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HOME LIFE 411 



SO well how to make simple and precise without ever 

 being dull. 



Children seemed to have a natural confidence in 

 the expression of mingled power and sympathy 

 which, especially in his later years, irradiated his 

 "square, wise, swarthy face,"^ and proclaimed to 

 all the sublimation of a broad native humanity 

 tried by adversity and struggle in the pursuit of 

 noble ends. It was the confidence that an appeal 

 would not be rejected, whether for help in distress, 

 or for the satisfaction of the child's natural desire 

 for knowledge. 



Spirit and determination in children always 

 delighted him. His grandson Julian, a curly-haired 

 rogue, alternately cherub and pickle, was a source 

 of great amusement and interest to him. The boy 

 must have been about four years old when my 

 father one day came in from the garden, where he 

 had been diligently watering his favourite plants 

 with a big hose, and said : "I like that chap ! I 

 like the way he looks you straight in the face and 

 disobeys you. I told him not to go on the wet 

 grass again. He just looked up boldly, straight at 

 me, as much as to say, 'What do ym mean by 

 ordering me about?' and deliberately walked on to 

 the grass." 



The disobedient youth who so charmed his grand- 



1 "There never was a face, I do believe" (wrote Sir Walter 

 Besant of the portrait by John Collier), "wiser, more kindly, 

 more beautiful for wisdom and the kindliness of it, than this of 

 Huxley."— The Queen, Nov. 16, 1895. 



