8 Selections from Huxley 



sands of diverse living constructions, and the modifications 

 of similar apparatuses to serve diverse ends. The ex- 

 traordinary attraction I felt towards the study of the in- 

 tricacies of living structure nearly proved fatal to me at 

 5 the outset. I was a mere boy I think between thirteen 

 and fourteen years of age when I was taken by some 

 older student friends of mine to the first post-mortem 

 examination I ever attended. All my life I have been 

 most unfortunately sensitive to the disagreeables which 



10 attend anatomical pursuits, but on this occasion my curi- 

 osity overpowered all other feelings, and I spent two or 

 three hours in gratifying it. I did not cut myself, and 

 none of the ordinary symptoms of dissection-poison super- 

 vened, but poisoned I was somehow, and I remember 



15 sinking into a strange state of apathy. By way of a last 

 chance, I was sent to the care of some good, kind people, 

 friends of my father's, who lived in a farmhouse in the 

 heart of Warwickshire. I remember staggering from my 

 bed to the window on the bright spring morning after my 



20 arrival, and throwing open the casement. Life seemed to 

 come back on the wings of the breeze, and to this day the 

 faint odor of wood-smoke, like that which floated across 

 the farm-yard in the early morning, is as good to me 

 as the "sweet south upon a bed of violets." I soon re- 



25 covered, but for years I suffered from occasional paroxysms 

 of internal pain, and from that time my constant friend, 

 hypochondriacal dyspepsia, commenced his half century of 

 co-tenancy of my fleshly tabernacle. 



Looking back on my " Lehrjahre," I am sorry to 



30 say that I do not think that any account of my doings 

 as a student would tend to edification. In fact, I should 

 distinctly warn ingenuous youth to avoid imitating my 

 example. I worked extremely hard when it pleased me, 

 and when it did not which was a very frequent case 



