No More Learning

"
In his prime, Leigh Hunt was described as a tall, agile, slen-
der figure; with black hair, vivid features, brilliant dark eyes, and a
lurking humor in the expression of his mobile mouth.
And except
that his hair grew white, he preserved this effect, and the grace and
courtesy of his bearing, to the end.
The best edition of his poetical works is still the Boston one,
edited by Mr. S. Adams Lee, joint author with Hunt of his post-
humously published Book of the Sonnet. '
sment Phys
JAFFÁR
INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF SHELLEY
Shelley, take this to thy dear memory;-
To praise the generous is to think of thee.
-
AFFÁR, the Barmecide, the good Vizier,
JAFE
The poor man's hope, the friend without a peer,
Jaffar was dead, slain by a doom unjust;
And guilty Hároun, sullen with mistrust
Of what the good and e'en the bad might say,
Ordained that no man living from that day
Should dare to speak his name on pain of death. —
All Araby and Persia held their breath.
All but the brave Mondeer: he, proud to show
How far for love a grateful soul could go,


## p. 7795 (#617) ###########################################

LEIGH HUNT
--
And facing death for very scorn and grief
(For his great heart wanted a great relief),
Stood forth in Bagdad, daily, in the square
Where once had stood a happy house; and there
Harangued the tremblers at the scimitar
On all they owed to the divine Jaffár.
"Bring me this man," the Caliph cried. The man
Was brought was gazed upon.
The mutes began
To bind his arms. "Welcome, brave cords! " cried he;
"From bonds far worse Jaffár delivered me;
From wants, from shames, from loveless household fears;
Made a man's eyes friends with delicious tears;
Restored me-loved me- put me on a par
With his great self. How can I pay Jaffár? "
Hároun, who felt that on a soul like this
The mightiest vengeance could but fall amiss,
Now deigned to smile, as one great lord of fate
Might smile upon another half as great.
He said, "Let worth grow frenzied, if it will:
The Caliph's judgment shall be master still.
Go; and since gifts thus move thee, take this gem,
The richest in the Tartar's diadem,
And hold the giver as thou deemest fit. ”
"Gifts! " cried the friend. He took; and holding it
High towards the heavens, as though to meet his star,
Exclaimed, "This too I owe to thee, Jaffár! "
7795
THE NILE
I
T FLOWS through old, hushed Egypt and its sands,
Like some grave, mighty thought threading a dream;
And times and things, as in that vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands,-
Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands
That roamed through the young world, the glory extreme
Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam,
The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.
Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,
As of a world left empty of its throng,
And the void weighs on us; and then we wake,
And hear the fruitful stream lapsing along
'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake.


## p. 7796 (#618) ###########################################

7796
LEIGH HUNT
TO HAMPSTEAD
WRITTEN IN SURREY JAIL, AUGUST 27TH, 1813
S
WEET upland, to whose walks, with fond repair,
Out of thy western slope I took my rise
Day after day, and on these feverish eyes
Met the moist fingers of the bathing air; —
If health, unearned of thee, I may not share,
Keep it, I pray thee, where my memory lies,
In thy green lanes, brown dells, and breezy skies,
Till I return, and find thee doubly fair.
Wait then my coming on that lightsome land,
Health, and the joy that out of nature springs,
And Freedom's air-blown locks; but stay with me,
Friendship, frank entering with the cordial hand,
And Honor, and the Muse with growing wings,
And Love Domestic, smiling equably.
TO THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET
REEN little vaulter in the sunny grass,
Catching your heart up at the feel of June,
Sole voice that's heard amidst the lazy noon,
When even the bees lag at the summoning brass;
And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
With those who think the candles come too soon,
Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune
Nick the glad silent moments as they pass;-
O sweet and tiny cousins, that belong
One to the fields, the other to the hearth,
Both have your sunshine; both though small are strong
At your clear hearts; and both seem given to earth
To ring in thoughtful ears this natural song,-
In doors and out, summer and winter, Mirth.
GRE
ABOU BEN ADHEM
A
BOU BEN ADHEM (may his tribe increase! )
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold.
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,


