TRAINING OF THE IMAGINATION 199 



in the ' root-sheath ' of the hair, 1 and at the end of the 

 following year his four years' voyage in the Rattlesnake 

 began — a record of a ceaseless energy in research. 



The commonly received British doctrine teaches that 

 research may only be attempted after the most heroic 

 preparation. Existing knowledge of any important educa- 

 tional subject may be likened to avast plain dipping beyond 

 the horizon in every direction, and the student is supposed 

 to explore it all in a superficial kind of way before pro- 

 ceeding to climb the height which he would fain make 

 his own. In a true system of education, developing the 

 higher as well as the lower faculties, he would be shown 

 the main road traversing the plain, but his search for 

 unconquered peaks would be aided from the first, in the 

 full knowledge that a wide extent of country round 

 the mountain base would be gladly explored and learnt 

 with a zest and a thoroughness attainable in no other way. 

 And if the appetite for discovery be not acquired early 

 in life it is hardly ever acquired at all. For, as regards 

 research, it is not so much in the old age of which Matthew 

 Arnold wrote, as in the tantalizing consciousness of 

 strength unfit for highest exercise that — 



— long the way appears, which seem'd so short 

 To the less practised eye of sanguine youth ; 



And high the mountain-tops, in cloudy air, 

 The mountain- tops where is the throne of Truth, 



Tops in life's morning-sun so bright and bare ! 



Once reached in youth they will be seen ever more 

 clearly in after life, and if the pathos of its close should 

 be deepened by a time of failing power, it will be 

 illumined by the bright and unquenchable memory of 

 the heights. 



To return to Huxley's views on Evolution. Before 

 November, 1859, these were what we should expect of 

 a great student of animal structure rather than of animal 

 life, who was at the same time a profound and cautious 

 thinker. Huxley states that before the appearance of the 

 Origin he took his stand upon two grounds, ' firstly, that 

 1 Life and Letters of I. H. Huxley, vol. i, p. 21. 



