The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, vol 1 | Page 2

help others to clear theirs, whether in the intellectual or the moral world. This was the help he steadfastly hoped to give the people, that interacting union of intellectual freedom and moral discernment which may be furthered by good education and training, by precept and example, that basis of all social health and prosperity. And if, as he said, he would like to be remembered as one who had done his best to help the people, he meant assuredly not the people only of his native land, but the wider world to whom his words could be carried.
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
My father's life was one of so many interests, and his work was at all times so diversified, that to follow each thread separately, as if he had been engaged on that alone for a time, would be to give a false impression of his activity and the peculiar character of his labours. All through his active career he was equally busy with research into nature, with studies in philosophy, with teaching and administrative work. The real measure of his energy can only be found when all these are considered together. Without this there can be no conception of the limitations imposed upon him in his chosen life's work. The mere amount of his research is greatly magnified by the smallness of the time allowed for it.
But great as was the impression left by these researches in purely scientific circles, it is not by them alone that he made his impression upon the mass of his contemporaries. They were chiefly moved by something over and above his wide knowledge in so many fields--by his passionate sincerity, his interest not only in pure knowledge, but in human life, by his belief that the interpretation of the book of nature was not to be kept apart from the ultimate problems of existence; by the love of truth, in short, both theoretical and practical, which gave the key to the character of the man himself.
Accordingly, I have not discussed with any fulness the value of his technical contributions to natural science; I have not drawn up a compendium of his philosophical views. One is a work for specialists; the other can be gathered from his published works. I have endeavoured rather to give the public a picture, so far as I can, of the man himself, of his aims in the many struggles in which he was engaged, of his character and temperament, and the circumstances under which his various works were begun and completed.
So far as possible, I have made his letters, or extracts from them, tell the story of his life. If those of any given period are diverse in tone and character, it is simply because they reflect an equal diversity of occupations and interests. Few of the letters, however, are of any great length; many are little more than hurried notes; others, mainly of private interest, supply a sentence here and there to fill in the general outline.
Moreover, whenever circumstances permit, I have endeavoured to make my own part in the book entirely impersonal. My experience is that the constant iteration by the biographer of his relationship to the subject of his memoir, can become exasperating to the reader; so that at the risk of offending in the opposite direction, I have chosen the other course.
Lastly, I have to express my grateful thanks to all who have sent me letters or supplied information, and especially to Dr. J.H. Gladstone, Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, Professor Howes, Professor Henry Sidgwick, and Sir Spencer Walpole, for their contributions to the book; but above all to Sir Joseph Hooker and Sir Michael Foster, whose invaluable help in reading proofs and making suggestions has been, as it were, a final labour of love for the memory of their old friend.

CONTENTS.
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

CHAPTER 1.
1. 1825-1842.

CHAPTER 1.
2. 1841-1846.

CHAPTER 1.
3. 1846-1849.

CHAPTER 1.
4. 1848-1850.

CHAPTER 1.
5. 1850-1851.

CHAPTER 1.
6. 1851-1854.

CHAPTER 1.
7. 1851-1853.

CHAPTER 1.
8. 1854.

CHAPTER 1.
9. 1855.

CHAPTER 1.
10. 1855-1858.

CHAPTER 1.
11. 1857-1858.

CHAPTER 1.
12. 1859-1860.

CHAPTER 1.
13. 1859.

CHAPTER 1.
14. 1859-1860.

CHAPTER 1.
15. 1860-1863.

CHAPTER 1.
16. 1860-1861.

CHAPTER 1.
17. 1861-1863.

CHAPTER 1.
18. 1864.

CHAPTER 1.
19. 1865.

CHAPTER 1.
20. 1866.

CHAPTER 1.
21. 1867.

CHAPTER 1.
22. 1868.

CHAPTER 1.
23. 1869.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE 1. PORTRAIT OF T.H. HUXLEY FROM A DAGUERROTYPE MADE IN 1846.
PLATE 2. FACSIMILE OF SKETCH, "THE LOVES AND GRACES."
PLATE 3. PORTRAIT FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MAULL AND POLYBLANK, 1857.
PLATE 4. NUMBER 4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE--FROM THE GARDEN. AFTER A WATERCOLOUR SKETCH BY R. HUXLEY.
PLATE 5. PORTRAIT FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ELLIOTT AND FRY; STEEL ENGRAVING IN "NATURE," FEBRUARY 5, 1874.

CHAPTER 1.
1.
1825-1842.
[In the year 1825 Ealing was as quiet a country village as could be found within a dozen miles of Hyde Park Corner. Here stood a large semi-public school, which had risen to the front rank in numbers and reputation under Dr. Nicholas, of Wadham College, Oxford, who