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LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xvii 



the order of nature as those we call virtuous. They are part and 

 parcel of the struggle for existence through which all living 

 things have passed, and they have become sins because man 

 alone seeks a higher life in voluntary association. 



Therefore the instrument has never been marred; on the 

 contrary, we are trying to get music out of harps, sacbuts, and 

 psalteries, which never were in tune and seemingly never will 

 be. — Ever yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



Few years passed without some utterance from Huxley 

 on the subject of education, especially scientific education. 

 This year we have a letter to Professor Ray Lankester 

 touching the science teaching at Oxford. 



Hodeslea, Eastbourne, Jan. 28, 1891. 



Dear Lankester — I met Foster at the Athenaeum when 1 

 was in town last week, and we had some talk about your " very 

 gentle " stirring of the Oxford pudding. I asked him to let you 

 know when occasion offered, that (as I had already said to 

 Burdon Sanderson) I drew a clear line apud biology between 

 the medical student and the science student. 



With respect to the former, I consider it ought to be kept 

 within strict limits, and made simply a Vorschule to human 

 anatomy and physiology. 



On the other hand, the man who is going out in natural 

 science ought to have a much larger dose, especially in the direc- 

 tion of morphology. However, from what I understand from 

 Foster, there seems a doubt about the " going out " in Natural 

 Science, so I had better confine myself to the medicos. Their 

 burden is already so heavy that I do not want to see it increased 

 by a needless weight even of elementary biology. 



Very many thanks for the " Zoological articles " just ar- 

 rived. — Ever yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



Don't write to the Times about anything ; look at the trouble 

 that comes upon a harmless man for two months, in consequence. 



The following letter, which I quote from the Yorkshire 

 Herald of April 11, 1891, was written in answer to some 

 enquiries from Mr. J. Harrison, who read a paper on Tech- 

 nical Education as applied to Agriculture, before the Eas- 

 ingwold Agricultural Club : — 



I am afraid that my opinion upon the subject of your enquiry 

 is worth very little — my ignorance of practical agriculture being 



