Thomas Henry Huxley 



CHAPTER I 



EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING [l 825-45]. 



Thomas Henry Huxley was born at Ealing on May 4, 

 1825, his father, George Huxley, being senior master 

 in the well-known semi-public school of which Dr. 

 Nicholas was then the head. Under the older name of 

 Hodesleia the family can be traced back in Cheshire to 

 the time of Richard I., but there is nothing in its annals 

 foreshadowing the extraordinary eminence attained during 

 the last half of the nineteenth century by its best known 

 representative. So far as our information goes, Huxley 

 was decidedly a "sport" — as he himself described the 

 great Newton — a concrete illustration of the biological 

 fact that variations of large amount may from time to 

 time occur. 



To the first volume of his Collected Essays, issued in 

 1893, Huxley prefixed a short Autobiography, originally 

 written for another purpose, in which the bulk of his 

 physical and mental characteristics are ascribed to inheri- 

 tance from his mother. As to the former, he was tall, 

 dark, and rather spare, with a commanding presence, 

 and a striking though not handsome countenance, chiefly 

 remarkable for breadth of forehead, prominence of chin, 

 and a profusion of long straight hair. Huxley's most 

 salient mental characteristics were absolute sincerity and 



A 



