THE LESSON OF THE LIFE OF HUXLEY. 



By William Keith Brooks, 



Profesmr of Zoology in the Johns Hopkins University. 



Science seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great trntli 

 which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of (Jod. 

 Sit down before fact as a little ciiild, be prepared to give up every preconceived 

 notion, follow huml»ly wherever and to whatsoever abysses nature leads, or you shall 

 learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have 

 resolved, at all risks, to do this. — Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Iluxlry. I. 

 page 235. 



No one can study Huxley's works without discovci'intr that liis 

 whole life was devoted to a detinite and clearly perceived purpose, and 

 he has himself told us what that pui'pose was. 



If I may speak of the objects I have had more or less definitely in view, they are 

 •briefly these: To promote the increase of natural knowledge, and to forward the 

 application of scientific methods to all the problems of life, to the best of my al)ilify, 

 in the conviction, which has grown with my growth, and strengthened with my 

 strength, that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind except veracuty of 

 thought and action, and the resolute facing of the world as it is when the garment 

 of make-believe with which pious hands have hidden its uglier features has I >een 

 stripped off. 



He tells us it is with this intent that he has subordinated ambition 

 for scientific fame to the difl'usion among men of that enthusiasm for 

 truth, that fanaticism of veracity, which is a g-reater possession than 

 much learning, a nobler gift than the power of increasing knowletlge. 



The changes which science has brought about in our conceptions of 

 nature and our relation to the world around us have never been more 

 clearly or more eloquently set forth than in the address ''On tlie 

 advisableness of improving natural knowledge,'' to which Huxley has 

 given the foremost place in his volumes of collected essays. If. m 

 order to make clear what was the task to which his life was devoted. 

 I venture to give an abstract of this gem of English literature. I do 

 this in the hope that new readers may be led to find delight m the 

 beautiful original, which is worthy to be read in schools as an dlustra- 

 tiou of the union of scientific knowledge with literary genius. 



701 



