Hseckel is essentially an out-of-door man, as opposed 

 to the philosopher who works in a stuffy room, and 

 grows round-shouldered over his microscope. "I may 

 entrust laboratory analyses to others, but there is one 

 thing I will never let another do for me, and that is 

 take my daily walk a-field," he once said. 

 In lecturing he sits at a table and simply talks in a 

 very informal way ; often purposely arousing a discus- 

 sion, or awakening a sleepy student with a question. 

 Yet on occasion he can speak to a multitude, and, like 

 Huxley, rise to the occasion. Oratory, however, he 

 considers rather dangerous, as the speaker is usually 

 influenced by the opinions of the audience, and is apt 

 to grow more emphatic than exact to generate more 

 heat than light. 



The comparison of Hseckel with Huxley, is not out of 

 place. He has been called the Huxley of Germany, 

 just as Huxley was called the Hseckel of England. In 

 temperament, they were much alike; although Hseckel 

 perhaps does not use quite so much aqua fortis in his 

 ink. Yet I can well imagine that if he were at a con- 

 vention where the Bishop of Oxford would level at 

 him a few theological spit-balls, he would answer, un- 

 erringly, 'with a sling and a few smooth pebbles from 

 the brook. And possibly, knowing himself, this is why 

 he keeps out of society, and avoids all public gather- 

 ings where pseudo-science is exploited. 

 There is a superstition that really great men are quite 

 oblivious of their greatness, and that the pride of 

 achievement is not among their assets. Nothing could 



11 



LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 





