382 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. 



Huxley. It was stuck, and acted like a stiletto, a 

 jump into the air and utter collapse being the 

 result 



With his hearers Huxley was most sympathetic. He 

 always assumed absolute ignorance on their part, and 

 took nothing for granted.^ When time permitted, he 

 would remain after a lecture to answer questions ; and 

 in connection with his so doing his wonderfid power of 

 gaiiging and rising to a situation, once came out most 

 forcibly. Turning to a student, he asked, " Well, I 

 hope you understood it all." "All, sir, but one part, 

 during which you stood between me and the blackboard," 

 was the reply : the rejoinder, " I did my best to make 

 myself clear, but could not render myself transparent." 

 Quick of comprehension and of action, he would stand 

 no nonsense. The would-be teacher who, wholly un- 

 fitted by nature for educational work, was momentarily 

 dismissed, realised this, let us hope to his advantage. 

 And the man suspected of taking notes of Huxley's 

 lectures for publication unauthorised, probably learned 

 the lesson of his life, on being reminded that, in the 

 first place, a lecture was the property of the person who 

 delivered it, and, in the second, he was not the first 

 person who had mistaken aspiration for inspiration. 



Though candid, Huxley was never unkind. . . . 



Huxley never forgot a kindly action, never forsook 

 a friend, nor allowed a labour to go unrewarded. In 

 testimony to his sympathy to those about him and his 

 self-sacrifice for the cause of science, it may be stated 

 that in the old days, when the professors took the fees 

 and disbursed the working expenses of the laboratories, 

 he, doing this at a loss, would refund the fees of students 

 whose position, from friendship or special circumstances, 

 was exceptional. 



As for his lectures und addresses to the public, 

 ^ This was a maxim on lecturing, adopted from Faraday. 



