INTRODUCTION xiii 



science, taking care that he got a literary training 

 through English, French, and German. An average 

 capacity, on the other hand," he added, "may be im- 

 mensely helped by university means of flotation." To 

 insure a wide diffusion of scientific education he main- 

 tained that instruction in the elements of physical science 

 should commence in the elementary schools, but it 

 should not be "teaching astronomy and the use of the 

 globes, and the rest of the abominable trash but a 

 little instruction of the child in what is the nature of 

 common things about him; what their properties are, 

 and in what relation this actual body of man stands to 

 the universe outside of it." 



The importance of the subject of universal education 

 greatly impressed Huxley. "A great deal is said of 

 British interests just now," he said in 1877, "but, depend 

 upon it, that no Eastern difficulty needs our interven- 

 tion as a nation so seriously, as the putting down both 

 the Bashi-Bazouks of ignorance and the Cossacks of 

 sectarianism at home. What has already been achieved 

 in these directions is a great thing. ... An education 

 better in its processes, better in its substance, than that 

 which was accessible to the great majority of well-to-do 

 Britons a quarter of a century ago, is now obtainable 

 by every child in the land." But he was far from satis- 

 fied with the provision of respectable elementary edu- 

 cation. He wished also such continuation schools 

 good public secondary schools, popular universities, and 

 technical schools as would constitute "an educational 

 ladder from the gutter to the university, whereby chil- 

 dren of exceptional ability might reach the place for 

 which nature had fitted them." He was most eager, 

 and held it one of the best arguments for the state sup- 

 port of education, to provide means for discovering, de- 

 veloping, and utilizing the capacities of specially gifted 



