fewer +deserve some of the simpler and more common joys of life. The +conception that was implicit in the disciplines of the older +philosophies is still open to the philosophy of evolution. Behind it, +as behind the "self-hypnotised catalepsy of the devotee of Brahma," +the Buddhist aspirations to Nirvana, the _apatheia_ of the Stoics, +there may lie a recognition of the worthlessness of the individual: an +equable acceptation of one's self as part of a process: a triumph of +intelligence over selfishness. Finally, behind the sharp division made +between man and the Cosmos, there still lurks one of the oldest and +most enduring fallacies of the world, a fallacy that Huxley himself +spent a great part of his intellectual life in discovering and +routing. The fallacy is the conception of the Cosmos as something +separate and apart from man, as something through which he, however +briefly, passes. Thus Omar sang: + + "Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent + Doctor and saint, and heard great argument + About it and about: but evermore + Came out by the same door where in I went. + + "With them the seed of wisdom did I sow, + And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow; + And this was all the Harvest that I reaped-- + 'I came like Water, and like Wind I go.' + + "Into this Universe, and _Why_ not knowing + Nor _Whence_, like water willy-nilly flowing; + And out of it, like Wind along the Waste + I know not _Whither_, willy-nilly blowing." + +But, the more profoundly does the conception of evolution lay hold of +human thought, the more inevitable it becomes to recognise that man +and all that is best in man--his aspirations, ideas, virtues, and +practical and abstract justice and goodness--are just as much the +product of the cosmic process and part of the Cosmos as the most +sinister results of the struggle for existence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +CLOSING DAYS AND SUMMARY + + 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. + + +Huxley's life followed the quiet and even tenor of that of a +professional man of science and letters. The great adventure in it was +his youthful voyage on the _Rattlesnake_. That over, and his choice +made in favour of science as against medicine, he settled down in +London. He married happily and shared in the common joys and sorrows +of domestic life. Advancement came to him steadily, and, although he +was never rich, after the first few years of life in London, his +income was always adequate to his moderate needs. For the greater part +of his working life, he lived actually in London, in the ordinary +style and with the ordinary social enjoyments of a professional man. +His duties in connection with the Royal College of Science and with +the Geological Survey were not arduous but constant; his time was +fully occupied with these, with his scientific and literary work, with +the business of scientific societies, with the occasional obligations +of royal commissions, public boards, and lecturing engagements. The +quiet routine of his life was diversified by many visits to provincial +towns to deliver lectures or addresses, by meetings of the British +Association, by holidays in Switzerland, during which, with Tyndall, +he made special studies of the phenomena of glaciation, and in the +usual Continental resorts, and by several trips to America. + +In a rough-and-ready fashion, Huxley's active life may be broken into +a set of decennial periods, each with tolerably distinctive +characters. The first period, roughly from 1850 to 1860, was almost +purely scientific. It was occupied by his voyage, by his transition to +science as a career, his researches into the invertebrate forms of +life, the beginning of his palaeontological investigations, and a +comparatively small amount of lecturing and literary work. The second +decennium still found him employed chiefly in research, vertebrate and +extinct forms absorbing most of his attention. He was occupied +actively with teaching, but the dominant feature of the decennium was +his assumption of the Darwinian doctrines. In connection with these +latter, his literary and lecturing work increased greatly, and the +side issues of what was, in itself, purely a scientific controversy +began to lead him into metaphysical and religious studies. The third +period, from 1870 to 1880, was considerably different in character. He +had become the most prominent man in biological science in England, at +a time when biological science was attracting a quite unusual amount +of scientific and public attention. Public honours and public duties, +some of them scientific, others general, began to crowd upon him, and +the time at his disposal for the quiet labours of investigation +became rapidly more limited within this period. He was secretary of +the Royal Society, a member of the London School Board, president of +the British Association, Lord Rector at several universities, member +of many royal commissions, government inspector of fisheries, +president of the Geological Society. In this multitude of duties it +was natural that the bulk of strictly scientific output was limited, +but, on the other hand, his literary output was much larger. Between +1880 and 1890 he had reached the full maturity of a splendid +reputation, and honours and duties pressed thick upon him. For part of +the time he was president of the Royal Society, the most distinguished +position to which a scientific man in England can attain, and he was +held by the general public at least in as high esteem as by his +scientific contemporaries. A small amount of original scientific work +still appeared from his pen, but he was occupied chiefly with more +general contributions to thought. + +[Illustration: CARICATURE OF HUXLEY DRAWN BY HIMSELF +Reproduced by permission from _Natural Science_, vol. vii., No. 46] + +Throughout his life, Huxley had never been robust. From his youth +upwards he had been troubled by dyspepsia with its usual accompaniment +of occasional fits of severe mental and physical depression. In 1872 +he was compelled to take a long holiday in Egypt, and, although he +returned to resume full labour, it is doubtful if from that time +onwards he recovered even the strength normal to him. In 1885, his +ill-health became grave; in the following years he had two attacks of +pleurisy, and symptoms of cardiac mischief became pressing. He +gradually withdrew from his official posts, and, in 1890, retired to +Eastbourne, where he had built himself a house on the Downs. The more +healthy conditions and the comparative leisure he permitted himself +had a good effect, and he was able to write some of his most +brilliant essays and to make a few public appearances: at Oxford in +1893, when he delivered the Romanes lecture; at the meeting of the +British Association in 1894, when he spoke on the vote of thanks to +the President, the Marquis of Salisbury; at the Royal Society in the +same year when he received the recently established "Darwin Medal." +Early in the spring of 1895, he had a prostrating attack of influenza, +and from that time until his death on June 29, 1895, he was an +invalid. He was buried in the Marylebone cemetery at Finchley, to the +north of London. + +Huxley was of middle stature and rather slender build. His face, as +Professor Ray Lankester described it, was "grave, black-browed, and +fiercely earnest." His hair, plentiful and worn rather long, was black +until in old age it became silvery white. He wore short side whiskers, +but shaved the rest of his face, leaving fully exposed an obstinate +chin, and mobile lips, grim and resolute in repose, but capable of +relaxation into a smile of almost feminine charm. + +He was a very hard worker and took little exercise. Professor Howes +describes a typical day as occupied by lecture and laboratory work at +the College of Science until his hurried luncheon; then a cab-drive to +the Home Office for his work as Inspector of Fisheries; then a cab +home for an hour's work before dinner, and the evening after dinner +spent in literary work or scientific reading. While at work, his whole +attention was engrossed, and he disliked being disturbed. This +abstraction of his attention is illustrated humorously by a story told +by one of his demonstrators. Huxley was engaged in the investigations +required for his book on the Crayfish, and his demonstrator came in to +ask a question about a codfish. "Codfish?" said Huxley; "that's a +vertebrate, isn't it? Ask me in a fortnight and I'll consider it." +While at work he smoked almost continuously, and from time to time he +took a little relaxation, for the strains of a fiddle were +occasionally heard from his room. Indeed he was devoted to music, +regarding it as one of the highest of the aesthetic pleasures. He tells +us himself: + + "When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and + it so happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good + music. Among other things, I had abundant opportunities of + hearing that great old master, Sebastian Bach. I remember + perfectly well--although I knew nothing about music then, and, I + may add, know nothing whatever about it now--the intense + satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, by the hour + together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains with + me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find + out the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that + the pleasure derived from musical compositions of this kind is + essentially of the same nature as that which is derived from + pursuits which are commonly regarded as purely intellectual. I + mean, that the source of pleasure is exactly the same as in most + of my problems in morphology--that you have the theme in one of + the old masters' works followed out in all its endless + variations, always appearing and always reminding you of unity in + variety." + +He had a hot temper, and did not readily brook opposition, especially +when that seemed to him to be the result of stupidity or of prejudice +rather than of reason, and his own reason was of a very clear, +decided, and exact order. He had little sympathy with vacillation of +any kind, whether it arose from mere infirmity of purpose or from the +temperament which delights in balancing opposing considerations. He +said on one occasion: + + "A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher of a former age--I mean + Francis Bacon--said that truth came out of error much more + rapidly than out of confusion. There is a wonderful truth in that + saying. Next to being right in this world, the best of all things + is to be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will come out + somewhere. If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, + vibrating and fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are + absolutely and thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some + of these days, have the extreme good fortune of knocking your + head against a fact, and that sets you all straight again. So I + will not trouble myself as to whether I may be right or wrong in + what I am about to say, but at any rate I hope to be clear and + definite; and then you will be able to judge for yourselves + whether, in following out the train of thought I have to + introduce, you knock your heads against facts or not." + +The particular suggestions to which these remarks were the +characteristic introduction related to definite problems of education, +that is to say, to questions upon which some action was urgent. It was +in all cases of life, in science or affairs, that Huxley was resolute +for clear ideas and definite courses of conduct. As a matter of fact, +no one ever took greater care to satisfy himself as best he could as +to what was right and what was wrong; but where action rather than +reflection was needed, then his principle was to act, and to know +definitely and clearly why you acted and for what you acted. In +matters of opinion, on the other hand, he was all for not coming to a +definite opinion when the facts obtainable did not justify such an +opinion. In thought, agnosticism, the refusal to accept any ideas or +principles except on sufficient evidence; in action, positivism, to +act promptly in definite and known directions for definite and known +objects: these were his principles. + +Another aspect of the same trait of character, he shewed in an address +to medical students at a distribution of prizes. After congratulating +the victors he confessed to "an undercurrent of sympathy for those who +have not been successful, for those valiant knights who have been +overthrown in their tourney, and have not made their appearance in +public." After recounting an early failure of his own, he proceeded: + + "I said to myself, 'Never mind; what's the next thing to be + done?' And I found that policy of 'never minding' and going on to + the next thing to be