The Selections xix 



was always an investigator and thus always a learner. 

 No man could vivify and humanize the claims of science 

 as Huxley has done unless he was himself invigorated by a 

 sense of daily growth and achievement. The lesson of 

 his style at last is not, Study science that you may learn to 

 write clearly, but, Think for yourself that your message 

 may come with force, directness, and conviction. 



II 



THE SELECTIONS 



THE selections that follow have been chosen with 

 three ends in view : ( I ) To throw light on the char- 

 acter and services of Huxley; (2) to stimulate an inter- 

 est in the principles and problems of modern science; and 

 (3) to furnish examples of clear, flexible, forceful prose. 

 It will be seen that the Autobiography is an admirable 

 example of narration, that the Letters furnish still more 

 interesting examples of both narration and description, 

 and that the Essays confine themselves almost wholly to 

 exposition and argumentation. The selections exemplify, 

 therefore, the four literary types or kinds of discourse. 



What follows is intended to serve as an introduction 

 not only to the selections themselves but also to the Notes 

 and Comment and to the Questions and Topics for Study. 



I. AUTOBIOGRAPHY. On March 2, 1889, Huxley 

 wrote to his wife: "A man who is bringing out a series 

 of portraits of celebrities, with a sketch of their career 

 attached, has bothered me out of my life for something 

 to go with my portrait, and to escape the abominable bad 

 taste of some of the notices, I have done that. I shall 

 show it to you before it goes back to Engel in proof." 



