Methods of Work 279 



question about a codfish. " Codfish? " said Huxley ; 

 " that 's a vertebrate, is n't it ? Ask nie in a fortnight 

 and I '11 consider it. ' ' While at work he smoked almost 

 continuousl)^ and from time to time he took a little 

 relaxation, for the strains of a fiddle were occasionalh' 

 heard from his room. Indeed he was devoted to music, 

 regarding it as one of the highest of the aesthetic pleas- 

 ures. He tells us himself : 



"When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so 

 now ; and it so happened that I had the opportunity of hearing 

 much good music. Among other tilings, I had abundant op- 

 portunities of hearing that great old master, Sebastian Bach. 

 I remember perfectly well — although I knew nothing about 

 music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about it 

 now — the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listen- 

 ing, by the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure 

 which remains with me, I am glad to think ; but, of late years, 

 I have tried to find out the why and wherefore, and it has often 

 occurred to me that the pleasure derived from musical com- 

 positions of this kind is essentially of the same nature as that 

 which is derived from pursuits which are commonly regarded 

 as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is 

 exactly the same as in most of my problems in morpholog}' — 

 that you have the theme in one of the old masters' works fol- 

 lowed out in all its endless variations, always appearing and 

 always reminding j'ou of unity in variety." 



He had a hot temper, and did not readily brook op- 

 position, especially when that seemed to him to be the 

 result of stupidity or of prejudice rather than of reason, 

 and his own reason was of a very clear, decided, and 

 exact order. He had little sympathy with vacillation 

 of any kind, whether it arose from mere infirmity of 

 purpose or from the temperament which delights in 

 balancing opposing considerations. He said on one 

 occasion : 



