!4 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, i 



Another popular lecture on a zoological subject was that 

 of July i on " Cuttlefish and Squids," the last of the " Davis ' 

 lectures given by him at the Zoological Gardens. 



More important were two other essays delivered this 

 year. The " Method of Zadig " (Coll. Ess. iv. i), an address 

 at the Working Men's College, takes for its text Voltaire's 

 story of the philosopher at the Oriental court, who, by 

 taking note of trivial indications, obtains a perilous knowl- 

 edge of things, which his neighbours ascribe either to 

 thievery or magic. This introduces a discourse on the 

 identity of the methods of science and of the judgments of 

 common life, a fact which, twenty-six years before, he had 

 briefly stated in the words, " Science is nothing but trained 

 and organised common sense" (Coll. Ess. iii. 45). 



The other is " Science and Culture " (Coll. Ess. iii. 134), 

 which was delivered on October i, as the opening address 

 of the Josiah Mason College at Birmingham, and gave its 

 name to a volume of essays published in the following year. 

 Here was a great school founded by a successful ironworker, 

 which was designed to give an education at once practical 

 and liberal, such as the experience of its founder approved, 

 to young men who meant to embark upon practical life. 

 A " mere " literary training i.e. in the classical languages 

 was excluded, but not so the study of English literature and 

 modern languages. The greatest stress was laid on training 

 in the scientific theory and practice on which depend the 

 future of the great manufactures of the north. 



The question dealt with in this address is whether such 

 an education can give the culture demanded of an educated 

 man to-day. The answer is emphatically Yes. English 

 literature is a field of culture second to none, and for solely 

 literary purposes, a thorough knowledge of it, backed by 

 some other modern language, will amply suffice. Combined 

 with this, a knowledge of modern science, its principles and 

 results, which have so profoundly modified society and have 

 created modern civilisation, will give a "criticism of life," 

 as Matthew Arnold defined culture, unattainable by any 

 form of education which neglects it. In short, although the 

 " culture " of former periods might be purely literary, that 



