152 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



pleasure to the recipient, not unmixed with amusement, 

 for in a letter written to Baynes the previous day he 

 says : — 



'* I shall be glorious in a red gown at Cambridge to-morrow, 

 and hereafter look to be treated as a PERSON OF RE- 

 SPECTABILITY. I have done my best to avoid that mis- 

 fortune, but it's of no use " (Life, ii, p, 4). 



One of the earliest lectures of the year was a Friday 

 Evening Discourse, delivered at the Royal Institution, 

 " On Sensation and the Unity of Structure of Sensiferous 

 Organs" (Nineteenth Century, v, 1879, PP- 59?-^^^- 

 Sci. Mem., iv, xx, p. 357. Coll. Essays, vi, p. 288). 

 Descartes is claimed as being the first enunciator " of the 

 essential elements of the true theory of sensation," and 

 the subsequent progress of opinion sketched. The 

 essential parts of the chief sense organs are shown to 

 arise from the external layer of the embryo, while the 

 differences between these organs are explained as adapta- 

 tions to stimuli of different kind. And a sensation is 

 finally defined as, — 



" the equivalent in terms of consciousness for a mode of motion 

 of the matter of the sensorium." 



The metaphysical side of the question is of course 

 dealt with, for, — 



" In truth, the attempt to nourish the human intellect upon a 

 diet which contains no metaphysics is about as hopeful as that 

 of certain Eastern sages to nourish their bodies without destroy- 

 ing life. . . 



*' By way of escape from the metaphysical Will-o'-the-wisps 

 generated in the marshes of literature and theology, the serious 

 student is sometimes bidden to betake himself to the solid ground 

 of physical science, but the fish of immortal memory, who 

 threw himself out of the frying-pan into the fire, was not more 

 ill-advised than the man who seeks sanctuary from philosophical 



