timidity and hesitation when he is in the presence of LITTLE 

 those who have had "advantages." And Huxley felt JOURNEYS 

 this loss, more or less, up to his thirty-fifth year, when 

 fate had him cross swords with college men, and then 

 the truth became his that if he had had the regular 

 university training, it was quite probable that he would 

 have accepted the doctrines the universities taught, 

 and would then have been in the camp of the "enemy" 

 instead of with what he called "the blessed minority.' 

 Q Isolation is a great aid to the thinker. Some of the 

 best books the world has ever known were written be- 

 hind prison bars ; exile has done much for literature ; 

 and a protracted sea voyage has allowed many a good 

 man to roam the universe in imagination. Some of 

 Macaulay's best essays were written on board slow- 

 going sailing ships that were blown by vagrant winds 

 from England to India. 



Darwin, Hooker and Huxley all got their scientific 

 baptism on board of surveying ships, where time was 

 plentiful and anything but fleeting, and most every- 

 thing else was scarce. 



Huxley was only assistant surgeon on the " Rattle- 

 snake," and above him was a naturalist who much of 

 his time lay in his bunk, and read learned treatises on 

 this and also that. 



Huxley was the seventh child of a plodding school- 

 teacher, born on the seventh day of the week on a 

 seventh floor back, he used to say. His genius for work, 

 came from his mother, a tireless, ambitious woman 

 who got things done while others were discussing 



61 



