xii INTRODUCTION 



lectures were published had wide vogue. Darwin him- 

 self declared them " simply perfect," and added, in his 

 letter to Huxley, ' ' but it is very good of me to say so, for 

 I threw down No. IV with this reflection, 'What is the 

 good of my writing a thundering big book, when everything 

 is in this green little book, so despicable for its size ? ' " 



During the years Huxley was actively championing 

 the cause of Darwinism, he had not lessened any of his 

 scientific work. In fact, he had made the two lines of 

 work go hand in hand. In 1862 he had been elected Pro- 

 fessor of Comparative Anatomy at the College of Surgeons. 

 The next year he published his first book, Man^s Place 

 in Nature. Later he served on Royal Commissions on 

 Sea Fisheries and on Science Education for Ireland. Elec- 

 tion to scientific societies, not only in Great Britain, but 

 also in other countries, honors, and degrees were conferred 

 upon him. He wrote and published scores of scientific 

 memoirs. The investigations upon w^hich most of these 

 were based had led him into new fields in physiology, 

 paleontology, the anatomy of both vertebrate and inverte- 

 brate animals, osteology, ethnology, and other allied 

 branches of science. So successfully indeed, was all this 

 work done that by 1870 Huxley was probably the most 

 prominent man in biological science in England. 



In the next ten years of Huxley's life the character of 

 his work changed. Official and administrative duties 

 increased, leaving him less time for research. His gov- 

 ernment demanded his services on new commissions on 

 science and education. He became secretary of the 

 famous Royal Society, the founding of which he tells of 

 in this volume in the essay On Improving Natural Knowl- 

 edge. By example and precept he had previously aided 

 in the efforts for reform in elementary education. So 



