New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-07-14
PROFESSOR HUXLEY.

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GREAT
SCIENTIFIC INvEsTIGATOR-THE RE-
vENGEs Or TIME-THE BROTHERS
BALFOUR-LONDON ART NOTES
London July 3.
Since I last wrote another great Englishman
has died. and not only the world OF thought and
research. but a wide circle OF personal friends
are infinitely the poorer for his loss. Thomas
Henry Huxley succumbed Saturday after
noon at his house at Eastbourne. to the deadly
complication Of maladies from which he had for
a long time been suffering. He was just seventy
years OF age. and for the last ten years life mad
been more or less struggle to him, his con-
stitution having been too much tried by the long
years that he had given to incessant and very
varied work. He was about sixty when AFTER q
serious Illness his doctors told him that he must
positively leave London. give up his professional
duties. and above all abandon those admins
trative functions which, in countries like ours
and yours seem to crowd unasked upon eminent
men Of every kind Committee work. lecturing'
the organization OF scientific study all over the
Kingdom. the drawing up OF reports Tor the hoyai
Society and score of other labors quite distinct
from his own proper studies wore out Huxley
strength, as similar labors are likely to wear
IL
these days of ours. Let US be able to do little
better work than our neighbors. and immedi-
ateiy there press In upon us from every SIDE
claims that the best meE. just because best
commonly means the most benevolent and the
most energetic can hardly reject Modern HE
and modern society have fearful power Oh
"using up" the very individuals whom 1t is most
important to keep alive.
EARLY TRAINING.
The excellent obituary notices that appeared
on Monday morning in most Of the London
papers have told the world the main facts about
Huxiey's career. and need not spend much time
In repeating them Everybody now knows tha'
he was born in 1925 at Ealing. near London; that
his father was a schoolmaster that In nina ana
body, az he himself has sad, he took after MS
mother, "a slender brunette, OF an emotionai
and energetic temperament; that he became
medical student, and that at twenty-one years
OF age he was appointed a surgeon in the Navy.
The bent of his life was determined by his voy-
age In H. NJ. S. Rattlesnake. at that time COM
missioned to survey some of the passages rouno
the coast Of Australia and to explore the sea be-
tween that island-continent and New-Guinea.
Fifteen years earlier the man whose speculations
we're destined so greatly to influence Huxley had
made a similar voyage in the Beagle ano'
though in Darwin's case the personal result OF
that voyage was unfort inate, since his health
was permanently injured by 1t, both ne anu
Huxley throughout their lives were FOND OF de-
claring that there Is no hotter training Tor the
young biologist. He remained away four years.
and when he returned the record OF investiga-
lions which he had sent to the Royal Society
had already established his claim to the dignity
OF a fellowship Of that distinguished body. lie
became F. r. S. in 1851, and in 1854 he succeeded
a very eminent man. Edward Forbes as pro-
lessor in the Royal School Of Mines. 1t was thls
post a very busy one giving man hard WORK.
small pay and in itself NJ great social eminence'
that gave him that title Of Professor, by which
he was known all his life throughout the world
Except an inspectorship Of salmon fisheries ne
never obtained from the Government any other
remunerated post than this. though. In the
evening of his life, a moderate pension was
granted to him, and Lord Salisbury amid the
universal approval Of his countrymen. made MIN
a member Of the Privy Council. Writing 10
young kinswoman after he mad been to osborne
to be ''sworn in" Huxley said: Il intended. Tor
your benefit to have good look at Her Majesty
but could not, because found. to my great as
comfture, that Her Majesty was constantly
looking at me-" And we'll she might; for among
the eminent lawyers. professional politicians ana
broad-acred mobiles who gathered around that
sacred board, II Is not 10 oe suPPoseu '"o' ""~
had SO often seen face so striking or looked
upon a man whose discoveries. thoughts ana
words had made deep a mark upon his time.
A SCIENTIST AND A MAN OF LETTERS
As to his discoveries. his accumulation or
minute researches into the phenomena OF hfe'
whether in the lower or the higher organisms.
am not competent to speak; they are recorded
in innumerable TRANSACTIONS and their praise Is
~ fho
had been all. however. Huxley would have been
perhaps ahead Of his fellow-seekers. but he
would not have been the Huxley whom we are
now mourning-the man whose power OF gen.
eralization, whose clear eye for falacy. whose
wide general reading and whose surprising liter
airy skill brought these researches out OF the
laboratory into the world. From this point or
view his work is embodied in those nine volumes
Of collected essays which fortunately ne was
able to complete and to see through the press
before the gravest stage of his illness came upon
him. They have already had in their original
form, immense influence. Is 1t too much to say
that In their collected form they will long con-
tinue to influence the thought OF the English
speaking race? For Huxleys strength lay IN his
being at once that rarest oil all combinations.
master Of original investigation and. IN Matthew
Arnold's sense a man OF letters. With all his love
for physical science and for the patient investi-
CATION OF natural facts he knew history, ne
knew literature. ne knew man; and for this very
reason while he could ridicule or denounce I'M
founded dogma and Its professors. he was no dog
matist himself There never was more open
mind There never was any one more ready TO
be convinced. or more ready to reconsider his
own conclusions. II fresh facts could be brought
before his notice. There never was any one
more impartially ready to fird the weak points OF
irrational people. whether they erred on the side
OF authority or on the side Of sentmentalism
Moreover. there never was any one more ready
to recognize the good sida Of those with whom
he did not agree. though. to be sure. where he
thought that such people lad attained too much
influence already and were positively doing harm