THE MAN 17 



" troops of follies and errors " l of youth refracted 

 through the medium of tears. It is the language of 

 Augustine's Confessions ; of Bunyan's Grace Abound- 

 ing ; and of the 



many excellent persons whose moral character from 

 boyhood to old age has been free from any stain dis- 

 cernible to their fellow-creatures, who have, in their 

 autobiographies or diaries, applied to themselves, and 

 doubtless with sincerity, epithets as severe as could be 

 applied to Titus Oates or Mrs. Brownrigg. 2 



In acknowledging a birthday letter from one of his 

 daughters, Huxley hopes that his own imperfections 

 may make him deal the more gently with those of 

 others. He adds that he has little toleration for the 

 "just man who needed no repentance," and whose 

 smugly correct family circle " was perhaps as the in- 

 terior of an ice-pail." 3 Walter Bagehot remarks 

 that " in the greatest cases scientific men have been 

 calm men. There is a coldness in their fame. We 

 think of Euclid as of pure ice ; we admire Newton as 

 we admire the Peak of TenerifTe." 4 The statement 

 is too sweeping ; it has no application to Huxley, in 

 whom was neither coldness nor detachment. He was 

 hot-tempered ; now and again he was austere to a 

 degree approaching severity : he had, as with all 

 strong individualities, strong likes and dislikes. 5 But 



1 II. 330. 2 Macaulay's Essays, " John Bunyan," iv. p. 407. 



3 II. 331. 4 Literary Studies, ii. p. 222. 5 II. 409. 



