Speeches on Scientific Education 169 



the dead bones of anatomy with a fair and hving 

 flesh, and the new body left the dusty corners of 

 museums to pervade the world, arousing the attention 

 and interest of all. A large part of the prodigious 

 mental activities of Huxle}^ was devoted to compel- 

 ling the world to take an interest in biological science. 

 Had his life-work been no more than this side of it, 

 it would have been of commanding importance. A 

 mere enumeration of the modes in which he assisted 

 in arousing attention to science among all classes 

 would fill many pages. Almost before he was settled 

 in London, in the lecture from which we quoted at the 

 beginning of this chapter he urged the " educational 

 value of the natural history sciences." In 1869 in a 

 speech in Liverpool ; in 1870 at University College, 

 London; in 1874 ^^ ^^is Rectorial address in the Uni- 

 versity of Aberdeen ; in 1876 at the opening ceremonial 

 of the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore ; in the 

 same year at South Kensington ; in 1877 in a separate 

 essay ; in 1881 in an address to the International 

 Medical Congress : at these different times and address- 

 ing different and important audiences he continued to 

 urge the absolute necessity of a knowledge of nature. 

 A well-known and eloquent passage from an address 

 on "a liberal education " delivered to working men in 

 1868 contains the gist of his reiterated argument : 



"Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune 

 of every oue of us would, one day or other, depend on his 

 winning or losing a game of chess, don't you think that we 

 should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least 

 the names and the moves of the pieces ; to have a notion 

 of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and 

 getting out of check ? Do you not think that we should look 

 with a disapprobation amounting to scorn upon the father who 