## p. 7797 (#619) ###########################################

LEIGH HUNT
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou? " The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord. "
"And is mine one? " said Abou. ་ Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men. "
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,-
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!
RONDEAU
ENNY kissed me when we met,
JR
Jumping from the chair she sat in:
Time, you thief! who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I'm growing old; but add. -
Jenny kissed me!
7797
THE OLD LADY
From the Indicator>
F THE old lady is a widow and lives alone, the manners of her
condition and time of life are so much the more apparent.
She generally dresses in plain silks, that make a gentle rus-
tling as she moves about the silence of her room; and she wears
a nice cap with a lace border, that comes under the chin. In a
placket at her side is an old enameled watch, unless it is locked
up in a drawer of her toilet for fear of accidents. Her waist is
rather tight and trim than otherwise, and she had a fine one
when young; and she is not sorry if you see a pair of her stock-
ings on a table, that you may be aware of the neatness of her
leg and foot. Contented with these and other evident indica-
tions of a good shape, and letting her young friends understand
that she can afford to obscure it a little, she wears pockets, and


## p. 7798 (#620) ###########################################

7798
LEIGH HUNT
uses them well too. In the one is her handkerchief, and any
heavier matter that is not likely to come out with it, such as the
change of a sixpence; in the other is a miscellaneous assortment,
consisting of a pocket-book, a bunch of keys, a needle-case, a
spectacle-case, crumbs of biscuit, a nutmeg and grater, a smelling-
bottle, and according to the season an orange or apple, which
after many days she draws out warm and glossy, to give to some
little child that has well-behaved itself.
She generally occupies two rooms, in the neatest condition
possible.
In the chamber is a bed with a white coverlet, built
up high and round to look well, and with curtains of a pasto-
ral pattern, consisting alternately of large plants and shepherds
and shepherdesses. On the mantelpiece are more shepherds and
shepherdesses, with dot-eyed sheep at their feet, all in colored
ware: the man perhaps in a pink jacket, and knots of ribbons at
his knees and shoes, holding his crook lightly in one hand and
with the other at his breast, turning his toes out and looking
tenderly at the shepherdess; the woman holding a crook also, and
modestly returning his look, with a gipsy hat jerked up behind,
a very slender waist with petticoat and hips to counteract, and
the petticoat pulled up through the pocket-holes, in order to show
the trimness of her ankles. But these patterns of course are
various. The toilet is ancient, carved at the edges, and tied
about with a snow-white drapery of muslin. Beside it are vari-
ous boxes, mostly japan; and the set of drawers are exquisite
things for a little girl to rummage, if ever little girl be so bold,—
containing ribbons and laces of various kinds; linen smelling of
lavender, of the flowers of which there is always dust in the
corners; a heap of pocket-books for a series of years; and pieces
of dress long gone by, such as head-fronts, stomachers, and
flowered satin shoes with enormous heels. The stock of letters
are under especial lock and key. So much for the bedroom. In
the sitting-room is rather a spare assortment of shining old ma-
hogany furniture, or carved arm-chairs equally old, with chintz
draperies down to the ground; a folding or other screen, with
Chinese figures, their round, little-eyed meek faces perking side-
ways; a stuffed bird, perhaps in a glass case (a living one is too
much for her); a portrait of her husband over the mantelpiece,
in a coat with frog-buttons, and a delicate frilled hand lightly
inserted in the waistcoat; and opposite him on the wall is a piece
of embroidered literature framed and glazed, containing some


## p. 7799 (#621) ###########################################

LEIGH HUNT
7799
moral distich or maxim worked in angular capital letters, with
two trees or parrots below in their proper colors; the whole con-
cluding with an A-B-C and numerals, and the name of the fair
industrious, expressing it to be "her work, Jan. 14, 1762. " The
rest of the furniture consists of a looking-glass with carved edges,
perhaps a settee, a hassock for the feet, a mat for the little dog,
and a small set of shelves, in which are the Spectator and
Guardian, the Turkish Spy,' a Bible and Prayer-Book, Young's
'Night Thoughts' with a piece of lace in it to flatten, Mrs.
Rowe's 'Devout Exercises of the Heart,' Mrs. Glasse's 'Cookery,'
and perhaps 'Sir Charles Grandison' and 'Clarissa. ' 'John Bun-
cle' is in the closet among the pickles and preserves. The clock
is on the landing-place between the two room doors, where it
ticks audibly but quietly; and the landing-place is carpeted to a
nicety. The house is most in character, and properly coeval, if
it is in a retired suburb, and strongly built, with wainscot rather
than paper inside, and lockers in the windows. Before the win-
dows should be some quivering poplars. Here the Old Lady
receives a few quiet visitors to tea, and perhaps an early game
at cards; or you may see her going out on the same kind of
visit herself, with a light umbrella running up into a stick and
crooked ivory handle, and her little dog, equally famous for his
love to her and captious antipathy to strangers. Her grandchild-
ren dislike him on holidays, and the boldest sometimes ventures
to give him a sly kick under the table. When she returns at
night she appears, if the weather happens to be doubtful, in a
calash; and her servant in pattens follows half behind and half
at her side, with a lantern.
Her opinions are not many nor new. She thinks the clergy-
man a nice man. The Duke of Wellington, in her opinion, is a
very great man; but she has a secret preference for the Marquis
of Granby. She thinks the young women of the present day
too forward, and the men not respectful enough, but hopes her
grandchildren will be better; though she differs with her daugh-
ter in several points respecting their management. She sets little
value on the new accomplishments; is a great though delicate
connoisseur in butcher's meat and all sorts of housewifery; and
if you mention waltzes, expatiates on the grace and fine breed-
ing of the minuet. She longs to have seen one danced by Sir
Charles Grandison, whom she almost considers as a real person.
She likes a walk of a summer's evening but avoids the new


