1844—1858] DARWIN AND HUXLEY J\ 



original matter. A combination of most rare advantages has Letter 31 

 enabled me to gain as much of my object as contents me, for 

 I never wished to be greatest amongst you, nor did rivalry 

 ever enter my thoughts. No ulterior object has ever been 

 present to me in this pursuit. My ambition is fully gratified 

 by the satisfactory completion of my task, and I am now 

 happy to go on jog-trot at Botany till the end of my days — 

 downhill, in one sense, all the way. I shall never have such 

 another object to work for, nor shall I feel the want of it. . . . 

 As it is, the craving of thirty years is satisfied, and I now look 

 back on life in a way I never could previously. There never 

 was a past hitherto to me. The phantom was always in view ; 

 mayhap it is only a " ridiculus mus " after all, but it is big 

 enough for me. . . . 



The story of Huxley's life has been fully given in the interesting 

 biography edited by Mr. Leonard Huxley. 1 Readers of this book and 

 of the Life and Letters of Charles Darwin gain an insight into the 

 relationship between this pair of friends to which any words of ours 

 can add but little. Darwin realised to the full the essential strength 

 of Mr. Huxley's nature ; he knew, as all the world now knows, the 

 delicate sense of honour of his friend, and he was ever inclined to 

 lean on his guidance in practical matters, as on an elder brother. 

 Of Mr. Huxley's dialectical and literary skill he was an enthusiastic 

 admirer, and he never forgot what his theories owed to the fighting 

 powers of his "general agent." 2 Huxley's estimate of Darwin is very 

 interesting : he valued him most highly for what was so strikingly char- 

 acteristic of himself— the love of truth. He spoke of finding in him 

 " something bigger than ordinary humanity— an unequalled simplicity and 

 directness of purpose— a sublime unselfishness." 3 The same point of view 

 comes out in Huxley's estimate of Darwin's mental power. 4 " He had 

 a clear, rapid intelligence, a great memory, a vivid imagination, and what 

 made his greatness was the strict subordination of all these to his love 

 of truth." This, as an analysis of Darwin's mental equipment, seems to 

 us incomplete, though we do not pretend to mend it. We do not think 

 it is possible to dissect and label the complex qualities which go to make 

 up that which we all recognise as genius. But, if we may venture to 

 criticise, we would say that Mr. Huxley's words do not seem to cover 



1 Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley. London, 1900. 



' Ibid., I., p. 171. 

 Ibid., 1 1., p. 94. Huxley is speaking of Gordon's death, and goes on : 

 "Of all the people whom I have met with in my life, he and Darwin 

 are the two in whom 1 have found," etc. 



4 Ibid., II., p. 39. 



