4 INTRODUCTION 



; ;" -Recently it has been thought desirable to col- 

 lect such of these lectures as were available and 

 publish them together ; and thanks are due to the 

 owners of the copyright for the permission freely 

 given for this local re-publication. 



The connection of Huxley with Birmingham 

 may not be generally known. But in the year 

 1874 he came down to give an address on the 

 occasion of the presentation of a statue of Joseph 

 Priestley to the town of Birmingham the town 

 in which that scientific pioneer and political 

 philosopher had been ill-used, his property 

 destroyed, and himself expelled, at the time 

 of the Birmingham "Church and King" Riots 

 in 1791. The address which Huxley de- 

 livered on that occasion is the first of the col- 

 lected Essays re-published by Messrs. Macmillan 

 in the Eversley Series. The volume containing 

 this particular address is called " Science and 

 Education," it appeared in 1893 and has been 

 many times reprinted. 



Huxley came to Birmingham also to lay the 

 foundation stone of Mason College, which was 

 the predecessor and parent of the University; 

 and when that College was opened which it was 

 in 1880, under the early title " Sir Josiah Mason's 

 Science College " Huxley came again and 

 delivered the Inaugural Address; an Address 

 which is published in the volume already men- 

 tioned, under the title " Science and Culture," 



