Chapter 13

[Footnote 8: "Lehrjahre": apprenticeship.

Charing Cross School of Medicine: a school connected with the Charing Cross Hospital in the Strand, London.]

[Footnote 9: Nelson: Horatio Nelson, a celebrated English Admiral born in Norfolk, England, 1758, and died on board the Victory at Trafalgar, 1805. It was before the battle off Cape Trafalgar that Nelson hoisted his famous signal, "England expects every man will do his duty." Cf. Tennyson's Ode to the Duke of Wellington, stanza VI, for a famous tribute to Nelson.]

[Footnote 10: middies: abbreviated form for midshipmen.]

[Footnote 11: Suites a Buffon: sequels to Buffon. Buffon (1707-1781) was a French naturalist who wrote many volumes on science.]

[Footnote 12: Linnean Society: a scientific society formed in 1788 under the auspices of several fellows of the Royal Society.]

[Footnote 13: Royal Society: The Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge; the oldest scientific society in Great Britain, and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded by Charles II, in 1660, its nucleus being an association of learned men already in existence. It is supposed to be identical with the Invisible College which Boyle mentions in 1646. It was incorporated under the name of The Royal Society in 1661. The publications of the Royal Society are called Philosophical Transactions. The society has close connection with the government, and has assisted the government in various important scientific undertakings among which may be mentioned Parry's North Pole expedition. The society also distributes $20,000 yearly for the promotion of scientific research.]

[Footnote 14: Rastignac: a character in Le Pere Goriot. At the close of the story Rastignac says, "A nous deux, maintenant":--Henceforth there is war between us.]

[Footnote 15: Pere Goriot: a novel of Balzac's with a plot similar to King Lear.]

[Footnote 16: Professor Tyndall (1820-1893): a distinguished British physicist and member of the Royal Society. He explored with Huxley the glaciers of Switzerland. His work in electricity, radiant heat, light and acoustics gave him a foremost place in science.]

[Footnote 17: Ecclesiastical spirit: the spirit manifested by the clergy of England in Huxley's time against the truths of science. The clergy considered scientific truth to be disastrous to religious truth. Huxley's attitude toward the teaching of religious truth is illuminated by this quotation, which he uses to explain his own position: "I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and explaining of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be the great truths of Christian Life and conduct, which all of us desire they should know, and that no effort will be made to cram into their poor little minds, theological dogmas which their tender age prevents them from understanding." Huxley defines his idea of a church as a place in which, "week by week, services should be devoted, not to the iteration of abstract propositions in theology, but to the setting before men's minds of an ideal of true, just and pure living; a place in which those who are weary of the burden of daily cares should find a moment's rest in the contemplation of the higher life which is possible for all, though attained by so few; a place in which the man of strife and of business should have time to think how small, after all, are the rewards he covets compared with peace and charity."]

[Footnote 18: New Reformation: Huxley writes: "We are in the midst of a gigantic movement greater than that which preceded and produced the Reformation, and really only the continuation of that movement. . . . But this organization will be the work of generations of men, and those who further it most will be those who teach men to rest in no lie, and to rest in no verbal delusion."]

ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (1866)

[Footnote 19: On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge: from Method and Results: also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.]

For the history of the times mentioned in this essay, see Green's Short History of the English People.]

[Footnote 20: The very spot: St. Martin's Borough Hall and Public Library, on Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar Square.]

[Footnote 21: Defoe (1661-1731): an English novelist and political writer. On account of his political writings Defoe was sentenced to stand in the pillory, and to be "imprisoned during the Queen's pleasure." During this imprisonment he wrote many articles. Later in life he wrote Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, Journal of the Plague Year, and other books less well known.]

[Footnote 22: unholy cursing and crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys: John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, and Sir Charles Sedley, were both friends of Charles II, and were noted for biting wit and profligacy. Green, in his Short History of the English People, thus describes them: "Lord Rochester was a fashionable poet, and the titles of some of his poems are such as no pen of our day could copy. Sir Charles Sedley was a fashionable wit, and the foulness of his words made even the porters in the Covent Garden belt him from the balcony when he ventured to address them."]

