The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-09
ThOnas Huxley.


Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley" by hi:
son. Leonard Huxley. has just appeared
in two volumes, illustrated with numor.
Gus portraits of the philosopher and pic
lures of his home. 1t is valuable boob
in every respect and should find wide
sale in this country.
There are some biographies which are
as fascinating as novels, and this happens
10 be one of them. The biographer has
made living breathing portrait of his
subject, and with rare skill has seized
upon every incident and circumstance
which could bring before his reader not
only Huxley the philosopher, but Huxley
the man. as his friends and family knew
him throughout his life; and he has also
avoided the mistake of telling things
which ought not to be told. One has not
in reading this book, the feeling that one
is peeping into the windows CT somebody
house; the impression is rather that OF
being a welcome guest within its doors
with all the privileges of sympathetic
and friendly intercourse. Too many biog-
raphies written by intimate friends or
relatives have contained so much of the
personal as to have a Paul Pry atmos-
phere about them and il may have been
such a work that called forth from
Browning his indignant protest
Friends. the goodman o. the house al least,
Kept house to himself till the earthquake came,
It's the fall of its frontage permits you feast
On the inside arrangement you praise or hl?me
Suffice it to say that the work of Mr..
Leonard Huxley is refreshing contrast
to all this, and that he has said nothing
which his father could have wished IN
said.
The book will be surprise TO many,
W.
vice which Huxley rendered to science
and to philosophy, and indirectly to le
ligion. is well known and understood. An
agnostic himself, he probably did more
than any other man of his time to further
the knowledge of others in religious mat
tiers, simply because by his sharp chal-
lenge and Straightforward frankness he
compelled them to sift their knowledge
and find out what they knew. as distin-
guished from what they merely protested
to know His influence was always in
the direction of honest thought, and as
1t is through dishonesty and lodging OF
one kind or another that churches are
corrupted, every thinker who is honest,
whether atheist, deist, agnostic, or
churchman. does the cause of religion
service. The enemies which Huxley made
among the orthodox were, however, SO
many that to the religious world his name
ter of a century, and he became known by
being hated and feared. His main work
was in the domain of science. 10
which he devoted his life with SINGLE
minded determination and persistence.
Through his work in this line OF re-
search his name and his theories have
become familiar TO the reading world,
and II is always fascinating to read the
biography of such a pioneer of science
and see how he came to adopt this career
or how il adopted him. and what ibfiu-
ences and education went to shape his
character.
The surprise of the book comes in in
the revelation of character. of personality,
Of heart and soul which appears on almost
every page. The idea which the average
man has of philosopher and scientist
is curiously different from the picture
which confronts us here. Huxley was not
q cold blooded distracted creature,
mere combination of ideas and theories,
without affections or sense of humor; he
was a vivid, forceful personality, warm
hearted, frank, interested in all human
relations. upright and sincere above all
things, and withal bubb!ins over with
spontaneous and genial fun. His eP:grams
have nothing of the studied literary quail
lily: they are the overflow OF singuiariy
buoyant and happy nature, and are the
outcome of an instructive desire to put
things in the most striking and concise
way. There is no bitterness in his ridi-
Guile, no cynicism In his humcr; his char
acter has something of the soldier IN II;
he tests on the battlefield and in the
hospital-for he was almost never per-
fectly well and often suffered acutely
from nervous dyspepsia and a complica-
ton OF other ailments. As he said of |
himself, he seemed not to have enough
vital energy to supply both brain and
stomach, and il he worked the one, the |
other had to suffer. Add to this the per- /,
plexities inseparable from narrow in !
come, a wife whose health was scarcely |
better than his own, growing family, |
and continual abuse from people whose |
told against his work, and it Will |
be seen that he had enough troubles to |
make a less brave and sunny-hearted man |
morose. But he was fighter, and |
fighter who believed in going into battle |!
with song and jest; and as he grew !
older and trouble deepened, this trait /
only grew stronger. The three salient |
qualities in his nature were a love Of |
truth which involved rot only absolute |
sincerity but scrnpulous consideration of |
the rights of others; warm affection for |
his family and friends. and what may be
called determined gayety of spirits; the |
of a man who will not grur1-
bic or whine, whatever comes.
The amount of instruction which he re-
ceived was as scanty as it could well be,
ard he owed mis- eminence to his own In
born ability and faithful work in the
cause of science and TRUTH and to nothing
else He says of the two or three years
which he spent at public school:
Though my way Of life has made ncquaint-
oil spffs nd uf ht.
highest TO the lowest, deliberately affirm that
the society fell into at school was the worst
have ever known. We boys were average lads,
with much the same inherent capacity for good |
md evil as any Others but the people who
ct over US cared about much for intellectual
md moral welfare if they were baby farmers.
We were left 10 the operation OF the struggle for
existence among ourselves; bullying was the less,
If the i'll practices current among Almost
he only cheerful Renaissance of connection with
he place which arises in my mind IS that Of q
'attie had with one OF my classmates VINO had
pulled me until could stand it no longer.
Tss very slight sd, but there was a wildcat
lement in me which, when roused made up for
ack of weight and l licked my adversary most
nectually.
There are some interesting extracts
from young Huxiey's early diaries and
letters In this part of the book, which |
show his determination even in boyhood
o master any subject which he studied.
At seventeen he began to teach himself
German, and was desourips Carlyle with
he zest OF a kindred spirit. A little
ater. after pursuing some studies in
he practiced for while among
he poor. and the inequalities in the con-
lition of things seem to have struck him
orcibly. He says in one OF his letters ,
hat many of the people who came TO him ,
or medical aid were really suffering from
,othing but slow starvation, and 1t is
of the man that instead of