1856 BIRTH AND DEATH OF A SON 217 



At home, the year 1857 opened very brightly for 

 Huxley with the birth of his first child, a son, on the 

 eve of the New Year. A Christmas child, the boy 

 was named Noel, and lived four happy years to be 

 the very sunshine of home, the object of passionate 

 devotion, whose sudden loss struck deeper and more 

 ineffaceably than any other blow that befell Huxley 

 during all his life. 



As he sat alone that December night, in the little 

 room that was his study in the house in Waverley 

 Place, waiting for the event that was to bring him so 

 much happiness and so much sorrow, he made a last 

 entry in his journal full of hope and resolution. In the 

 blank space below follows a note of four years later, 

 when " the ground seemed cut from under his feet," 

 yet written with restraint and without bitterness. 



December 31, 1856 . . . 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 1860 will 

 then see me well grounded and ready for any special 

 pursuits in either of these branches. 



It is impossible to map out beforehand how this must 

 be done. I must seize opportunities as they come, at the 

 risk of the reputation of desultoriness. 



In 1860 I may fairly look forward to fifteen or 

 twenty years " Meisterjalire," and with the comprehensive 

 views my training will have given 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 example of abstinence from 



