CHAPTER IV 



SCIENTinC WORKS 



Having sketched as briefly as possible in the fore- 

 going pages the main outhnes of the most important 

 events in Huxley's crowded life, \re now turn our 

 attention to an equally brief survey of the principal 

 contents of his most important public works. It is, 

 of course, impossible in a few pages to do more than 

 indicate the wealth of thought and material which 

 is to be obtained by the thoughtful reader who will 

 go to these volumes himself. The most that it is 

 possible to do here is to show the nature of those 

 volimies, to point out their intense interest and their 

 great value, in the hope that the perusal of these 

 sign-posts, so to speak, will be taken to point the 

 way to the earnest reader. 



In 1862 Han's Place in Nature was published, in 

 spite of some friendly advice to the author warning 

 him that its contents would bring down upon him 

 considerable abuse. The prophecy was abundantly 

 fuUBlled, but it did not deter Huxley from pubhshing 

 the book; indeed, nothing ever did deter him from 

 saying or writing what he beUeved to be true, if he 

 thought science or life would be benefited thereby. It 

 was liis duty of teaching biology with reference to 

 palaeontology which drew his attention specially to 

 the problem of the position of the human species 



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