[Footnote 23: Laud: Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was born in 1573, and beheaded at London in 1645. He was throughout the reign of Charles I a staunch supporter of the King. He was impeached by the Long Parliament in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill, in 1645.]

[Footnote 24: selenography: the scientific study of the moon with special reference to its physical condition.]

[Footnote 25: Torricellian experiment: a reference to the discovery of the principle of the barometer by the Italian, Torricelli, in 1643.]

[Footnote 26: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Bacon endeavored to teach that civilization cannot be brought to a high point except as man applies himself to the study of the secrets of nature, and uses these discoveries for inventions which will give him power over his environment. The chief value of the work was that it called attention to the uses of induction and to the experimental study of facts. See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy, page 243.]

[Footnote 27: The learned Dr. Wallis (1616-1703): Dr. Wallis is regarded as the greatest of Newton's predecessors in mathematical history. His works are numerous and are on a great variety of subjects. He was one of the first members of the Royal Society.]

[Footnote 28: "New Philosophy": Bacon's ideas on science and philosophy as set forth in his works.]

[Footnote 29: Royal Society: see note, page 11.]

[Footnote 30: Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1721): a distinguished natural philosopher of England. Newton was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1672. His most important scientific accomplishment was the establishing of the law of universal gravitation. The story of the fall of the apple was first related by Voltaire to whom it was given by Newton's niece.]

[Footnote 31: "Philosophical Transactions": the publications of the Royal Society.]

[Footnote 32: Galileo (1564-1642): a famous Italian astronomer. His most noted work was the construction of the thermometer and a telescope. He discovered the satellites of Jupiter in 1610. In 1610, also, he observed the sun's spots. His views were condemned by the Pope in 1616 and in 1633 he was forced by the Inquisition to abjure the Copernican theory.]

[Footnote 33: Vesalius (1514-1564): a noted Belgian anatomist.]

[Footnote 34: Harvey (1578-1657): an English physiologist and anatomist. He is noted especially for his discovery of the circulation of the blood.]

[Footnote 35: Subtle speculations: Selby gives examples from questions discussed by Thomas Aquinas. Whether all angels belong to the same genus, whether demons are evil by nature, or by will, whether they can change one substance into another, . . . whether an angel can move from one point to another without passing through intermediate space.]

[Footnote 36: Schoolmen: a term used to designate the followers of scholasticism, a philosophy of dogmatic religion which assumed a certain subject-matter as absolute and unquestionable. The duty of the Schoolman was to explain church doctrine; these explanations were characterized by fine distinctions and by an absence of real content. See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy; also Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology.]

[Footnote 37: "writ in water": an allusion to Keats' request that the words "Here lies one whose name was writ in water" be his epitaph. The words are inscribed on his tomb in the Protestant Cemetery at Rome.]

[Footnote 38: Lord Brouncker: The first president of the Royal Society after its incorporation in 1662 was Lord Brouneker.]

[Footnote 39: revenant: ghost.]

[Footnote 40: Boyle: Robert Boyle (1627-1691): a British chemist and natural philosopher who was noted especially for his discovery of Boyle's law of the elasticity of air.]

[Footnote 41: Evelyn (1620-1706): an English author and member of the Royal Society. His most important work is the Diary, valuable for the full account which it gives of the manners and customs of the time.]

[Footnote 42: The Restoration: In English history the re-establishing of the English monarchy with the return of King Charles II in 1660; by extension the whole reign of Charles II: as, the dramatists of the Restoration. Century Dictionary.]

[Footnote 43: Aladdin's lamps: a reference to the story of the Wonderful Lamp in the Arabian Nights. The magic lamp brought marvelous good fortune to the poor widow's son who possessed it. Cf. also Lowell's Aladdin:--

When I was a beggarly boy, And lived in a cellar damp, I had not a friend or a toy, But I had Aladdin's lamp; When I could not sleep for the cold, I had fire enough in my brain, And builded, with roofs of gold, My beautiful castles in Spain!]

