Questions and Topics for Study 147 



essays as follows: "In form his essays are often rambling, 

 sometimes disconnected, occasionally prolix. He plunges into 

 the midst of a subject and, discovering there an almost limit- 

 less number of things which are apropos of the last thing he 

 said, frequently skips about hither and thither, trusting to good 

 luck and his own mother wit to guide him safely to some 

 suitable conclusion." From what you have read of Huxley do 

 you consider this a just criticism? 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY (pages 3-15) 



Autobiography is a modern form of literature. A study of 

 the greatest autobiographies will show that they grew out of 

 the desire not so much to perpetuate the names of the writers 

 as to be helpful to others. A typical example is Benjamin 

 Franklin's Autobiography. Huxley's Autobiography, which 

 was written to take the place of a merely formal sketch of 

 his life by another, is the shortest autobiography on record 

 and is not as intimate a revelation as most autobiographies 

 are. 



1. How many paragraphs are devoted to merely introductory 

 matter? How many to the conclusion? 



2. Name some important events in Huxley's life omitted in 

 the Autobiography. 



3. What does Huxley say are the two objects that he has 

 " had more or less definitely in view " (page 14) ? Enumerate 

 some of his achievements under each of these heads. (See 

 Introduction xiii-xix.) 



4. Cite examples of humor in the Autobiography. Of exag- 

 geration. 



5. Explain the hope expressed in the last sentence of the last 

 paragraph. 



LETTERS (pages 16-27) 



Of all the kinds of discourse letters are the freest and most 

 informal. They should not leave the impression that they 

 were written with too great pains or with too minute con- 

 sideration of words or sentences. They should be fresh, 

 unstudied, spontaneous. They should suggest a conversa- 

 tion rather than an essay. In fact, the letter is a sort of long- 



