A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 329 



clerical, and have for all time rendered classical that which he 

 has chosen to put in print. 



Contrary to what is generally supposed, Huxley was not a 

 ready speaker, or perhaps it would be more true to say that his 

 deliverances were not unaccompanied by stage fright, or a nervous 

 uneasiness which frequently required for its subjugation a strong 

 mental effort. It was this that told heavily on his health, and 

 more than once the quiet resolve had been made to forever aban- 

 don the public platform. I was present on one occasion at a rather 

 extensive gathering where, following a few after-dinner remarks 

 by Sir Joseph Hooker, Prof. Tyndall, and Sir Wyville Thomson, 

 Huxley, contrary to previous agreement, was also called upon for 

 a few words, and with the pleasing introduction (as nearly as I 

 can now recall the passage), " There is one among us who, by rea- 

 son of his witty tongue and ever-readiness, it is a pleasure to call 

 upon." 



Following the applause which greeted his name the mention 

 of which was unmistakably a disagreeable surprise to the one 

 more particularly concerned, Huxley took occasion to explain in 

 emphatic language that were it only generally known how much 

 of an effort it cost him to speak, his friends would willingly allow 

 him more peace, and save the lingering wreck of his bodily frame. 

 This admission which was followed by a short but most happy 

 ex-tempore utterance appeared to me so strange that I was deter- 

 mined on the first proper occasion to obtain at first hand its true 

 meaning. The opportunity presented itself a few days later, im- 

 mediately after the conclusion of a stirring public address (read 

 from manuscript) on " Sunday Opening," if by this name we may 

 designate the liberty of displaying and using on the Sabbath-day 

 collections of books and paintings, museum and other treasures, 

 and of listening to scientific discourses. Dean Stanley and one or 

 two other speakers had preceded him, but manifestly the audience 

 was waiting for the speaker of the occasion. A more brilliant 

 and incisive arraignment of those who by legal process attempted 

 to forever remove from the workingman his one day of self-im- 

 provement could hardly have been formulated, and the speaker 

 was greeted with vociferous applause. Meeting him on the way 

 homeward from the lecture hall, I asked for a significance of the 

 explanation made a few evenings before at the dinner table, for it 

 did not seem possible to me that one gifted with such fluent powers 

 of speech, and backed by an almost unfathomable fund of knowl- 

 edge, could feel any fear or hesitancy in speaking, no matter what 

 the occasion. In his answer, Prof. Huxley repeated in substance 

 what he had before said, only more clearly emphasizing the nerv- 

 ous fear with which he mounted the platform. He then assured 

 me that he might have saved himself an African journey, under- 



VOL. XLVIII. 24 



