CHAPTER XXI 



CHARACTER AND POSITION AMONG CONTEMPORARIES 



The many-sided character of Huxley's work renders it 

 singularly difficult to form a just conception of his position 

 among the great men of his day, and the estimate must 

 necessarily differ according to the point of view. Only 

 a symposium of specialists could do him full justice, but 

 as many competent authorities of different kind have 

 expressed their opinions, it will be possible by quoting 

 from some of them to do something by way of correlation. 

 As to personal characteristics, much will have been 

 gathered from the preceding chapters, in which, so far as 

 possible, Huxley has been made to speak for himself. 

 The following portrait by the Hon. George C. Brodrick, 

 late Warden of Merton College, Oxford, sketches the 

 more salient features in an admirable way : — 



" To me his whole nature, intellectual and moral, presented a 

 singular unity ; both elements appeared to be in perfect harmony 

 with each other, and the distinctive note of both was the com- 

 bination of strength with simplicity. From this source was 

 derived the manly dignity of his bearing, the uncompromising 

 directness of his thought, and the enviable lucidity of his style. 

 No subtle analysis is needed to explain his character, the beauty 

 of which consisted in being completely natural, and much that 

 he says of David Hume, in one of his essays, might be applied 

 with equal justice to himself. He possessed in a high degree 

 that rare but open secret to which General Gordon owed so 

 much of his marvellous influence ; he was always himself, the 

 same to young and to old, to rich and to poor, to men and to 

 women, and had his lot been cast like Gordon's in Asia or in 



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