4 HUXLEY 



knowledge " written in a fragmentary journal, kept 

 from his fifteenth to his seventeenth year, there was 

 the expression of that passion for general principles, 

 for search after unity at the core of things, which 

 ruled all his observation and speculation, and which 

 is the salvation of a man from the evil of specialism. 



" Thus to be a Seeker is to be of the best sect next 

 to a Finder," said Oliver Cromwell ; and of himself 

 Huxley, who at fifty-three learned Greek that he 

 might read Aristotle in the original, wrote three years 

 before his death, " I have always been, am, and pro- 

 pose to remain a mere scholar." So wrote Michael 

 Angelo in old age, " Imparo ancora " — I am learning 

 still. 



Huxley's bent, like that, it may be added, of both 

 Herbert Spencer and the late W. B. Carpenter, was 

 towards mechanical engineering, and this was mani- 

 fest in his life-work. For his interest centred in the 

 " architectural part " of organisms, in the adaptation 

 of apparatus to function, and in whatever evidenced 

 " unity of plan in the thousands and thousands of 

 diverse living constructions." L Whatever he worked 

 at, he " visualised clearly " by diagram or map or 

 picture. 



He paid a lifelong penalty for his curiosity about 

 the mechanism of the human body. When he was 



x 1.7- 



