4 Thomas Henry Huxley 



"My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps for- 

 tunately : for, though my way of life has made me acquainted 

 with all sorts and conditions of men, from the highest to the 

 lowest, I deliberately affirm that the society I fell into at school 

 was the worst I have ever known. We boys were average lads 

 with much the same inherent capacity for good and evil as any 

 others ; but the people who were set over us cared about as 

 much for our intellectual and moral welfare as if they were 

 baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of the struggle 

 for existence among ourselves, and bullying was the least of the 

 ill practices current among us. Almost the only cheerful re- 

 miniscence in connection with the place which arises in my mind 

 is that of a battle which I had with one of my class-mates, who 

 had bullied me until I could stand it no longer. I was a very 

 slight lad, but there was a wild-cat element in me which, when 

 roused, made up for my lack of weight, and I licked my adver- 

 sary effectually. However, one of m^' first experiences of the 

 extremely rough and ready nature of justice, as exhibited by 

 the course of things in general, arose out of the fact that /—the 

 victor — had a black eye, while he — the vanquished — had none, 

 so that I got into disgrace and he did not. One of the greatest 

 shocks I ever received in my life was to be told, a dozen years 

 afterwards by the groom who brought me my horse in a stable- 

 yard in Sydney, that he was my quondam antagonist. He had 

 a long story of family misfortune to account for his position — 

 but at that time it was necessary to deal very cautiously with 

 mysterious strangers in New South Wales, and on enquiry I 

 found that the unfortunate young man had not only been ' sent 

 out,' but had undergone more than one colonial conviction." 



Huxley was soon removed from school and continued 

 his own education for several years, b}- reading of the 

 most destiltory sort. His special inclinations w^ere 

 towards mechanical problems, and -had he been able to 

 follow his own wishes there is little doubt but that he 

 would have entered on the profession of an engineer. 

 It is probable that there was a great deal more in his 

 wnshes than the familiar inclination of a clever boy to 



