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

thinking he could do more useful work for his
country outside.
The publication in 1870 of "Lay Sermons," the first of a series of
similar volumes, served, by concentrating his moral and intellectual
philosophy, to make his influence as a teacher of men more widely felt.

The "active scepticism," whose conclusions many feared, was yet
acknowledged as the quality of mind which had made him one of the
clearest thinkers and safest scientific guides of his time, while his keen
sense of right and wrong made the more reflective of those who
opposed his conclusions hesitate long before expressing a doubt as to
the good influence of his writings. This view is very clearly expressed
in a review of the book in the "Nation" (New York 1870 11 407).
And as another review of the "Lay Sermons" puts it ("Nature" 3 22), he
began to be made a kind of popular oracle, yet refused to prophesy
smooth things.
During the earlier period, with more public demands made upon him
than upon most men of science of his age and standing, with the burden
of four Royal Commissions and increasing work in learned societies in
addition to his regular lecturing and official paleontological work, and
the many addresses and discourses in which he spread abroad in the
popular mind the leaven of new ideas upon nature and education and
the progress of thought, he was still constantly at work on biological
researches of his own, many of which took shape in the Hunterian
lectures at the College of Surgeons from 1863-1870. But from 1870
onward, the time he could spare to such research grew less and less. For
eight years he was continuously on one Royal Commission after
another. His administrative work on learned societies continued to
increase; in 1869-70 he held the presidency of the Ethnological Society,
with a view to effecting the amalgamation with the Anthropological,]
"the plan," [as he calls it,] "for uniting the Societies which occupy
themselves with man (that excludes 'Society' which occupies itself
chiefly with woman)." [He became President of the Geological Society
in 1872, and for nearly ten years, from 1871 to 1880, he was secretary
of the Royal Society, an office which occupied no small portion of his
time and thought, "for he had formed a very high ideal of the duties of
the Society as the head of science in this country, and was determined
that it should not at least fall short through any lack of exertion on his
part" (Sir M. Foster, Royal Society Obituary Notice). (See Appendix
2.)
The year 1870 itself was one of the busiest he had ever known. He
published one biological and four paleontological memoirs, and sat on
two Royal Commissions, one on the Contagious Diseases Acts, the

other on Scientific Instruction, which continued until 1875.
The three addresses which he gave in the autumn, and his election to
the School Board will be spoken of later; in the first part of the year he
read two papers at the Ethnological Society, of which he was President,
on "The Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of
Mankind," March 9--and on "The Ethnology of Britain," May 10--the
substance of which appeared in the "Contemporary Review" for July
under the title of "Some Fixed Points in British Ethnology" ("Collected
Essays" 7 253). As President also of the Geological Society and of the
British Association, he had two important addresses to deliver. In
addition to this, he delivered an address before the Y.M.C.A. at
Cambridge on "Descartes' Discourse."
How busy he was may be gathered from his refusal of an invitation to
Down:--]
26 Abbey Place, January 21, 1870.
My dear Darwin,
It is hard to resist an invitation of yours--but I dine out on Saturday;
and next week three evenings are abolished by Societies of one kind or
another. And there is that horrid Geological address looming in the
future!
I am afraid I must deny myself at present.
I am glad you liked the sermon. Did you see the "Devonshire man's"
attack in the "Pall Mall?"
I have been wasting my time in polishing that worthy off. I would not
have troubled myself about him, if it were not for the political bearing
of the Celt question just now.
My wife sends her love to all you.
Ever yours,
T.H. Huxley.
[The reference to the "Devonshire Man" is as follows:--Huxley had
been speaking of the strong similarity between Gaul and German, Celt
and Teuton, before the change of character brought about by the Latin
conquest; and of the similar commixture, a dash of Anglo-Saxon in the
mass of Celtic, which prevailed in our western borders and many parts
of Ireland, e.g. Tipperary.
The "Devonshire Man" wrote on January 18 to the "Pall Mall Gazette,"
objecting to the statement