done, to be the most important of all + policies in the conduct of practical life. It does not matter how + many tumbles you have in this life, so long as you do not get + dirty when you tumble; it is only the people who have to stop to + be washed and made clean, who must necessarily lose the race. You + learn that which is of inestimable importance--that there are a + great many people in the world who are just as clever as you are. + You learn to put your trust, by and by, in an economy and + frugality of the exercise of your powers both moral and + intellectual; and you very soon find out, if you have not found + it out before, that patience and tenacity of purpose are worth + more than twice their weight of cleverness." + +All Huxley's work was marked by a quality which may be called +conscientiousness or thoroughness. Looking through his memoirs, +written many years ago, the subjects of which have since been handled +and rehandled by other writers with new knowledge and with new methods +at their disposal, one is struck that all the observations he made +have stood their ground. With new facts new generalisations have often +been reached, and some of the positions occupied by Huxley have been +turned. But what he saw and described had not to be redescribed; the +citations he made from the older authorities were always so chosen as +to contain the exact gist of the writers. These qualities, admirable +in scientific work, became at once admirable and terrible in his +controversial writings. His own exactness made him ruthless in +exposing any inexactness in his adversaries, and there were few +disputants who left an argument with Huxley in an undamaged condition. +The consciousness which he had of his own careful methods, added to a +natural pugnacity, gave him an intellectual courage of a very high +order. As he knew himself to have made sure of his premisses, he did +not care whither his conclusions might lead him, against whatsoever +established doctrine or accepted axiom. + +There was, however, a strong spice of natural combativeness in his +nature, the direct result of his native and highly trained critical +faculty. He tells us that in the pre-Darwinian days he was accustomed +to defend the fixity of species in the company of evolutionists and in +the presence of the orthodox to attack the same doctrine. Later in +life, when evolution had become fashionable, and the principles of +Darwinism were being elevated into a new dogmatism, he was as ready to +criticise the loose adherents of his own views as he had been to +expose the weakness of the conventional dogmatists. + +Perhaps the most striking feature of Huxley's work as a whole was its +infectious nature. His vigorous and decided personality was reflected +on all the subjects to which he gave attention, and in the same +fashion as his presence infected persons with a personal enthusiasm so +his writings stimulated readers to efforts along the same lines. His +great influence is clear in the number and distinction of the +biologists who came under his personal care, and in the great army of +writers and thinkers who have been inspired by his views and methods +on general questions. His position as an actual contributor to science +has to a certain extent been lost sight of for two reasons. In the +first place, his effect on the world as an expositor of the scientific +method in its general application to life has overshadowed his exact +work; in the second place, his exact work itself has been partly lost +sight of in the new discoveries and advances to which it gave rise. It +is therefore necessary to reiterate that, apart from all his other +successes, he had made for himself an extremely distinguished position +in the annals of exact science. Sir Michael Foster and Prof. Ray +Lankester, in their preface to the collected edition of his scientific +memoirs, make a just claim for him. These memoirs, they wrote, show +that, "apart from the influence exerted by his popular writings, the +progress of biology during the present century was largely due to +labours of his of which the general public knew nothing, and that he +was in some respects the most original and most fertile in discovery +of all his fellow workers in the same branch of science." + +There can be little question that it was no accident that determined +the direction of Huxley's career. He was a naturalist by inborn +vocation. The contrast between a natural bent and an acquired habit of +life was well seen in the case of Huxley and Macgillivray, his +companion on the _Rattlesnake_. The former was appointed as a surgeon, +and it was no part of his duties to busy himself with the creatures of +the sea; and yet his observations on them made a series of real +contributions to biological science and laid the sure foundation of a +world-wide and enduring reputation. The latter was the son of a +naturalist, a naturalist by profession, and appointed to the +expedition as its official naturalist; and yet he made only a few +observations and a limited collection of curiosities, and even his +exiguous place in the annals of zooelogy is the accidental result of +his companionship with Huxley. The special natural endowments which +Huxley brought to the study of zooelogy were, in the first place, a +faculty for the patient and assiduous observation of facts; in the +second, a swift power of discriminating between the essential and the +accessory among facts; in the third, the constructive ability to +arrange these essentials in wide generalisations which we call laws or +principles and which, within the limits necessarily set by inductive +principles, are the starting-point for new deductions. These were the +faculties which he brought to his science, but there were added to +them two personal characteristics without which they would not have +taken him far. They were impelled by a driving force which +distinguishes the successful man from the muddler and without which +the finest mental powers are as useless as a complicated machine +disconnected from its driving-wheel. They were directed by a lofty and +disinterested enthusiasm, without which the most talented man is a +mere self-seeker, useless or dangerous to society. The faculties and +qualities which made Huxley great as a zooelogist were practically +those which he applied to the general questions of biological theory, +to the problems of education and of society, and to philosophy and +metaphysics. A comparison between his sane and