Chapter I: Preface

This volume is in no sense an intimate or authorised biography of Huxley. It is simply an outline of the external features of his life and an account of his contributions to biology, to educational and social problems, and to philosophy and metaphysics. In preparing it, I have been indebted to his own Autobiography, to the obituary notice written by Sir Michael Foster for the Royal Society of London, to a sketch of him by Professor Howes, his successor at the Royal College of Science, and to his published works. The latter consist of many well-known separate volumes which are familiar to all zoölogists, and of a vast number of memoirs and essays scattered in various scientific and general publications. The general Essays were collected into nine volumes, revised by himself in the later years of his life, and published by Messrs. Macmillan. The Scientific Memoirs, thanks to the generous enterprise of the same publishing firm, with which he was so long associated, and to the pious labours of Sir Michael Foster and Professor Ray Lankester, are in process of reissue in the form of four volumes, two of which have now appeared. These will contain all his important contributions to science, with the exception of a large separate treatise on the _Oceanic Hydrozoa_ published by the Ray Society in 1859. There is also announced a formal Biography, prepared by his son, so that future admirers or students of Huxley's work will be in an exceptionally favourable position.

LONDON, 1900.

P. CHALMERS MITCHELL.

Leaders in Science

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE iii

CHAPTER I

FROM SCHOOL TO LIFE-WORK 1

Birth--Parentage--School-days--Choice of Medical
Profession--Charing Cross Hospital--End of Medical
Studies--Admission to Naval Medical Service.

CHAPTER II

THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE 13

The Objects of the Voyage--The Route--The Naturalist and the
Surgeon--Collecting and Dredging--Stay in Sydney--Adventures with
the Natives--Comparison with Darwin's Voyage on the _Beagle_.

CHAPTER III

FLOATING CREATURES OF THE SEA 30

The Nature of Floating Life--Memoir on Medusæ Accepted by the
Royal Society--Old and New Ideas of the Animal Kingdom--What
Huxley Discovered in Medusæ--His Comparison of them with
Vertebrate Embryos

CHAPTER IV

EARLY DAYS IN LONDON 46

Scientific Work as Unattached Ship-Surgeon--Introduction to
London Scientific Society--Translating, Receiving, and
Lecturing--Ascidians--Molluscs and the Archetype--Criticism of
Pre-Darwinian Evolution--Appointment to Geological Survey.

CHAPTER V

CREATURES OF THE PAST 67

Beginning Palæontological Work--Fossil Amphibia and
Reptilia--Ancestry of Birds--Ancestry of the Horse--Imperfect
European Series Completed by Marsh's American Fossils--Meaning of
Geological Contemporaneity--Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism
Compared with Evolution in Geology--Age of the Earth--Intermediate
and Linear Types.

CHAPTER VI

HUXLEY AND DARWIN 89

Early Ideas on Evolution--Erasmus Darwin--Lamarck--Herbert
Spencer--Difference between Evolution and Natural
Selection--Huxley's Preparation for Evolution--The Novelty of
Natural Selection--The Advantage of Natural Selection as a Working
Hypothesis--Huxley's Unchanged Position with regard to Evolution
and Natural Selection from 1860 to 1894.

CHAPTER VII

THE BATTLE FOR EVOLUTION 110

Huxley's Prevision of the Battle--The Causes of the Battle--The
_Times_ Review--Sir Richard Owen attacks Darwinism in the
_Edinburgh Review_--Bishop Wilberforce attacks in the _Quarterly
Review_--Huxley's Scathing Replies--The British Association
Debates at Oxford--Huxley and Wilberforce--Résumé of Huxley's
Exact Position with Regard to Evolution and to Natural Selection.

CHAPTER VIII

VERTEBRATE ANATOMY 128

The Theory of the Vertebrate Skull--Goethe, Oken, Cuvier, and
Owen--Huxley Defends Goethe--His own Contributions to the
Theory--The Classification of Birds--Huxley Treats them as
"Extinct Animals"--Geographical Distribution--Sclater's
Regions--Huxley's Suggestions.

CHAPTER IX

MAN AND THE APES 144

Objections to Zoölogical Discussion of Man's Place--Owen's
Prudence--Huxley's Determination to Speak out--Account of his
Treatment of _Man's Place in Nature_--Additions Made by More
Recent Work.

CHAPTER X

SCIENCE AS A BRANCH OF EDUCATION 167

Science-Teaching Fifty Years Ago--Huxley's Insistence on
Reform--Science Primers--Physiography--Elementary Physiology--_The
Crayfish_--Manuals of Anatomy--Modern Microscopical
Methods--Practical Work in Biological Teaching--Invention of the
Type System--Science in Medical Education--Science and Culture.

CHAPTER XI

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 188

Establishment of Compulsory Education in England--The Religious
Controversy--Huxley Advocates the Bible without Theology--His
Compromise on the "Cowper-Temple" Clause--Influence of the New
Criticism--Science and Art Instruction--Training of
Teachers--University Education--The Baltimore Address--Technical
Education--So-called "Applied Science"--National Systems of
Education as "Capacity-Catchers."

CHAPTER XII

CITIZEN, ORATOR, AND ESSAYIST 204

Huxley's Activity in Public Affairs--Official in Scientific
Societies--Royal Commissions--Vivisection--Characteristics of his
Public Speaking--His Method of Exposition--His
Essays--Vocabulary--Phrase-Making--His Style Essentially One of
Ideas.

CHAPTER XIII

THE OPPONENT OF MATERIALISM 218

Science and Metaphysics--Berkeley, Hume, and Hobbes--Existence of
Matter and Mind--Descartes's Contribution--Materialism and
Idealism--Criticism of Materialism--Berkeley's Idealism--Criticism
of Idealism--Empirical Idealism--Materialism as opposed to
Supernaturalism--Mind and Brain--Origin of Life--Teleology,
Chance, and the Argument from Design.

CHAPTER XIV

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT 232

Authority and Knowledge in Science--The Duty of Doubt--Authority
and Individual Judgment in Religion--The Protestant Position--Sir
Charles Lyell and the Deluge--Infallibility--The Church and
Science--Morality and Dogma--Civil and Religious
Liberty--Agnosticism and Clericalism--Meaning of
Agnosticism--Knowledge and Evidence--The Method of Agnosticism.

CHAPTER XV

THE BIBLE AND MIRACLES 245

Why Huxley Came to Write about the Bible--A _Magna Charta_ of the
Poor--The Theological Use of the Bible--The Doctrine of Biblical
Infallibility--The Bible and Science--The Three Hypotheses of the
Earth's History--Changes in the Past Proved--The Creation
Hypothesis--Gladstone on Genesis--Genesis not a Record of
Fact--The Hypothesis of Evolution--The New Testament--Theory of
Inspiration--Reliance on the Miraculous--The Continuity of Nature
no _a priori_ Argument against Miracles---Possibilities and
Impossibilities--Miracles a Question of Evidence--Praise of the
Bible.

CHAPTER XVI

ETHICS OF THE COSMOS 261

Conduct and Metaphysics--Conventional and Critical Minds--Good
and Evil--Huxley's Last Appearance at Oxford--The Ethical Process
and the Cosmic Process--Man's Intervention--The Cosmic Process
Evil--Ancient Reconciliations--Modern Acceptance of the
Difficulties--Criticism of Huxley's Pessimism--Man and his Ethical
Aspirations Part of the Cosmos.