Huxley's Life and Work xi 



must always be it is my nature but if I had 400 a 

 year I would never let my name appear to anything I did 

 or shall ever do. It would be glorious to be a voice work- 

 ing in secret and free from all those personal motives 

 that have actuated the best." 



The woman thus charmingly referred to was Miss 

 Henrietta Anne Heathorn, whom he had met in Australia 

 in 1848. But not till 1855 could he write: "I terminate 

 my Baccalaureate and take my degree of M.A. trimony 

 (isn't that atrocious?) on Saturday, July 21." He had 

 served as long for her as Jacob thought to serve for 

 Rachel, but during their forty years of married life he 

 found in her his best comforter and wisest counselor. 

 What he said of her in 1848 he could say with added 

 assurance in 1895: "I never met with so sweet a temper, 

 so self-sacrificing and affectionate a disposition, or so pure 

 and womanly a mind." Twelve years after his marriage 

 he was visited by a German, Dr. Dohrn, who wrote: 

 " I have been reading several chapters of Mill's Utili- 

 tarianism and have found the word ' happiness ' occurring 

 very often. If / had to give anybody a definition of this 

 much debated word, I should only say, 'Go and see the 

 Huxley family.' " 



His life was very busy now, but he found time in the 

 summer of 1876 to visit America and to deliver the in- 

 augural address at the opening of the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity in Baltimore. He received an enthusiastic wel- 

 come, and the letters that he sent from America are 

 among the most interesting that he ever wrote. The 

 little tug-boats in the harbor of New York seemed espe- 

 cially to interest him. " If I were not a man," he said, 

 " I think I should like to be a tug." On the material 

 greatness of America he remarked : " I cannot say that I 

 am in the slightest degree impressed by your bigness or 