forcible handling of +questions that lay outside the special province to which the greater +part of his life was devoted, with the dubious and involved treatment +given such questions by the professional politicians to whom the +English races tend to entrust their destinies, is a useful comment on +that value of science as discipline to which Huxley so strenuously +called attention. + +There can be no better way of ending this sketch of Huxley's life and +work than by quoting his own account of the objects to which he had +devoted himself consciously. These were: + + "To promote the increase of natural knowledge and to forward the + application of scientific methods of investigation to all the + problems of life to the best of my ability, in the conviction + which has grown with my growth and strengthened with my strength, + that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind except + veracity of thought and of action, and the resolute facing of the + world as it is when the garment of make-believe by which pious + hands have hidden its uglier features is stripped off. + + "It is with this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable + or unreasonable ambition for scientific fame which I may have + permitted myself to entertain to other ends; to the + popularisation of science; to the development and organisation of + scientific education; to the endless series of battles and + skirmishes over evolution; and to untiring opposition to that + ecclesiastical spirit, that clericalism, which in England, as + everywhere else, and to whatever denomination it may belong, is + the deadly enemy of science. + + "In striving for the attainment of these objects, I have been + but one among many, and I shall be well content to be remembered, + or even not remembered, as such. Circumstances, among which I am + proud to reckon the devoted kindness of many friends, have led to + my occupation of various prominent positions, among which the + presidency of the Royal Society is the highest. It would be mock + modesty on my part, with these and other scientific honours which + have been bestowed upon me, to pretend that I have not succeeded + in the career which I have followed, rather because I was driven + into it than of my own free will; but I am afraid I should not + count even these things as marks of success if I could not hope + that I had not somewhat helped that movement of opinion which has + been called the New Reformation." + + + + +INDEX + + + +A + +Adams, 209 + +Admiralty, 14, 48, 49 + +Agassiz, 68, 91, 99 + +Age of the earth, 84, 85 + +Agnosticism, 239, 241-243, 279 + +Ahriman, 265 + +Alchemists, 256, 257 + +Alternation of generations, 53, 54 + +Ameghino, 141 + +America, 70 + +American addresses, 71 + +American fossils, 75 + +American monkeys, 163 + +Amphibia, 143 + +Amphioxus, 22, 134 + +Anatomy of man and ape, 161 + +Anchitherium, 70, 74, 76 + +Animal kingdom, old views of, 35 + +Animals and plants, 97 + +Anthracosaurus, 69 + +Anthropomorphism, 250 + +Anthropoid apes, 149-153 + +"Ape and Tiger" methods, 265 + +Appendicularia, 56, 57 + +Apprenticeship in medicine, 183 + +Archaeopteryx, 136 + +Archetype of molluscs, 58, 59, 61 + +Archetype of Vertebrata, Articulata, and Radiata, 62 + +Arctogoea, 140 + +Argyll, Duke of, 248 + +Aristotle, 100, 259 + +Arnold, Matthew, 185 + +Articulata of Cuvier, 38 + +Ascaris, egg of, 176 + +Ascidians, 55-57, 96 + +Australia and South America, land connection, 141 + +Authority, 175, 231, 232, 241 + +Authority and investigation, 179 + +Authority and knowledge, 104, 105 + +Axioms, 240 + + +B + +Bach, Sebastian, 278 + +Balfour, F.M., 135 + +Barrier Reef of Australia, 20 + +Basi-cranium of vertebrates, 132 + +_Beagle_, voyage of, 28 + +Beelzebub, 238 + +Belief, duty of, 238, 239 + +Belief, nature of scientific, 228 + +Beneden, van, 59, 176 + +Berkeley, Bishop, 218, 221, 224 + +Berkeley, quotation from, 221 + +Bible, 189, 192, 194, 213, 235, 237, 244, 245, 247, 248, 250, 253, 254, 259 + +Bible and geology, 80 + +Bibliolatry, 235, 246 + +Bimana, 164 + +Biology and medical education, 184 + +Birds, ancestry of, 69 + +Birds, classification of, 135 + +Birmingham, 185 + +Bishop, 175 + +Bishop Berkeley, 218, 221, 224 + +Bishop of Norwich, 33 + +Bishop of Oxford, _see_ Wilberforce + +Boards for elementary education, 188 + +Bojanus, 173 + +Bones of horse, 71, 72 + +Bones, cartilage, and membrane, 134 + +Books, value of, 175 + +Booth, "General," 213 + +Bourbon, 246 + +Brahma, 272 + +Brain of man and apes, 120, 145, 146, 162, 163 + +Brain and mind, 220, 221 + +Brain-weights, 164 + +Breathing, 168 + +Breeding, selective, 127 + +Brehm, 153 + +British Association, 68, 120, 125, 274 + +Brooks, Professor W.K., 94 + +Buckland, Professor, 80, 234 + +Buddhists, 1, 272 + +Buffon, 15, 90 + +Burnett, Sir William, 11, 46 + +Busk, George, 49 + + +C + +Cabanis, 228 + +Caesar, 265 + +Cana, miracle at, 257 + +Cape York, 25 + +Carinates, 137 + +Carlyle, Thomas, 111 + +Cartesian axiom, 222 + +Cartilage bones, 134 + +Cartilaginous skulls, 134 + +Catastrophism in geology, 80, 249 + +Catholicism, 123, 214, 247 + +Cells, 52, 53 + +Cephalous molluscs, 58, 59 + +Chalk, 266 + +_Challenger_ expedition, 15 + +Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, 80 + +Chambers, R., 62 + +Chamisso, 53, 56 + +Chance, 229 + +Change in universe, 249 + +Charing Cross Hospital, 8, 9 + +Chaucer, 213 + +Chemistry and alchemy, 257 + +Chess, life compared with, 169 + +Children, education of, 189 + +Chimpanzees, 149, 163 + +Chondrocranium, 134 + +Christianity and evolution, 122 + +Christian civilisation and authority, 232 + +Chronology of the Bible, 247 + +Church of England, 111, 112 + +Church, the, and science, 236 + +Classical education, 185, 210 + +Classification of birds, 135 + +Classification by Cuvier, 38 + +Classification by Linnaeus, 38 + +Classification of mammals, 142 + +Classification of man, 146 + +Classification by old authors, 37 + +Classification of vertebrates, 143 + +Clergy as critics of science, 236 + +Clericalism, 239, 284 + +Clodd, E., 90, 127 + +Coelenterata, 42, 96 + +Coelomata, 43, 44 + +Commissions, royal, 195, 204 + +Common sense and metaphysics, 218 + +Common sense and science, 209 + +Conduct and religion, 261 + +Congo, 149 + +Conscience, 269 + +Conscientiousness, 280 + +Consciousness, 220, 224 + +Contemporaneity, geological, 79 + +Continuity of nature, 255 + +Cookery in schools, 190 + +Cope, Professor, 69, 94 + +Corals of Barrier Reef, 20 + +"Corybantic Christianity," 215 + +Cosmic process, 268, 270, 271 + +Cosmogony of the Hebrews, 244, 246 + +Cosmos, 229, 263, 265, 267, 272 + +Cowper-Temple Clause, 188 + +Crayfish, 158, 173, 277 + +Creation, 139, 246, 252 + +Creator, the, 250 + +Credibility of authority, 232 + +Criticism, Biblical, 194 + +Criticism of life, 185 + +Croonian lectures, 65, 129 + +Ctenophora, 42 + +Culture and science, 185, 186 + +Curriculum of medical education, 184 + +Cuttle-fish, 58 + +Cuvier, 6, 38, 115, 132, 133, 136, 209, 211 + + +D + +Darwin, Charles, 27-29, 60, 61, 68, chapters viii. and ix., 138, 147, +166, 229, 242 + +Darwin medal, 108 + +Darwin, voyage of, 27, 28 + +Darwin, Erasmus, 90 + +Darwinism, 103, 104, 106, 123 + +Darwinism, Huxley's late and early opinions on, 106-109 + +Darwinism and Lamarckism, 94 + +"Days" of creation, 251, 252 + +De la Beche, Sir Henry, 63, 64 + +Deluge, the, 235 + +Descartes, 219, 240, 243 + +Design, argument from, 230 + +Despotism and the Bible, 245 + +Devonian fishes, 68 + +Deuteronomy, 245 + +Dinosaurs and the ancestry of birds, 69 + +Diprotodonts, 142 + +Dissection in laboratories, 181 + +Divine will and science, 233 + +_Doctrine of the Deluge_, 235 + +Dogma and literature in the Bible, 254 + +Doliolum, 56 + +Domestic economy, 190 + +Doubt, duty of, 232, 239, 269 + +Drawing for children, 193 + +Dredging, 22 + +Drill for children, 189 + +Durckheim, Strauss, 173 + + +E + +Earth, age of, 84, 85 + +Eastbourne, 277 + +Ecclesiasticism, 235, 239 + +Echidna, 156 + +Economy, domestic, 190 + +Edinburgh, 174 + +_Edinburgh Review_, 115, 116 + +Education, classical, 185, 210 + +Education of children, 170 + +Education, elementary, 187, 188 + +Education, general, 184 + +Education, liberal, 169, 186, 210 + +Education, medical, 181 + +Education and religion, 188 + +Education, scientific, 168 + +Education of teachers, 195 + +Education, university, 195 + +Eggs of Mammalia, 156 + +Egypt, 276 + +Ejects, 221 + +Elementary education, 188 + +Elementary lessons in physiology, 172 + +Embryology and zooelogy, 177 + +Embryology of brain and skull, 130-133 +Embryology of Mammals, 156, 157 + +Embryology of man, 159 + +Embryos, marine, 176 + +Embryos of vertebrates, 157 + +Endostyle of Ascidians, 56 + +England in eighteenth century, 239 + +English Bible, 245 + +English men of letters, 218 + +English philosophers, 218 + +Eohippus, 78 + +_Erdkunde_, 170, 171 + +Error, 243 + +Established church and Education, 189 + +Ether, 219 + +Ethics and evolution, 263 + +Ethical process, 265 + +Eutheria, 142 + +Evidence, limitations of, 231 + +Evidence for miraculous, 258 + +Evil, 268, 269, 271 + +Evolution, 60, 62, 63, 108, 110, 122, 168, 248 + +Evolution and Christianity, 122 + +Evolution of Cosmos, 250-253 + +Evolution not an explanation of Cosmos, 229 + +Evolution and Darwinism, 94 + +Evolution before Darwin, 91, 93, 100 + +Evolution, Darwin's contribution to, 93, 104 + +Evolution and ethics, 263 + +Evolution of horse, 73 + +Evolution and natural selection, 124-127 + +Evolution and pain, 268 + +Evolution, philosophy of, 272 + +Evolution and palaeontology, 86, 87 + +Evolution and Theism, 244 + +Evolutionist, 281 + +Exposition, Huxley's method of, 208 + + +F + +Faith, agnostic, 243 + +Falkenstein, 153 + +Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 10, 11 + +Feet of anthropoids, 164 + +Fertility of artificial breeds, 127 + +Fiddle, 278 + +_Fisgard_, H.M.S., 46 + +Fish, fossil, 68 + +Fisheries, Inspector of, 277 + +Flower, Sir William, 146 + +Forbes, Edward, 47, 63 + +Foreign languages, 196, 213 + +_Forms of Animal Life_, 178 + +Fossils, 67, 68 + +Fossils, chronological arrangement of, 87 + +Fossils and evolution, 87 + +Foundation membranes of Medusae, 40-43 + +Foster, Sir Michael, 47, 64, 180, 283 + +Freedom of the Press, 240 + +Freedom of thought, 231, 233 + +French, 213 + +French Revolution, 111 + +French translations, 216 + +Fullerian Professor, 64 + +Function, changes in, 230 + + +G + +Galileo, 247 + +Gallinaceous birds, 139 + +Gambit, 169 + +Game of life, 170 + +Garden, as an instance of interference with cosmic process, 267 + +Garnier, 151 + +Gasteropoda, 58 + +Gegenbauer, 59 + +Genesis, 234, 248, 250, 251, 252 + +Geographical distribution, 137-141 + +Geological addresses, 79, 80 + +Geological club, 234 +Geological contemporaneity, 79 + +Geological history, 249 + +Geological Society of London, 70, 78, 80, 86 + +Geological time, 84, 85 + +Geology and the Bible, 80 + +Geology and catastrophism, 80, 81 + +Geology compared with biology, 82 + +Geology, history of, 234 + +German, 213 + +Gibbons, 149 + +Girls, education of, 190 + +Glacial acetic acid, 176 + +Gladstone, W.E., 248, 250, 251, 263 + +Goethe, 99, 130, 132 + +Goethe, quotations from, 130 + +Gold, transmutation of, 256 + +Goodness, 269, 273 + +Gorilla, 87, 149, 161 + +Gospels, 254 + +Gosse, P.H., 118 + +Government, 239 + +Greek, 213; + in education, 186 + +Greek ethics, 269 + +Groos, Prof., 154 + + +H + +Haeckel, Prof. E., 91, 136 + +Hands of Anthropoids, 164 + +Haslar Hospital, 11, 12 + +Heathorn, Miss H.A., 19 + +Hebrew Cosmogony, 246 + +Hebrew Morality, 259 + +Hebrew Scriptures, 250 + +Heine, 261 + +Henle and Meissner, reports of, 182 + +Hercules, 246 + +Hertwig, 134 + +Hindustan, 269 + +Hipparion, 74-76 + +Hippocampus minor, 162, 163 + +Histological methods, 177 + +Hobbes, 218 + +Home office, 277 + +Homo, classification of, 160 + +Homology in organs of Medusae, 123 + +Homotaxis in geology, 80 + +Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton, 47, 98, 101 + +Horse, 68-78, 174 + +Hospitals in London, 181 + +Howes, Professor G.B., 173, 174, 207, 277 + +Humboldt, 92 + +Hume, David, 217, 218, 223, 240, 255, 256 + +Hume, David, quotations from, 223, 241, 256 + +Humour, 209 + +Hunterian Professor, 129 + +Hutton, James, 81, 249 + +Huxley, birth, 2; + parents, 2, 3; + school, 4; + apprenticed to medicine, 5; + enters Charing Cross Hospital, 8; + first original paper, 9; + graduates at London University, 10; + becomes M.R.C.S., 11; + appointed to Haslar Hospital, 11; + appointed to _Rattlesnake_, 12; + meets his future wife at Sydney, 19; + first paper to Royal Society, 33; + Royal medals, 34; + becomes F.R.S., 47; + leaves naval service, 48; + appointed to Geological Survey and School of Mines, 63; + becomes Fullerian Professor, 64; + marriage, 64; + examiner, 65; + Croonian lecturer, 66; + visits America, 70; + becomes Secretary and President of Geological Society, 78; + accepts Darwinism, 101; + receives Darwin medal, 108; + becomes Hunterian Professor,129; + starts laboratory courses