Critical Mind 28 



J 



views and methods on general questions. His position 

 as an actual contributor to science has to a certain ex- 

 tent been lost sight of for two reasons. In the first 

 place, his eSect on the world as an expositor of the 

 scientific method in its general application to life has 

 overshadowed his exact work ; in the second place, his 

 exact work itself has been partly lost sight of in the 

 new discoveries and advances to which it gave rise. It 

 is therefore necessary to reiterate that, apart from all 

 his other successes, he had made for himself an ex- 

 tremeh' distinguished position in the annals of exact 

 science. Sir Michael Foster and Prof. Ray Lankes- 

 ter, in their preface to the collected edition of his 

 scientific memoirs, make a just claim for him. These 

 memoirs, they wrote, show that, " apart from the influ- 

 ence exerted b}^ his popular writings, the progress of 

 biology during the present century was largely due to 

 labours of his of which the general public knew no- 

 thing, and that he was in some respects the most original 

 and most fertile in discovery of all his fellow workers 

 in the same branch of science." 



There can be little question that it was no acci- 

 dent that determined the direction of Huxley's career. 

 He was a naturalist by inborn vocation. The contrast 

 between a natural bent and an acquired habit of life 

 was well seen in the case of Huxley and Macgillivray, 

 his companion on the Rattlesnake. The former was 

 appointed as a surgeon, and it was no part of his duties 

 to busy himself with the creatures of the sea ; and yet 

 his observations on them made a .series of real contribu- 

 tions to biological .science and laid the sure foundation 

 of a world-wide and enduring reputation. The latter 

 was the son of a naturalist, a naturalist by profession, 

 and appointed to the expedition as its official natural- 



