100 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. V 



man may write for magazines and reviews, and so support 

 himself ; but not so in science. I could get anything I 

 write into any of the journals or any of the Transactions, 

 but I know no means of thereby earning five shillings. 

 A man who chooses a life of science chooses not a life of 

 poverty, but, so far as I can see, a life of nothing, and the 

 art of living upon nothing at all has yet to be discovered. 

 You will naturally think, then, " Why persevere in so 

 hopeless a course?" At present I cannot help myself. 

 For my own credit, for the sake of gratifying those who 

 have hitherto helped me on nay, for the sake of truth 

 and science itself, I must work out fairly and fully 

 complete what I have begun. And when that is done, 

 I will courageously and cheerfully turn my back upon 

 all my old aspirations. The world is wide, and there is 

 everywhere room for honesty of purpose and earnest 

 endeavour. Had I failed in attaining my wishes from 

 an overweening self-confidence, had I found that the 

 obstacles after all lay within myself I should have 

 bitterly despised myself, and, worst of all, I should have 

 felt that you had just ground of complaint. 



So far as the acknowledgment of the value of what I 

 have done is concerned, I have succeeded beyond my 

 expectations, and if I have failed on the other side of 

 the question, I cannot blame myself. It is the world's 

 fault and not mine. 



A few months more, and he was able to report 

 another and still more unexpected testimony to the 

 value of his work another encouragement to persevere 

 in the difficult pursuit of a scientific life. He found 

 himself treated as an equal by men of established 

 reputation; and the first-fruits of his work ranked 

 on a level with the maturer efforts of veterans in 

 science. He was within an ace of receiving the 



