434 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap. 



(Reminiscences of T. H. Huxley, Nineteenth Century, Dec. 

 1897) :- 



I recollect going with him and Mr. John Westlake, Q.C., to 

 a meeting of artisans in the Blackfriars Road, to whom he gave 

 a friendly address. He felt a strong interest in working-men, 

 and was much beloved by them. On one occasion, having taken 

 a cab home, on his arrival there, when he held out his fare to 

 the cabman, the latter replied, " Oh no, Professor, I have had 

 too much pleasure and profit from hearing you lecture to take 

 any money from your pocket — proud to have driven you, sir ! " 



The other is from a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette of 

 September 20, 1892, from Mr. Raymond Blaythwayt, on 

 " The Uses of Sentiment " : — 



Only to-day I had a most striking instance of sentiment come 

 beneath my notice. I was about to enter my house, when a plain, 

 simply-dressed working-man came up to me with a note in his 

 hand, and touching his hat, he said, " I think this is for you, 

 sir," and then he added, " Will you give me the envelope, sir, 

 as a great favour ? " I looked at it, and seeing it bore the 

 signature of Professor Huxley, I replied, " Certainly I will ; but 

 why do you ask for it? " " Well," said he, " it's got Professor 

 Huxley's signature, and it will be something for me to show my 

 mates and keep for my children. He have done me and my 

 like a lot of good; no man more." 



In practical administration, his judgment of men, his 

 rapid perception of the essential points at issue, his observ- 

 ance of the necessary limits of official forms, combined with 

 the greatest possible elasticity within these limits, made him 

 extremely successful. 



As Professor (writes the late Professor Jeffery Parker), 

 Huxley's rule was characterised by what is undoubtedly the best 

 policy for the head of a department. To a new subordinate, 

 " The General," as he was always called, was rather stern and 

 exacting, but when once he was convinced that his man was to 

 be trusted, he practically let him take his own course; never 

 interfered in matters of detail, accepted suggestions with the 

 greatest courtesy and good humour, and was always ready with 

 a kindly and humorous word of encouragement in times of dif- 

 ficulty. I was once grumbling to him about how hard it was 

 to carry on the work of the laboratory through a long series of 



