AMERICAN VISIT 131 



" He then informed me that all was new to him, and that my 

 facts demonstrated the evolution of the horse beyond question, 

 and for the first time indicated the direct line of descent of an 

 existing animal. With the generosity of true greatness, he gave 

 up his own opinions in the face of new truth, and took my con- 

 clusions as the basis of his famous New York lecture on the 

 horse" (Life, i, p. 462). 



The American trip included a week at Niagara, where 

 the falls gave Huxley enormous pleasure, not merely as a 

 spectacle, but also as a standard instance of a particular 

 sort of geological action. The scientific enjoyment 

 derived from the study of the latter only served to heighten 

 the artistic impression. 



On September 12, his "Address on University 

 Education" was delivered without notes, at the opening 

 of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (Coll. Essays, 

 iii, p. 235). The ''educational ladder" so much talked 

 of in these later days, is here advocated : — 



" The primary school and the university are the alpha and 

 omega of education." 



Secondary schools, if established, should be true inter- 

 mediaries, — 



"... keeping on the wide track of general culture, and not 

 sacrificing one branch of knowledge for another." 



The university student should be subjected to an initial 

 test at the end of his first term. "Within the limits of a 

 prescribed curriculum there should be a free choice of 

 subjects. Half the fortune of the pious founder had 

 been devoted to establishing a hospital in Baltimore, and 

 hence some part of this address is devoted to the question 

 of medical education, from which Huxley suggests that 

 zoology, botany and materia medica should be excluded. 