[Footnote 44: "When in heaven the stars": from Tennyson's Specimens of a Translation of the Iliad in Blank Verse.]

[Footnote 45: "increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate": Bacon's statement of his purpose in writing the Advancement of Learning.]

[Footnote 46: For example, etc.: could the sentence beginning thus be written in better form?]

[Footnote 47: Rumford (1738-1814): Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an eminent scientist. Rumford was born in America and educated at Harvard. Suspected of loyalty to the King at the time of the revolution, he was imprisoned. Acquitted, he went to England where he became prominent in politics and science. Invested with the title of Count by the Holy Roman Empire, he chose Rumford for his title after the name of the little New Hampshire town where he had taught. He gave a large sum of money to Harvard College to found the Rumford professorship of science.]

[Footnote 48: eccentric: out of the centre.]

A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868)

[Footnote 49: A Liberal Education: from Science and Education; also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.]

[Footnote 50: Ichabod: cf. 1 Sam. iv, 21.]

[Footnote 51: senior wranglership: in Cambridge University, England, one who has attained the first class in the elementary division of the public examination for honors in pure and mixed mathematics, commonly called the mathematical tripos, those who compose the second rank of honors being designated senior optimes, and those of the third order junior optimes. The student taking absolutely the first place in the mathematical tripos used to be called senior wrangler, those following next in the same division being respectively termed second, third, fourth, etc., wranglers. Century Dictionary.]

[Footnote 52: double-first: any candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Oxford University who takes first-class honors in both classics and mathematics is said to have won a double-first.]

[Footnote 53: Retzsch (1779-1857): a well-known German painter and engraver.]

[Footnote 54: Test-Act: an English statute of 1673. It compelled all persons holding office under the crown to take the oaths of supremacy and of allegiance, to receive the sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England, and to subscribe to the Declaration against Transubstantiation.]

[Footnote 55: Poll: an abbreviation and transliteration of [Footnote Greek words], "the mob"; university slang for the whole body of students taking merely the degree of Bachelor of Arts, at Cambridge.]

[Footnote 56: pluck: the rejection of a student, after examinations, who does not come up to the standard.]

ON A PIECE OF CHALK

[Footnote 57: On a Piece of Chalk: a lecture to working-men from Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.]

[Footnote 58: Needles of the Isle of Wight: the needles are three white, pointed rocks of chalk, resting on dark-colored bases, and rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 100 feet. Baedeker's Great Britain.]

[Footnote 59: Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head: Lulworth is on the southern coast of England, west of the Isle of Wight: Flamborough Head is on the northeastern coast of England and extends into the German Ocean.]

[Footnote 60: Weald: a name given to an oval-shaped chalk area in England, beginning near the Straits of Dover, and extending into the counties of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Sussex.]

[Footnote 61: Lieut. Brooke: Brooke devised an apparatus for deep-sea sounding from which the weight necessary to sink the instrument rapidly, was detached when it reached the bottom. The object was to relieve the strain on the rope caused by rapid soundings. Improved apparatuses have been invented since the time of Brooke.]

[Footnote 62: Ehrenberg (1795-1876): a German naturalist noted for his studies of Infusoria.]

[Footnote 63: Bailey of West Point (1811-1857): an American naturalist noted for his researches in microscopy.]

[Footnote 64: enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable: the first Atlantic telegraph-cable between England and America was laid in 1858 by Cyrus W. Field of New York. Messages were sent over it for a few weeks; then it ceased to act. A permanent cable was laid by Mr. Field in 1866.]

[Footnote 65: Dr. Wallich (1786-1854): a Danish botanist and member of the Royal Society.]

[Footnote 66: Mr. Sorby: President of the Geological Society of England, and author of many papers on subjects connected with physical geography.]

[Footnote 67: Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875): a British geologist, and one of the first to uphold Darwin's Origin of Species.]

[Footnote 68: Echinus: the sea-urchin; an animal which dwells in a spheroidal shell built up from polygonal plates, and covered with sharp spines.]

