2 SELECTIONS FROM HUXLEY 



he makes himself responsible ; in the latter, the publication 

 of a mass of more or less fulsome inaccuracies for which he 

 will be held responsible by those who are familiar with the 

 prevalent art of self-advertisement. On the whole, it may 

 5 be better to get over the " burlesque of being employed in 

 this manner" and do the thing himself. 



It was by reflections of this kind that, some years ago, I 

 was led to write and permit the publication of the subjoined 

 sketch. 



10 I was born about eight o'clock in the morning on the 4th 

 of May, 1825, at Ealing, which was, at that time, as quiet 

 a little country village as could be found within a half-a-dozen 

 miles of Hyde Park Corner. Now it is a suburb of London 

 with, I believe, 30,000 inhabitants. My father was one of 



15 the masters in a large semipublic school which at one time 

 had a high reputation. I am not aware that any portents 

 preceded my arrival in this world, but, in my childhood, I 

 remember hearing a traditional account of the manner in 

 which I lost the chance of an endowment of great practical 



20 value. The windows of my mother's room were open, in 

 consequence of the unusual warmth of the weather. For the 

 same reason, probably, a neighboring beehive had swarmed, 

 and the new colony, pitching on the window sill, was making 

 its way into the room when the horrified nurse shut down 



25 the sash. If that well-meaning woman had only abstained 

 from her ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled 

 on my lips, and I should have been endowed with that mel- 

 lifluous eloquence which, in this country, leads far more surely 

 than worth, capacity, or honest work, to the highest places 



30 in Church and State. But the opportunity was lost, and I 

 have been obliged to content myself through life with saying 

 what I mean in the plainest of plain language, than which, I 

 suppose., there is no habit more ruinous to a man's prospects 

 of advancement. 



