48 Thomas Henry Huxley 



results, as they had given a pledge to encourage officers 

 who had done scientific work. These efforts lasted 

 unavailingly for nearly three years, and then, as Hux- 

 ley says : "The Admiralty, getting tired, I suppose, 

 cut short the discussion b}- ordering me to join a ship, 

 which thing I declined to do, and, as Rastignac, in the 

 Pere Goriot, says to Paris, I said to London, a nous 

 dciixy This light phrase conceals a courageous and 

 momentous decision. He was absolutelj^ without pri- 

 vate resources, and having abandoned his professional 

 work he had no salary of any kind. For a year or so 

 he supported himself by writing reviews and popular 

 scientific articles, striving all the time not only to gain 

 his bread but to continue his scientific work and make 

 it known to the public. He desired to get a professor- 

 ship of physiology or of comparative anatomy, and as 

 vacancies occurred he applied, but unsuccessfully. At 

 the same time, he tells us, he and his friend, John Tyn- 

 dall, were 



"candidates, tie for the Chair of Physics, and I for that of 

 Natural History in the University of Toronto, which, fortu- 

 nately, as it turned out, woukl not look at either of us. I say 

 fortunately, not from any lack of respect for the University of 

 Toronto ; but because I soon made up my mind that London 

 was the place for me, and hence I have steadily declined the 

 inducements to leave it which have at various times been 

 offered." 



In these early years in Ivondon Huxley's work was 

 most varied. A large number of anonymous articles 

 by him appeared in the Literary Gazette, and in other 

 periodicals. He assisted to remove the insular narrow- 

 ness from English scientific work by translating many 

 foreign memoirs. With the collaboration of Mr. Hen- 

 frey, he edited a series of scientific memoirs, all of 