[Footnote 69: Somme: a river of northern France which flows into the English Channel northeast of Dieppe.]

[Footnote 70: the chipped flints of Hoxne and Amiens: the rude instruments which were made by primitive man were of chipped flint. Numerous discoveries of large flint implements have been made in the north of France, near Amiens, and in England. The first noted flint implements were discovered in Hoxne, Suffolk, England, 1797. Cf. Evans' Ancient Stone Implements and Lyell's Antiquity of Man.]

[Footnote 71: Rev. Mr. Gunn (1800-1881): an English naturalist. Mr. Gunn sent from Tasmania a large number of plants and animals now in the British Museum.]

[Footnote 72: "the whirligig of time": cf. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act V, se. I, l. 395.]

[Footnote 73: Euphrates and Hiddekel: cf. Genesis ii, 14.]

[Footnote 74: the great river, the river of Babylon: cf. Genesis xv, 18]

[Footnote 75: Without haste, but without rest: from Goethe's Zahme Xenien. In a letter to his sister, Huxley says: "And then perhaps by the following of my favorite motto,--

"'Wie das Gestirn, Ohne Hast, Ohne Rast'--

something may be done, and some of Sister Lizzie's fond imaginations turn out not altogether untrue." The quotation entire is as follows:--

Wie das Gestirn, Ohne Hast, Aber ohne Rast, Drehe sich jeder Um die eigne Last.]

THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882)

[Footnote 76: The Principal Subjects of Education: an extract from the essay, Science and Art in Relation to Education.]

[Footnote 77: this discussion: "this" refers to the last sentence in the preceding paragraph, in which Huxley says that it will be impossible to determine the amount of time to be given to the principal subjects of education until it is determined "what the principal subjects of education ought to be."]

[Footnote 78: Francis Bacon: cf. note [Footnote 26].]

[Footnote 79: the best chance of being happy: In connection with Huxley's work on the London School Board, his biographer says that Huxley did not regard "intellectual training only from the utilitarian point of view; he insisted, e. g., on the value of reading for amusement as one of the most valuable uses to hardworked people."]

[Footnote 80: "Harmony in grey": cf. with l. 34 in Browning's Andrea del Sarto.]

[Footnote 81: Hobbes (1588-1679): noted for his views of human nature and of politics. According to Minto, "The merits ascribed to his style are brevity, simplicity and precision."]

[Footnote 82: Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753): an Irish prelate noted for his philosophical writings and especially for his theory of vision which was the foundation for modern investigations of the subject. "His style has always been esteemed admirable; simple, felicitous and sweetly melodious. His dialogues are sustained with great skill." Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature.]

[Footnote 83: We have been recently furnished with in prose: The Iliad of Homer translated by Lang, Leaf and Myers, the first edition of which appeared in 1882, is probably the one to which Huxley refers. The Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang, appeared in 1879. Among the best of the more recent translations of Homer are the Odyssey by George Herbert Palmer; the Iliad by Arthur S. Way, and the Odyssey by the same author.]

[Footnote 84: Locke (1632-1704): an English philosopher of great influence. His chief work is An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.]

[Footnote 85: Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit: thus Francis Bacon thought.]

THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863)

[Footnote 86: The Method of Scientific Investigation is an extract from the third of six lectures given to workingmen on The Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature in Darwiniana.]

[Footnote 87: these terrible apparatus: apparatus is the form for both the singular and plural; apparatuses is another form for the plural.]

[Footnote 88: Incident in one of Moliere's plays: the allusion is to the hero, M. Jourdain in the play, "La Bourgeois Gentilbomme."]

[Footnote 89: these kind: modern writers regard kind as singular. Shakespeare treated it as a plural noun, as "These kind of knaves I knew."]

[Footnote 90: Newton: cf. [Footnote 30].]

