INTRODUCTION xix 



the range of his real concerns than are the wherefores of 

 study. The story of the formation of a piece of chalk, the 

 suhstance which lies at the basis of all life, the habits of 

 sea animals, are all subjects the nature of which is akin to 

 his own eager interest in the world. 



Undoubtedly the subjects about which Huxley writes 

 will " appeal " to the student ; but it is in analysis 

 that the real discipline lies. For analysis Huxley's essays 

 are excellent. They illustrate "the clear power of exposi- 

 tion," and such power is, as Huxley wrote to Tyndall, the 

 one quality the people want, exposition " so clear that 

 they may think they understand even if they don't." 

 Huxley obtains that perfect clearness in his own work by 

 simple definition, by keeping steadily before his Clearne 

 audience his intention, and by making plain by simple 

 throughout his lecture a well-defined organic d8flniti<m - 

 structure. No X-ray machine is needful to make the skel- 

 eton visible ; it stands forth with the parts all nicely related 

 and compactly joined. In reference to structure, his son and 

 biographer writes, " He loved to visualize his object clearly. 

 The framework of what he wished to say would always be 

 drawn out first." Professor Ray Lankester also mentions 

 Huxley's love of form. "He deals with form not only as 

 a mechanical engineer in partibus (Huxley's own descrip- 

 tion of himself), but also as an artist, a born lover of form, 

 a character which others recognize in him though he does 

 not himself set it down in his analysis." Huxley's own 

 account of his efforts to shape his work is suggestive. 

 " The fact is that I have a great love and respect for my 

 native tongue, and take great pains to use it properly. 

 Sometimes I write essays half-a-dozen times before I can 

 get them into proper shape ; and I believe I become more 

 fastidious as I grow older." And, indeed, there is a marked 

 difference in firmness of structure between the earlier 

 essays, such as On the Educational Value of the Natural 

 History Sciences, written, as Huxley acknowledges, in 

 great haste, and the later essays, such as A Liberal Edu- 

 cation and The Method of Scientific Investigation. To 

 trace and to define this difference will be most helpful to 



