30 HUXLEY 



Sometimes I write essays half-a-dozen times before I 

 can get them into the proper shape, and I believe I 

 become more fastidious as I grow older. 1 



The nine volumes of Collected Essays bear evidence 

 throughout to Huxley's supreme skill as an interpreter, 

 and to his genius for constructing while he de- 

 molished. Miscellaneous as are their contents, they 

 have the unity which is inspired by a central idea. 

 With the exception of a verbal correction, and of a 

 slightly qualifying foot-note, here and there, each 

 stands as it was originally written. Revision could 

 only have impaired their stately, lucid, and sonorous 

 prose, while to their main subject-matter all sub- 

 sequent additions to knowledge have brought only 

 confirmation. 



As for his letters, with which his son has, wisely, 

 largely filled his biography, even where traces of 

 hurry may be noted, there is never a slovenly 

 sentence ; the gist of an essay is often packed in a 

 few lines, and the passion to put things in such a way 

 that the meaning may be seen at a glance is as ap- 

 parent as in the more elaborate compositions. And 

 the humorous touches, sparsely, but always effectively, 

 applied in these, are, in the letters to friends and 

 familiars, thrown in freely, with a boy-like enjoyment 

 of the fun. 



1 II. 291. 



