io THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



These important generalizations constitute a firm 

 foundation on which Haeckel and many other subsequent 

 workers have built, and they in themselves are amply 

 sufficient to give their author a prominent place in any 

 philosophical history of zoology. 



And when we remember that Huxley's scientific 

 memoirs, published from 1845 to 1888 (inclusive), 

 amount to no less than 170, ranging over the entire 

 animal kingdom as well as including valuable ethnological 

 work, and that many of them are of epoch-making char- 

 acter and will ever remain classical, our conceptions as 

 to the vast industry and capacity of the man must be 

 almost indefinitely enlarged. 



In later years Huxley was so prominently before the 

 public as a hard-hitting controversialist, especially on 

 behalf of Darwinism and the higher criticism, possessed 

 of unrivalled sardonic humour, that many are apt to regard 

 him as of a somewhat unsympathetic nature. Such an 

 idea, however, is entirely devoid of any solid foundation, 

 for like so many independent and positive characters, 

 he was extremely sensitive to the sympathy of others, 

 and was himself warm-hearted and appreciative to a 

 degree. It is somewhat unfortunate that a number 

 of his pungent epigrams, thrown off in moments of 

 irritation or as flashes of irrepressible sarcastic wit 

 without thought of their perpetuation, have been pre- 

 served to give a totally wrong impression of his general 

 character. 



As for the advancement of science, so also for Huxley's 

 private life, the voyage of the Rattlesnake proved to 

 be of no small importance. For in Sydney he met, and 

 became engaged to, his future wife, Miss Henrietta Anne 

 Heathorn, his ideal union with whom was destined to 

 endure for forty years.. The eleven months spent from 