at South Kensington, 180; + becomes candidate for London School Board, 189; + serves on Royal Commissions,196, 204; + becomes member of Her Majesty's Privy Council, 205; + marriage, 274; + ill-health and retirement, 276; + death, 277; + personal appearance, 277 + +Huxley's layer in root-sheath of hairs, 10 + +Hydra, 50 + +Hypothesis as to History of Nature, 248, 249 + + +I + +Ichthyopsida, 143 + +Idealism, 220, 224 + +Ideals and culture, 186 + +Indian speculation, 269 + +Individuality of animals, 49, 50, 51, 52, 55 + +Infallibility, 123, 236 + +Inspiration, 246, 247, 253, 254 + +Instincts, 154 + +Intellect, 243 + +Intermediate and linear types, 87 + +_International Scientific Series_, 173 + +_Invertebrata, Manual of_, 175 + +Ionia, 169 + +Israel, 245 + + +J + +Jermyn Street lectures to working men, 207 + +Johnson, Samuel, 219 + +Judaism and science, 246 + +Justice, 265, 269, 271, 273 + + +K + +Kant, 84, 242, 262 + +Karma, 269 + +Kelvin, Lord, 84 + +Knowledge and authority, 104, 105 + +Koelliker, 49, 59 + +Kowalevsky, 57 + + +L + +Laboratory work, 177, 179, 180 + +Labyrinthodonts, 69 + +Lamarck, 90, 91, 97 + +Lamarckism and Darwinism, 94, 97 + +Languages, modern, 6, 7 + +Lankester, Professor E. Ray, 57, 60, 94, 180, 277, 282 + +Larvae, 158 + +Latin, 186, 213 + +Law-courts and evidence, 231 + +Lawrence, Sir W., 144 + +Lectures at the School of Mines, 180 + +Lemurs, 163 + +Leutemann, 153 + +Leverrier, 209 + +Leviticus, 245 + +Liberal education, 228 + +Life, origin of, 227, 228 + +Limbs of Man and Gorilla, 162 + +Linear and intermediate types, 87 + +Linnaean Society of London, 33, 49, 115, 138, 145 + +Linnaeus, 38, 234 + +Literary culture, 186 + +_Literary Gazette_, 48 + +Literary style, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215 + +Literature, the Bible as, 254 + +Liverpool, 169 + +Living bodies, nature of, 228 + +Locke, 224 + +Lockyer, Sir Norman, 211 + +London, medical education in, 181 + +London, school board of, 189 + +Loyola, 262 + +Loxomma, 69 + +Lucas, Mr., 113 + +Luther, 262 + +Lyell, Sir Charles, 81, 91, 98, 144, 234, 249 + +Lyonet, 173 + + +M + +MacGillivray, John, 16, 17, 282 + +MacGillivray, William, 16, 100 + +Macmillan and Co., 171 + +Magna Charta, the Bible as, 245 + +Mammalia, classification of, 142 + +Man and the Apes, 155 + +Man, classification of, 146 + +Man and Gorilla, 161 + +Man, origin of, 144 + +_Man and the Apes_, 165 + +_Man's Place in Nature_, 147, 148 + +Manes and Manicheism, 265 + +Mantle of molluscs, 58 + +_Manual of the Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals_, 175 + +_Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals_, 175 + +Marine embryos, 176 + +Marmosets, 163 + +Marriage, 19, 274 + +Marsh, Professor, 70-78 + +Marsupials, 141 + +Mason, Sir Josiah, 185 + +Materialism, 217, 220, 222, 225, 227 + +Matter and ideas, 224 + +Matter, nature of, 219-221 + +Matthew, Patrick, 100 + +Mauritius, 18 + +Medical education, 167, 181, 184 + +Medical students, 181, 279 + +Medusae, 33, 39, 40, 41, 42, 96, 123 + +Membrane bones, 134 + +Mental capacity of apes, 152 + +Mercy, 265 + +Mertens, 56 + +Mesohippus, 77 + +Metals, transmutation of, 257 + +Metaphysics, 241 + +Metaphysics and science, 217 + +Metatheria, 142 + +Methods in histology, 177 + +Microscope, 32, 176 + +Microtomes, 177 + +Milton, 213 + +Mind and body, 220 + +Mind, growth of, 210 + +Miohippus, 76 + +Miracles, 246, 254-259 + +Missionary spirit, 262 + +Mitral valve, 175 + +Mivart, Dr. St. George, 246-248 + +Modern spirit, 241 + +Modification of species, 92 + +Mollusca, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 96 + +Morality and religion, 237, 238 + +Morality of Stoics, 238 + +Morley, John, 217, 260 + +Mosaic Deluge, 235 + +Moseley, Professor H.N., 15 + +Mucous layer of germ, 43 + +Mueller, Johannes, 6, 37, 56 + +Music, 278 + + +N + +Naples, International Zooelogical Station at, 176 + +Naturalism, 226 + +Natural selection, 94, 99, 100, 103, 105, 124-127 + +Nature, continuity of, 255 + +Nature, history of, 248 + +Nature, state of, 266 + +_Nature_, 211 + +_Naval Architecture and Timber_, 100 + +Nebular hypothesis, 230 + +Newman, Cardinal, 240 + +New Testament, 253, 254 + +Nirvana, 272 + +Noah's Deluge, 235 + +Notochord, 134 + +Notogoea, 140 + + +O + +Oken, 130, 132, 133 + +Old Testament, 90 + +Omar, 272 + +Optimism, 270 + +Orangs, 149 + +Order of nature, 255, 258 + +Organic _versus_ Inorganic, 229 + +Organon, 242 + +Origin of species, 89, 95, 101, 102, 110 + +_Origin of Species_, reviews of, 113, 114, 115, 146 + +Ormuzd, 265 + +Ornithology, 136 + +Ornithorhynchus, 156 + +Ornithoscelida, 69 + +Orohippus, 77 + +Orthodoxy, 246 + +Owen, Sir Richard, 65, 66, 115, 118-121, 131, 133, 136, 145, 146, 162 + +Oxford, 120, 125, 263, 264 + +Oxford, Bishop of, _see_ Wilberforce + + +P + +Pain, 268, 270, 271 + +Palaeontology and evolution, 68, 86 + +Palaeotherium, 74 + +Paley, 230 + +Pascal, 122 + +Payment of teachers by results, 195 + +Pelagic life, 30, 31 + +Pelvis of man and gorilla, 161 + +Pentateuch, 234, 244 + +Pessimism, 270 + +Phillips, Professor, 69 + +_Philosophic Zooelogique_, 97, 98 + +Philosophy, Huxley's advice on, 218 + +Phosphorescence, 55 + +Physical education, 189 + +Physical geography, 170 + +_Physics_ of Aristotle, 100 + +_Physiography_, 171 + +Physiology, 172 + +Pigafetta, 149 + +Pigmies, 149 + +_Pioneers of Evolution_, 127 + +Plankton, 30, 31 + +Plato's Archetypes, 59 + +Plato's philosophy, 224 + +Pliohippus, 76 + +"Portuguese man-of-war," 41, 50 + +Possibilities in logic, 258 + +Poulton, Professor E.B., 109, 127 + +Prayer, efficacy of, 258 + +Priestley, Joseph, 239 + +Primers of science, 171 + +Primitive groove, 135 + +_Principles of Geology_, 234 + +Professional education, 183 + +Protestantism, 123, 233, 235, 236 + +Protestant churches and knowledge, 247 + +Protestants and the Bible, 247 + +Protohippus, 74 + +Protoplasm, 52, 228 + +Prototheria, 142 + +Psychology, 227 + +Pterodactyls, 69 + +Pteropods, 56 + +Pyrosoma, 55 + + +Q + +_Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_, 49 + +_Quarterly Review_, 115, 116, 117 + + +R + +Rabbinical maxim of inspiration, 247 + +Radiata of Cuvier, 38 + +Rathke, 65 + +Ratites, 137 + +_Rattlesnake_, H.M.S., 13, 20, 21, 46, 282 + +Reade lecture, 146 + +Reason, age of, 239 + +Reformation, New, 284 + +Reformation, Protestant, 122, 233 + +Religion in education, 188, 191 + +Religion and morality, 237, 238 + +Religion and science, 120, 259 + +Religion, teaching, 191 + +Results, payment by, 195 + +Retina and light, 219 + +Revelation, 260 + +Revolution, French, 111 + +Richardson, Sir John, 12 + +Rights of man, 245 + +Robertson, Charles, 179 + +Rolleston, Professor, 152, 153, 266 + +Romanes, Professor, 152, 153, 263 + +Romanes lecture, 263 + +Rome, 247 + +Roscoe, Professor, 171 + +Rosse, Earl of, 34 + +Royal College of Science, 176, 180, 204, 274, 277 + +Royal College of Surgeons, 11, 129, 132 + +Royal Commissions, 204, 274 + +Royal Institution, 49, 52, 62, 64 + +Royal Society, 33, 34, 47, 49, 53, 58, 108, 129, 276 + +Rutherford, Professor, 180 + + +S + +Salisbury, Marquis of, 125 + +"Sally," the chimpanzee, 153 + +Salps, 50, 53, 54, 55, 96 + +Salt, Dr., 5 + +Sauropsida, 143 + +Saururae, 136 + +Savages, 23, 24, 165 + +Sawyer, Bob, 184 + +Scepticism, 240 + +Schematic mollusc, 60 + +School boards, 188, 189 + +School of Mines, 180 + +Schwann, 52 + +Science and Art Department, 195 + +Science and culture, 185 + +Science and Judaism, 246 + +Science and medical education, 184 + +Science and metaphysics, 217 + +Science and religion, 259 + +_Science and the Christian Tradition_, 248 + +_Science and the Hebrew Tradition_, 248 + +Science primers, 171 + +Scientific education, 168 + +Sclater, P.L., 138, 139, 142 + +Scottish universities, 167 + +Scriptures, 246 + +Section-cutting, 177 + +Secular education, 191, 194 + +Sedgwick, Professor Adam, 80, 115 + +Segmentation of eggs, 157 + +Segmentation of skull, 133 + +Selection and education, 190 + +Selective breeding, 103 + +Semite, ethics of, 269 + +Septuagint, 251 + +Serous layer of germ, 43 + +Sheldonian theatre, 264 + +Singing for children, 193 + +_Skepsis, thaetige_, of Goethe, 99 + +Skull of vertebrates, 65, 129, 130, 131, 132 + +Socrates, 243 + +Southern hemisphere, former land in, 141 + +Speaking, public, 208 + +Species, 92, 98, 106, 107, 108, 125, 126, 127 + +Specialists as teachers, 182 + +Spencer, Herbert, 91, 94, 123 + +Sponges, 42 + +Spontaneity of living matter, 228 + +Stanley, Captain Owen, 12, 13 + +State of nature, 266 + +Stevenson, R.L., quotation from, 174 + +Stewart, Professor Balfour, 171 + +Stoic morality, 192, 238 + +Stoics, 238, 269, 272 + +Struggle for existence, 93, 94, 95, 104, 266, 267, 271 + +Style, analysis of, 211, 212 + +Suarez, Father, 214 + +Substance of mind and matter, 223 + +Supernaturalism, 226 + +Superstition, 242 + +Survival of the fittest, 93, 94, 104 + +Suspensoria of jaws, 133 + +Switzerland, 275 + +Sydney, 19, 32 + +Synoptic Gospels, 254 + + +T + +Tapirs, 78 + +Teachers, education of, 195 + +Teeth of anthropoids, 149 + +Teeth of the horse, 73 + +Teleology, 230 + +Temper, 278 + +Theism and evolution, 244 + +Theology, 259 + +Theology in education, 191 + +Theoretical work in medical education, 184 + +Thomas, Oldfield, 142 + +Thomson, Sir W., now Lord Kelvin, _q.v._ + +Thread-cells of Medusae, 41 + +Time required for evolution, 84, 85 + +_Times_, the London, 66, 108, 113 + +Todd and Bowman's _Cyclopaedia of Anatomy_, 49 + +Toronto, University of, 48 + +Tow-net material, 31 + +Transmigration, 269 + +Transmutation of species, 99 + +_Treatise on Human Nature_, 240 + +Tree of evolution, 35 + +Tyndall, Professor John, 47, 48, 275 + +Types, 36, 96, 166 + +Types for laboratory dissection, 178, 180, 181 + +Types, intermediate and linear, 165 + + +U + +Uniformitarianism in geology, 81, 240 + +University education, 195 + +University of London, 65 + +University of Toronto, 48 + + +V + +Variation in anatomy, 166 + +Verification, method of, 179 + +Vertebrae, structure of, 131 + +Vertebral theory of the skull, 129-132 + +Vertebrata, 128 + +Vertebrata, ancestors of, 57 + +Vertebrata, classification of, 43 + +Vertebrata, embryos of, 157 + +_Vestiges of Creation_, 63, 97 + +Vivisection, 205 + +Voltaire, 260 + +Von Baer, 37, 43, 62, 96 + +Voyage of _Beagle_, 28 + +Voyage of _Challenger_, 15 + +Voyage of _Rattlesnake_, 20, 21 + + +W + +Wallace, Alfred Russel, 95, 101, 271 + +Weight of brains, 164 + +Weismann, Professor A., 94 + +Wells, W.C., 100 + +_Westminster Review_, 107, 114 + +Wharton Jones, Dr., 9, 37 + +Whewell, 115 + +Wilberforce, Samuel, Bishop of Oxford, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121 + +Willey, Arthur, 57 + +Wine miracle at Cana, 257 + +Wollaston, 98 + +Words, use of, 213, 214 + +Workmen, lectures to, 207 + + +Y + +York, Archbishop of, 234 + + +Z + +Zooelogical Society, 138 + +Zooelogical science and laboratories, 177 + +Zooelogist, Huxley as a, 283 + +Zooelogy, 173 + +Zooephytes, 40 + + + + +The Story of the Nations. + + +Messrs. G.P. Putnam's Sons take pleasure in announcing that they have +in course of publication, in co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of +London, a series of historical studies, intended to present in a +graphic manner the stories of the different nations that have attained +prominence in history. + +In the story form the current of each national life is distinctly +indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy periods and episodes are +presented for the reader in their philosophical relation to each other +as well as to universal history. + +It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to enter into +the real life of the peoples, and to bring them before the reader as +they actually lived, labored, and struggled--as they studied and +wrote, and as they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, the +myths, with which the history of all lands begins, will not be +overlooked, though these will be carefully distinguished from the +actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted historical +authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. + +The subjects of the different volumes have been planned to cover +connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive epochs or periods, so +that the set when completed will present in a comprehensive narrative +the chief events in the great STORY OF THE NATIONS; but it +is, of course, not always practicable to issue the several volumes in +their chronological order. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE NATIONS. + +The "Stories" are printed in good readable type, and in handsome 12mo +form. They are adequately illustrated and furnished with maps and +indexes. Price per vol., cloth, $1.50; half morocco, gilt top, $1.75. + +The following are now ready: + +GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. +ROME. Arthur Gilman. +THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer. +CHALDEA. Z.A. Ragozin. +GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. +NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. +SPAIN. Rev. E.E. and Susan Hale. +HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambery. +CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church. +THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman. +THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. +THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett. +PERSIA. S.G.W. Benjamin. +ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. +ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J.P. Mahaffy. +ASSYRIA. Z.A. Ragozin. +THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. +IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. +TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. +MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z.A. Ragozin. +MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustave Masson. +HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. +MEXICO. Susan Hale. +PHOENICIA. Geo. Rawlinson. +THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern. +EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church. +THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Pool. +RUSSIA. W.R. Morfill. +THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W.D. Morrison. +SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. +SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. A. Hug. +PORTUGAL. H. Morse-Stephens. +THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C.W.C. Oman. +SICILY. E.A. Freeman. +THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella Duffy. +POLAND. W.R. Morfill. +PARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson. +JAPAN. David Murray. +THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF SPAIN. H.E. Watts. +AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregarthen. +SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M. Theal. +VENICE. Alethea Wiel. +THE CRUSADES. T.S. Archer and C.L. Kingsford. +VEDIC INDIA. Z.A. Ragozin. +BOHEMIA. C.E. Maurice. +CANADA. J.G. Bourinot. +THE BALKAN STATES. William Miller. +BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. R.W. Frazer. +MODERN FRANCE. Andre Le Bon. +THE BUILDING OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Alfred T. Story. Two vols. +THE FRANKS. Lewis Sergeant. +THE WEST INDIES. Amos K. Fiske. +THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND IN THE 19TH CENTURY. Justin McCarthy, M.P. Two vols. +AUSTRIA, THE HOME OF THE HAPSBURG DYNASTY, FROM 1282 TO THE PRESENT DAY. + Sidney Whitman. +CHINA. Robt. K. Douglass. +MODERN SPAIN. Major Martin A.S. Hume. +MODERN ITALY. Pietro Orsi. +THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. Helen A. Smith. Two vols. + +Other volumes in preparation are: + +THE UNITED STATES, 1775-1897. Prof. A.C. McLaughlin. Two vols. +BUDDHIST INDIA. Prof. T.W. Rhys-Davids. +MOHAMMEDAN INDIA. Stanley Lane-Poole. +WALES AND CORNWALL. Owen M. Edwards + + + + +Heroes of the Nations. + +EDITED BY + +EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., + +FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD. + + +A series of biographical studies of the lives and work of a number of +representative historical characters about whom have gathered the +great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have +been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National +ideals. With the life of each typical character will be presented a +picture of the National conditions surrounding him during his career. + +The narratives are the work of writers who are recognized authorities +on their several subjects, and, while thoroughly trustworthy as +history, will present picturesque and dramatic "stories" of the Men +and of the events connected with them. + +To the Life of each "Hero" will be given one duodecimo volume, +handsomely printed in large type, provided with maps and adequately +illustrated according to the special requirements of the several +subjects. The volumes will be sold separately as follows: + +Large 12^o, cloth extra $1 50 +Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top 1 75 + + + + +HEROES OF THE NATIONS. + + +A series of biographical studies of the lives and work of certain +representative historical characters, about whom have gathered the +great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have +been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National +ideals. + +The volumes will be sold separately as follows: cloth extra, $1.50; +half leather, uncut edges, gilt top, $1.75. + +The following are now ready: + +NELSON. By W. Clark Russell. +GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. By C.R.L. Fletcher. +PERICLES. By Evelyn Abbott. +THEODORIC THE GOTH. By Thomas Hodgkin. +SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. By. H.R. Fox-Bourne. +JULIUS CAESAR. By W. Warde Fowler. +WYCLIF. By Lewis Sergeant. +NAPOLEON. By W. O'Connor Morris. +HENRY OF NAVARRE. By P.F. Willert. +CICERO. By J.L. Strachan-Davidson. +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Noah Brooks. +PRINCE HENRY (OF PORTUGAL) THE NAVIGATOR. By C.R. Beazley. +JULIAN THE PHILOSOPHER. By Alice Gardner. +LOUIS XIV. By Arthur Hassall. +CHARLES XII. By R. Nisbet Bain. +LORENZO DE' MEDICI. By Edward Armstrong. +JEANNE D'ARC. By Mrs. Oliphant. +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. By Washington Irving. +ROBERT THE BRUCE. By Sir Herbert Maxwell. +HANNIBAL. By W. O'Connor Morris. +ULYSSES S. GRANT. By William Conant Church. +ROBERT E. LEE. By Henry Alexander White. +THE CID CAMPEADOR. By H. Butler Clarke. +SALADIN. By Stanley Lane-Poole. +BISMARCK. By J.W. Headlam. +ALEXANDER THE GREAT. By Benjamin I. Wheeler. +CHARLEMAGNE. By H.W.C. Davis. +OLIVER CROMWELL. By Charles Firth. +RICHELIEU. By James B. Perkins. +DANIEL O'CONNELL. By Robert Dunlop. +SAINT LOUIS (Louis IX., of France). By Frederick Perry. +LORD CHATHAM. By Walford Davis Green. + +Other volumes in preparation are: + +MOLTKE. By Spencer Wilkinson. +JUDAS MACCABAEUS. By Israel Abrahams. +HENRY V. By Charles L. Kingsford. +SOBIESKI. By F.A. Pollard. +ALFRED THE TRUTHTELLER. By Frederick Perry. +FREDERICK II. By A.L. Smith. +MARLBOROUGH. By C.W.C. Oman. +RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED. By T.A. Archer. +WILLIAM THE SILENT. By Ruth Putnam. +JUSTINIAN. By Edward Jenks. + +G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK AND LONDON. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His +Life And Work, by P. 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