io SELECTIONS FROM HUXLEY 



in pursuit of the objects which my friends, the middies, chris- 

 tened "Buffons," after the title conspicuous on a volume of 

 the Suites a Buff on, which stood on my shelf in the chart 

 room. 



5 During the four years of our absence, I sent home communi- 

 cation after communication to the "Linnean Society," with 

 the same result as that obtained by Noah when he sent the 

 raven out of his ark. Tired at last of hearing nothing about 

 them, I determined to do or die, and in 1849 I drew up a more 



io elaborate paper and forwarded it to the Royal Society. This 

 was my dove, if I had only known it. But owing to the move- 

 ments of the ship, I heard nothing of that either until my re- 

 turn to England in the latter end of the year 1850, when I 

 found that it was printed and published, and that a huge 



15 packet of separate copies awaited me. When I hear some of 

 my young friends complain of want of sympathy and encour- 

 agement, I am inclined to think that my naval life was not 

 the least valuable part of my education. 



Three years after my return were occupied by a battle 



20 between my scientific friends on the one hand and the Ad- 

 miralty on the other, as to whether the latter ought, or ought 

 not, to act up to the spirit of a pledge they had given to en- 

 courage officers who had done scientific work by contributing 

 to the expense of publishing mine. At last the Admiralty, 



25 getting tired, I suppose, cut short the discussion by ordering 

 me to join a ship, which thing I declined to do, and as Rastig- 

 nac in the Pere Goriot says to Paris, I said to London "a nous 

 deux." I desired to obtain a Professorship of either Physi- 

 ology or Comparative Anatomy, and as vacancies occurred I 



30 applied, but in vain. My friend, Professor Tyndall, and I 

 were candidates at the same time, he for the Chair of Physics 

 and I for that of Natural History in the University of Toronto, 

 which, fortunately, as it turned out, would not look at either 

 of us. I say fortunately, not from any lack of respect for 



