54 HUXLEY 



the medical practitioner should be a person of educa- 

 tion and culture, he also was of opinion that he should 

 have obtained liis culture before he devoted himself 

 to medicine. In very strong language also he ad- 

 vocated the support of original, scientific research, 

 which was then in even worse plight than it is to- 

 day, though stiU there remains very much to be done 

 in that direction. So hopeless, indeed, was the out- 

 look then that Huxley in this address said : "In 

 England it is better for a man's worldly prospects 

 to be a drunkard than to be smitten ^\^th the divine 

 dipsomania of the original investigator." Such was 

 his conviction on this point that he dared not advise 

 any student of his own, showing great originaHty, 

 to adopt science as a career, fearing that he would 

 be unable to convert his abiHties into bread and cheese. 

 We have progressed a little since it was possible for 

 Huxley to say this with truth, but no one who is con- 

 versant ^"ith the trend of science to-day will think 

 Huxley's opinions one whit too strong. 



Tlie only autobiographical manuscript of any 

 dimensions which Huxley left is included in his 

 volume on " Method and Results," and is the authority 

 for many of the statements connected Avith his life 

 which appear in these pages. Other chapters in 

 this same volume appeared also in Lay Sermons, 

 in connection M-ith which \rQ have noted them. Of 

 the others, mention should be made of " The Progress 

 of Science" — an account of the principal advances 

 which, in Huxley's opinion, especially characterised 

 the period of fifty years from 1837 to 1887. This 

 account first appeared in The Reign of Queen Victoria, 

 by T. H. Ward. To Huxley's mind, the most obvious 

 featiu'e of that period was the wonderful increase 



