THE MAN 13 



flight the armies " of the obscurantists in science, 

 ethics, and theology. 



Work was his passion, method was his salvation ; 

 he took care of the minutes and the hours took care 

 of themselves. And yet, like Gibbon, who wrote — 



While every one looks on me as a prodigy of appli- 

 cation, I know myself how strong a propensity I have 

 to indolence, 



we find Huxley accusing himself of an ingrained 

 laziness. 1 



On the last night of 1856, while waiting for the 

 birth of his first child, he made this entry in his 

 journal : 



1856-7-8 must still be " Lehrjahre " to complete 

 training in principles of Histology, Morphology, 

 Physiology, Zoology, and Geology by Monographic 

 Work in each department, i860 will then see me 

 well grounded and ready for any special pursuits in 

 either of these branches. ... In i860 I may 

 fairly look forward to fifteen or twenty years' " Meis- 

 terjahre " ; and with the comprehensive views my 

 training will give me, I think it will be possible in 

 that time to give a new and healthier direction to all 

 Biological Science. To smite all humbugs, however 

 big, to give a nobler tone to science; to set an ex- 

 ample of abstinence from petty personal controversies, 

 and of toleration for everything but lying ; to be in- 

 different as to whether the work is recognised as mine 

 or not, so long as it is done : are these my aims ? 

 i860 will show. 



1 1. 268. 



