410 LIFE OF PKOFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. 



named after me, that we might have made his short 

 life happier by a toy or two.' I never saw a man 

 more crushed than he was during the dangerous 

 illness of one of his daughters, and he told me that, 

 having then to make an after-dinner speech, he 

 broke down for the first time in his life, and for 

 one painful moment forgot where he was and what 

 he had to say. I can truly say that I never knew a 

 man whose way of speaking of his family, or whose 

 manner in his own home, was fuller of a noble, 

 loving, and withal playful courtesy." 



After he had retired to Eastbourne, his grand- 

 children reaped the benefit of his greater leisure. 

 In his age his love of children brimmed over with 

 undiminished force, unimpeded by circumstances. 

 He would make endless fun with them, until one 

 little mite, on her first visit, with whom her grand- 

 father was trying to ingratiate himself with a vast 

 deal of nonsense, exclaimed : " Well, you are the 

 curious'test old man I ever seen." 



Another, somewhat older, developed a great liking 

 for astronomy under her grandfather's tuition. One 

 day a visitor, entering unexpectedly, was astonished 

 to find the pair of them kneeling on the floor in the 

 hall before a large sheet of paper, on which the 

 professor was drawing a diagram of the solar system 

 on a large scale, with a little pellet and a large ball 

 to represent earth and sun, while the child was 

 listening with the closest attention to an account 

 of the planets and their movements, which he knew 