## p. 7800 (#622) ###########################################

7800
LEIGH HUNT
streets, canals, etc. ; and sometimes goes through the church-yard
where her children and her husband lie buried, serious but not
melancholy. She has had three great epochs in her life: her
marriage; her having been at court, to see the King and Queen
and Royal Family; and a compliment on her figure she once
received in passing, from Mr. Wilkes, whom she describes as “a
sad loose man, but engaging. " His plainness she thinks much
exaggerated. If anything takes her at a distance from home, it
is still the court; but she seldom stirs even for that. The last
time but one that she went was to see the Duke of Würtemberg;
and most probably for the last time of all, to see the Princess
Charlotte and Prince Leopold. From this beatific vision she
returned with the same admiration as ever for the fine comely
appearance of the Duke of York and the rest of the family, and
great delight at having had a near view of the Princess, whom
she speaks of with smiling pomp and lifted mittens, clasping
them as passionately as she can together, and calling her, in a
transport of mixed loyalty and self-love, "a fine royal young
creature," and "Daughter of England. "
THE OLD GENTLEMAN
O
UR Old Gentleman, in order to be exclusively himself, must
be either a widower or a bachelor. Suppose the former.
We do not mention his precise age, which would be invidi-
ous; nor whether he wears his own hair or a wig, which would
be wanting in universality. If a wig, it is a compromise between
the more modern scratch and the departed glory of the toupee.
If his own hair, it is white, in spite of his favorite grandson,
who used to get on the chair behind him and pull the silver
hairs out ten years ago. If he is bald at top, the hair-dresser,
hovering and breathing about him like a second youth, takes
care to give the bald place as much powder as the covered, in
order that he may convey to the sensorium within a pleasing in-
distinctness of idea respecting the exact limits of skin and hair.
He is very clean and neat; and in warm weather is proud of
opening his waistcoat half-way down, and letting so much of his
frill be seen, in order to show his hardiness as well as taste. His
watch and shirt-buttons are of the best; and he does not care if
he has two rings on a finger. If his watch ever failed him at


## p. 7801 (#623) ###########################################

LEIGH HUNT
7801
the club or coffee-house, he would take a walk every day to the
nearest clock of good character, purely to keep it right. He has
a cane at home, but seldom uses it, on finding it out of fashion
with his elderly juniors. He has a small cocked hat for gala-
days, which he lifts higher from his head than the round one
when bowed to. In his pockets are two handkerchiefs (one for
the neck at night-time), his spectacles, and his pocket-book. The
pocket-book among other things contains a receipt for a cough,
and some verses cut out of an odd sheet of an old magazine, on
the lovely Duchess of A. , beginning-
"When beauteous Mira walks the plain. "
-
He intends this for a commonplace book which he keeps, con-
sisting of passages in verse and prose cut out of newspapers
and magazines, and pasted in columns, some of them rather gay.
His principal other books are-Shakespeare's Plays and Milton's
'Paradise Lost'; the Spectator, the History of England,' the
'Works of Lady M. W. Montagu,' Pope and Churchill; Middle-
ton's Geography; the Gentleman's Magazine; Sir John Sinclair on
'Longevity'; several plays with portraits in character; 'Account
of Elizabeth Canning,' 'Memoirs of George Ann Bellamy,' 'Poet-
ical Amusements at Bath-Easton,' Blair's Works, Elegant Extracts;
Junius, as originally published; a few pamphlets on the Ameri-
can War and Lord George Gordon, etc. , and one on the French
Revolution. In his sitting-rooms are some engravings from
Hogarth and Sir Joshua; an engraved portrait of the Marquis of
Granby; ditto M. le Comte de Grasse surrendering to Admiral
Rodney; a humorous piece after Penny; and a portrait of him-
self, painted by Sir Joshua. His wife's portrait is in his chamber,
looking upon his bed. She is a little girl, stepping forward with
a smile and a pointed toe, as if going to dance. He lost her
when she was sixty.
The Old Gentleman is an early riser, because he intends to
live at least twenty years longer. He continues to take tea for
breakfast, in spite of what is said against its nervous effects;
having been satisfied on that point some years ago by Dr. John-
son's criticism on Hanway, and by a great liking for tea previ-
ously. His china cups and saucers have been broken since
his wife's death,-all but one, which is religiously kept for his
use. He passes his morning in walking or riding, looking in
at auctions, looking after his India bonds or some such money


