NOTES 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



PAGE! 



Autobiography : Huxley's account of this sketch, written 

 in 1889, is as follows: " A man who is bringing out a series 

 of portraits of celebrities, with a sketch of their career at- 

 tached, has bothered me out of my life for something to go 

 with my portrait, and to escape the abominable bad taste of 

 some of the notices, I have done that." 



pre-Boswellian epoch: the time before Boswell. James 

 Boswell (1740-1795) wrote the famous Life of Samuel John- 

 son. Mr. Leslie Stephen declares that this book " became the 

 first specimen of a new literary type." " It is a full-length 

 portrait of a man's domestic life with enough picturesque 

 detail to enable us to see him through the eyes of private 

 friendship. ..." A number of biographers since Boswell 

 have imitated his method; and Leslie Stephen believes 

 that " we owe it in some degree to his example that we 

 have such delightful books as Lockhart's Life of Scott or 

 Mr. Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay." 



" Bene qui latuit, bene vixit " : from Ovid. He who has 

 kept himself well hidden, has lived well. 



PAGE 4 



Prince George of Cambridge : the grandson of King 

 George III, second Duke of Cambridge, and Commander- 

 in-chief of the British Army. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): a celebrated English 

 philosoph2r and powerful advocate of the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion. Spencer is regarded as one of the most profound think- 

 ers of modern times. He was one of Huxley's closest friends. 



PAGE 5 



in partibus iiifidelium : in the domain of the unbelievers. 



PAGES 



"sweet south upon a bed of violets." Cf. Twelfth 

 Night, Act I, sc. i, 1. 5. 



O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound 

 That breathes upon a bank of violets, 

 Stealing and giving odour. 



For the reading " sweet south " instead of " sweet sound," 

 see Rolfe's edition of Twelfth Night. 

 PAGE 7 



" Lehrjahre " : apprenticeship. 



