28o LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xvi 



when a man accepts a lectureship in a medical school simply as 

 a grappling-iron by which he may hold on until he gets a hos- 

 pital appointment? 



Medical education in London will never be what it ought to 

 be, until the " Institutes of Medicine," as the Scotch call them, 

 are taught in only two or three well-found institutions — while 

 the hospital schools are confined to the teaching of practical 

 medicine, surgery, obstetrics, and so on. 



,The following letters illustrate Huxley's keenness to 

 correct any misrepresentation of his opinions from a weighty 

 source, and the way in which, without abating his just 

 claims, he could make the peace gracefully. 



In October Dr. Abbott delivered an address on " Illu- 

 sions," in which, without, of course, mentioning names, he 

 drew an unmistakable picture of Huxley as a thorough pes- 

 simist. A very brief report appeared in the Times of Octo- 

 ber 9, together with a leading article upon the subject. 

 Huxley thereupon wrote to the Times a letter which throws 

 light both upon his early days and his later opinions : — 



The article on " Illusions " in the Times of to-day induces 

 me to notice the remarkable exemplification of them to which 

 you have drawn public attention. The Rev. Dr. Abbott has 

 pointed the moral of his discourse by a reference to a living 

 man, the delicacy of which will be widely and justly appreciated. 

 I have reason to believe that I am acquainted with this person, 

 somewhat intimately, though I can by no means call myself his 

 best friend — far from it. 



If I am right, I can affirm that this poor fellow did not escape 

 from the " narrow school in which he was brought up " at nine- 

 teen, but more than two years later; and, as he pursued his 

 studies in London, perhaps he had as much opportunities for 

 " fruitful converse with friends and equals," to say nothing of 

 superiors, as he would have enjoyed elsewhere. 



Moreover, whether the naval officers with whom he con- 

 sorted were book-learned or not, they were emphatically men, 

 trained to face realities and to have a wholesome contempt for 

 mere talkers. Any one of them was worth a wilderness of 

 phrase-crammed undergraduates. Indeed, I have heard my mis- 

 guided acquaintance declare that he regards his four years' 

 training under the hard conditions and the sharp discipline of 

 his cruise as an education of inestimable value. 



