HUXLEY* 



By Sir Michael Foster. 



Casting round for a theme which might fitly 

 be the subject of this first Huxley Lecture which 

 the University of Birmingham, doing me great 

 honour, has asked me to deliver, I bethought me 

 of the wish of the generous founder of the Lec- 

 tures that, if possible, this first lecture should be 

 entrusted to some one who knew Huxley, not by 

 his writings and public utterances only, but in a 

 closer way, through being numbered within the 

 happy circle of his inner friends. That wish 

 seemed to me an invitation to devote this first 

 lecture to the man himself and his work; and, not 

 without fear and trembling, I have ventured to 

 guide myself by such an invitation. I will not 

 attempt to dwell on any details of his life; these 

 can be, ought to be, and probably are, known to 

 you all. I must content myself with some 

 thoughts about his ways, his views, and his aims. 

 As I go along I can only touch lightly, and in a 

 passing way, on some of the many and varied 

 problems which are started by the consideration 

 of his manifoldly active life; these, or at least 

 many of them, will doubtless be fully dealt with 



* Being the firit " Huxley " lecture of the University of 

 Birmingham, delivered on March i6th, 1914. 