[Footnote 91: Laplace (1749-1827): a celebrated French astronomer and mathematician. He is best known for his theory of the formation of the planetary systems, the so-called "nebular hypothesis." Until recently this hypothesis has generally been accepted in its main outlines. It is now being supplanted by the "Spiral Nebular Hypothesis" developed by Professors Moulton and Chamberlin of the University of Chicago. See Moulton's Introduction to Astronomy, p. 463.]

ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868)

[Footnote 92: On the Physical Basis of Life: from Methods and Results; also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews. "The substance of this paper was contained in a discourse which was delivered in Edinburgh on the evening of Sunday, the 8th of November, 1868--being the first of a series of Sunday evening addresses upon non-theological topics, instituted by the Rev. J. Cranbrook. Some phrases, which could possess only a transitory and local interest, have been omitted; instead of the newspaper report of the Archbishop of York's address, his Grace's subsequently published pamphlet On the Limits of Philosophical inquiry is quoted, and I have, here and there, endeavoured to express my meaning more fully and clearly than I seem to have done in speaking--if I may judge by sundry criticisms upon what I am supposed to have said, which have appeared. But in substance, and, so far as my recollection serves, in form, what is here written corresponds with what was there said."--Huxley.]

[Footnote 93: Finner whale: a name given to a whale which has a dorsal fin. A Finner whale commonly measures from 60 to 90 feet in length.]

[Footnote 94: A fortiori: with stronger reason: still more conclusively.]

[Footnote 95: well-known epigram: from Goethe's Venetianische Epigramme. The following is a translation of the passage: Why do the people push each other and shout? They want to work for their living, bring forth children; and feed them as well as they possibly can. . . . No man can attain to more, however much he may pretend to the contrary.]

[Footnote 96: Maelstroms: a celebrated whirlpool or violent current in the Arctic Ocean, near the western coast of Norway, between the islands of Moskenaso and Mosken, formerly supposed to suck in and destroy everything that approached it at any time, but now known not to be dangerous except under certain conditions. Century Dictionary. Cf. also Poe's Descent into the Maelstrom.]

[Footnote 97: Milne-Edwards (1800-1885): a French naturalist. His Elements de Zoologie won him a great reputation.]

[Footnote 98: with such qualifications as arises: a typographical error.]

[Footnote 99: De Bary (1831-1888): a German botanist noted especially for his researches in cryptogamic botany.]

[Footnote 100: No Man's Land: Huxley probably intends no specific geographical reference. The expression is common as a designation of some remote and unfrequented locality.]

[Footnote 101: Kuhne (1837-1900): a German physiologist and professor of science at Amsterdam and Heidelberg.]

[Footnote 102: Debemur morti nos nostraque: Horace--Ars Poetica, line 63.

As forests change their foliage year by year, Leaves, that come first, first fall and disappear; So antique words die out, and in their room, Others spring up, of vigorous growth and bloom; Ourselves and all that's ours, to death are due, And why should words not be mortal too?

Martin's translation.]

[Footnote 103: peau de chagrin: skin of a wild ass.]

[Footnote 104: Balzac (1799-1850): a celebrated French novelist of the realistic school of fiction.]

[Footnote 105: Barmecide feast: the allusion is to a story in the Arabian Nights in which a member of the Barmecide family places a succession of empty dishes before a beggar, pretending that they contain a rich repast.]

[Footnote 106: modus operandi: method of working.]

[Footnote 107: Martinus Scriblerus: a reference to Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus written principally by John Arbuthnot, and published in 1741. The purpose of the papers is given by Warburton and Spence in the following extracts quoted from the Preface to the Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus in Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's works, vol. x, p. 273:-- "Mr. Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Swift, in conjunction, formed the project of a satire on the abuses of human learning; and to make it better received, proposed to execute it in the manner of Cervantes (the original author of this species of satire) under a continued narrative of feigned adventures. They had observed that those abuses still kept their ground against all that the ablest and gravest authors could say to discredit them; they concluded, therefore, the force of ridicule was wanting to quicken their disgrace; and ridicule was here in its place, when the abuses had been already detected by sober reasoning; and truth in no danger to suffer by the premature use of so powerful an instrument."]