250 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



Another striking incident is recounted by Mr. Raymond 

 Blaythwayt : — 



" Only to-day I had a most striking instance of sentiment 

 come beneath my notice, I was about to enter my house, when 

 a plain, simply-dressed working-man came up to me with a note 

 in his hand, and touching his hat, he said, ' I think this is for 

 you, sir,' and then he added, ' Will you give me the envelope, 

 sir, as a great favour ? ' I looked at it, and seeing it bore the 

 signature of Professor Huxley, I replied, ' Certainly I will ; but 

 why do you ask me for it ? ' * Well,' said he, ' it's got Pro- 

 fessor Huxley's signature, and it will be something for me to 

 show my mates and keep for my children. He have done me 

 and my like a lot of good ; no man more ' " (" The Uses of 

 Sentiment," Pall Mall Gazette, September 20, 1892). 



In summing up the good work done by Huxley for the 

 cause of science, it must not be forgotten that besides 

 being an investigator, teacher, lecturer, and writer, he 

 also contributed to the advancement of Fisheries in his 

 capacity as an inspector, and discharged a long series of 

 arduous duties as a member of numerous Royal and other 

 Commissions. 



It is obvious that as a thinker Huxley was profoundly 

 influenced by some of the great philosophers in whose 

 writings he was so deeply read. On this point Mr. 

 George W. Smalley says : — 



" In truth he was a very expert metaphysician, with an extra- 

 ordinary knowledge of the literature of metaphysics and phil- 

 osophy. . . . Huxley was a student, and more than a student 

 of Descartes. He has written the best short book in existence 

 on Hume. He was a pupil of Aristode, and therefore not a 

 Platonist. Hobbes taught him much ; Berkeley was to him a 

 great thinker ; Locke, Butler, and the short list of really great 

 names in English philosophy were all his familiars, while among 

 the great Germans there was, I think, none whom he did not 

 know well — Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and all that illustrious line, 

 not excepting Schopenhauer" (Scribner's Magazine, October 

 1895). 



