HUXLEY'S LIFE AND WORK. 349 



of the great and fundamental truths of nature and the laws of her opera- 

 tions; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose 

 passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a 

 tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature 

 or of art, to hate all vileness and to respect others as himself." 



He was also strongly of opinion that colleges should be places of re- 

 search as well as of teaching. 



"The modern university looks forward, and is a factory of new 

 knowledge; its professors have to be at the top of the wave of progress. 

 Eesearch and criticism must be the breath of their nostrils; laboratory 

 work the main business of the scientific student; books his main 

 helpers." 



Education has been advocated for many good reasons: by statesmen 

 because all have votes, by Chambers of Commerce because ignorance 

 makes bad workmen, by the clergy because it makes bad men, and all 

 these are excellent reasons; but they may all be summed up in Huxley's 

 words that "the masses should be educated because they are men and 

 women with unlimited capacities of being, doing and suffering, and that 

 it is as true now as ever it was that the people perish for lack of knowl- 

 edge." 



Huxley once complained to Tyndall, in joke, that the clergy seemed 

 to let him say anything he liked, 'while they attack me for a word or a 

 phrase.' But it was not always so. 



Tyndall and I went, in the spring of 1874, to Naples to see an erup- 

 tion of Vesuvius. At one side the edge of the crater shelved very gradu- 

 ally to the abyss, and, being anxious to obtain the best possible view, I 

 went a little over the ridge. In the autumn Tyndall delivered his cele- 

 brated address to the British Association at Belfast. This was much ad- 

 mired, much read, but also much criticised, and one of the papers had 

 an article on Huxley and Tyndall, praising Huxley very much at Tyn- 

 dall's expense, and ending with this delightful little bit of bathos: "In 

 conclusion, we do not know that we can better illustrate Professor 

 Tyndall's foolish recklessness, and the wise, practical character of Pro- 

 fessor Huxley, than by mentioning the simple fact that last spring, at 

 the very moment when Professor Tyndall foolishly entered the crater of 

 "Vesuvius during an eruption, Professor Huxley, on the contrary, took 

 a seat on the London School Board." 



Tyndall, however, returned from Naples with fresh life and health, 

 while the strain of the School Board told considerably on Huxley's 

 health. 



Huxley's attitude on the School Board with reference to Bible teach- 

 ing came as a surprise to those who did not know him well. He sup- 

 ported Mr. W. H. Smith's motion in its favor, which, indeed, was voted 



