NOTES 81 



35 11 Test-Acts : Huxley drives his point by giving a twist to the 

 climax that a popular audience is certain to appreciate. The Test Act 

 of 1673 required all persons holding public office to take the oaths of 

 supremacy and allegiance, and to conform with the Church of England. 



35 15 Poll : the great -mass of students. The word is sometimes used 

 to mean " head" (e.g. the " poll tax " in some states). 



35 17 plucked : " flunked," in the parlance of American students. 



37 10 law of inverse squares : the attraction of two bodies varies in- 

 versely as the square of the distance. 



37 15 hundred : a political division in England supposed originally to 

 have contained one hundred families, or freemen. 



38 10 conic sections : that branch of geometry that treats of the 

 ellipse, the parabola and the hyperbola. 



38 24 with a circumbendibus : (dog Latin), with a way of getting 

 around it. 



44 8 Niebuhr, Barthold Georg (1776-1831) : noted German historian, 

 author of the " History of Rome." 



44 8 Gibbon, Edward (17371794) : celebrated English historian, 

 author of " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." 



44 8 Grote, George (1794-1871) : distinguished English historian, 

 author of " The History of Greece." 



44 28 paleontology : the science which treats of the animal life of the 

 earth, or of the fossil remains of such life. 



44 32 osteological : relating to the bones. 



45 15 sixth form : highest (or senior) class in an English public school. 



46 31 Rector of Lincoln College: Mark Pattison (1813-1884) ; English 

 educator, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford University. 



493 Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873): English political economist. 

 Faraday, Michael (1791-1867) : English chemist and naturalist. 



49 3 Robert Brown (1773-1858) ; English botanist ; prominently iden- 

 tified with the botanical work of the British Museum, 1827. 



50 16 la carriere ouverte aux talents : "a free field." 

 50 17 Bursch : fellow. 



A PIECE OF CHALK 



This lecture was delivered to the workingmen of Norwich in 1868. 



53 5 Norfolk : an eastern county, jutting out into the North Sea. 



53 9 scarped: cut down perpendicularly. 



53 11 Yorkshire : a large northern county, famous in English history. 

 It is bounded by Lancashire on the west, the North Sea on the east, the 

 river Humber to the south, and Durham and Westmoreland on the north. 



