212 Thomas Henry Huxley 



finds Parnassus uncommonly steep, and there is no chance of 

 his having much time or inclination to look about him till he 

 gets to the top. And nine times out of ten he does not get to 

 the top." 



The last example we shall take cotiies from a speech 

 made after dinner at a much later period of his life. 

 The occasion was a complimentary dinner to the editor 

 of the English scientific periodical Nature, which had 

 been for long the leading semi-popular journal of 

 English science. Huxley, in proposing the health of 

 the editor, declared that he did not quite know how 

 to say what he wanted to say, but that he would ex- 

 plain by a story. 



"A poor woman," he said, "was brought into one of our 

 hospitals in a shockingly battered condition. When her 

 wounds had been cleaned and sewn, and when the care of the 

 surgeons had restored her to comparative comfort, someone 

 said to her, ' I am afraid your husband has been knocking you 

 about.' ' What ! ' she said, ' my Jim bash me ? no it worn't by 

 him ; he 's always been more like a friend to me than a hus- 

 band.' That," went on Huxley, "is what I wish to say 

 about our guest of to-night. In all our intercourse with him 

 he has been more like a friend to us than an editor." 



7 It is impossible to make a real distinction between 

 the essays and the addresses of Huxley. Many of 

 the most important of his addresses, as for instance 

 his Romanes lecture on " Evolution and Ethics," were 

 written and printed before he delivered them ; most of 

 them were carefully prepared, and revised and printed 

 after delivery. It is therefore not remarkable to 

 find a close resemblance in matter and manner be- 

 tween what was originally spoken and what was 

 published without a viv6, voce delivery. Everything 

 that may be said of the one set applies with an equal 



