CHAPTER VIII 



DISSEMINATION AND SUPPORT OF EVOLUTIONARY 

 DOCTRINES [l86l-2]. 



The crushing bereavement mentioned in the last chapter 

 increased rather than diminished the amount of work 

 done by Huxley during the following year (1861). 

 Partly, no doubt, because he recognized that work is 

 the only panacea for human ills, and partly owing to his 

 intensely energetic nature, constructed as he was " on 

 the high-pressure tubular-boiler principle," to use his 

 own description. Here, too, we may possibly trace the 

 influence of Carlyle. The vigour with which fresh 

 labours were begun and old ones continued, was partly 

 the result of a Christmas vacation spent in mountain 

 climbing in Snowdonia. 



Darwin, Lyell and Hooker, all entered kindly remon- 

 strances against the immense amount of work not only 

 undertaken, but actually accomplished, and there is no 

 doubt that their advice was fully justified, for Huxley 

 grew old before his time, and ultimately broke down at 

 a comparatively early age. But every man must work 

 in his own manner, and the advancement of science was 

 very possibly better served by concentrated efforts. 



Hooker's remonstrance is of particular interest, for it 

 expresses in some sense what many have felt : — 



" Do take the counsel of a quiet looker-on and withdraw to 

 your books and studies in pure Natural History ; let modes of 

 thought alone. You may make a very good naturalist or a very 



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