IN a letter written to his sister in 1850 Huxley said : " I 

 don't know and I don't care whether I shall ever be what 

 is called a great man. I shall leave my mark somewhere, 

 and it shall be clear and distinct 



T. H. H. his mark. 



and free from the abominable blur of cant, humbug, and 

 self-seeking which surrounds everything in this present 

 world that is to say, supposing that I am not already un- 

 consciously tainted myself, a result of which I have a mor- 

 bid dread." We shall not debate the question whether 

 Huxley was " what is called a great man," but no one fa- 

 miliar with his life and work can doubt for a moment that 

 he has left his mark or that it is " clear and distinct." He 

 had the good fortune to find his work early a rare piece 

 of good fortune and never to doubt that he had found it. 

 For just fifty years, from 1845 to 1895, he wrought hap- 

 pily and usefully. When he died he had the satisfaction of 

 knowing that his fame was secure and that he had added to 

 the knowledge and welfare of his fellow-men. 



Thomas Henry Huxley was born of good but poor 

 parents at Ealing, a village not far from London, on May 

 4, 1825. He told Charles Kingsley that he was "kicked 

 into the world a boy without guide or training, or with 

 worse than none." He tells us in his Autobiography of 



vii 



