CHAPTER IX 



man's place in nature ETHNOLOGY VIEWS ON 



EDUCATION [1863-6]. 



The first important event of 1863 was the publication of 

 Huxley's first book, Man^s Place in Nature (Coll. Essays, 

 vii. I, II, and iii, pp. I, et seq.). The second and third 

 parts of this (" On the Relations of Man to the Lower 

 Animals," and " On some Fossil Remains of Man") em- 

 bodied material already brought before the public (cf. pp. 

 5^, 63, 65), and to these was prefixed an essay "On 

 the Natural History of the Man-like Apes." To what 

 has elsewhere been said about Parts II. and III., it 

 may be added that the latter includes the description of 

 a very thorough method devised by Huxley of describing 

 and comparing skulls with reference to a number of 

 definite axes, and also a brief sketch of the distribution 

 of the existing races of mankind, classified according to 

 the characters of their skulls, complexion and hair. 



The first essay gives a general account of the man-like 

 apes, commencing with a historical sketch of the gradual 

 progress of our knowledge concerning them. 



Huxley was warned of the attacks that would follow if 

 he decided to publish. Of the neglect of that warning, 

 and the ensuing adverse criticism, he writes sardonically 

 as follows in the Preface to vol. vii. of the Collected Essays 

 (first printed 1 894) : — 



" But, as I have confessed elsewhere, when I was a young 

 man, there was just a little — a mere soup(on — in my composition 



72 