## p. 7802 (#624) ###########################################

7802
LEIGH HUNT
securities, furthering some subscription set on foot by his excellent
friend Sir John, or cheapening a new old print for his portfolio.
He also hears of the newspapers; not caring to see them till
after dinner at the coffee-house. He may also cheapen a fish or
so; the fishmonger soliciting his doubtful eye as he passes, with
a profound bow of recognition. He eats a pear before dinner.
His dinner at the coffee-house is served up to him at the
accustomed hour, in the old accustomed way, and by the accus-
tomed waiter. If William did not bring it, the fish would be sure
to be stale and the flesh new. He eats no tart; or if he ventures
on a little, takes cheese with it. You might as soon attempt to
persuade him out of his senses as that cheese is not good for
digestion. He takes port; and if he has drunk more than usual,
and in a more private place, may be induced, by some respectful
inquiries respecting the old style of music, to sing a song com-
posed by Mr. Oswald or Mr. Lampe, such as
or
-
"Chloe, by that borrowed kiss,"
"Come, gentle god of soft repose,"
or his wife's favorite ballad, beginning-
"At Upton on the hill
There lived a happy pair. "
Of course no such exploit can take place in the coffee-room; but
he will canvass the theory of that matter there with you, or dis-
cuss the weather, or the markets, or the theatres, or the merits.
of my lord North," or "my lord Rockingham "-for he rarely
says simply lord; it is generally "my lord," trippingly and gen-
teelly off the tongue. If alone after dinner, his great delight is
the newspaper; which he prepares to read by wiping his spec-
tacles, carefully adjusting them on his eyes, and drawing the can-
dle close to him, so as to stand sideways betwixt his ocular aim
and the small type. He then holds the paper at arm's-length,
and dropping his eyelids half down and his mouth half open, takes
cognizance of the day's information. If he leaves off, it is only
when the door is opened by a new-comer, or when he suspects
somebody is over-anxious to get the paper out of his hand. On
these occasions he gives an important hem! or so; and resumes.
In the evening, our Old Gentleman is fond of going to the
theatre or of having a game of cards. If he enjoys the latter at


## p. 7803 (#625) ###########################################

LEIGH HUNT
7803
his own house or longings, he likes to play with some friends
whom he has known for many years: but an elderly stranger may
be introduced, if quiet and scientific; and the privilege is ex-
tended to younger men of letters, who if ill players are good
losers. Not that he is a miser, but to win money at cards is like
proving his victory by getting the baggage; and to win of a
younger man is a substitute for his not being able to beat him
at rackets. He breaks up early whether at home or abroad.
At the theatre he likes a front row in the pit. He comes
early, if he can do so without getting into a squeeze, and sits
patiently waiting for the drawing up of the curtain, with his hands
placidly lying one over the other on the top of his stick. He
generously admires some of the best performers, but thinks them
far inferior to Garrick, Woodward, and Clive. During splendid
scenes he is anxious that the little boy should see.
He is also
He has been induced to look in at Vauxhall again, but likes
it still less than he did years back, and cannot bear it in com-
parison with Ranelagh. He thinks everything looks poor, flaring,
and jaded. "Ah! " says he with a sort of triumphant sigh,
"Ranelagh was a noble place! Such taste, such elegance, such
beauty! There was the Duchess of A- , the finest woman in
England, sir; and Mrs. L———, a mighty fine creature; and Lady
Susan What's-her-name, that had that unfortunate affair with Sir
Charles. Sir, they came swimming by you like the swans. "
The Old Gentleman is very particular in having his slippers.
ready for him at the fire when he comes home.
extremely choice in his snuff, and delights to get a fresh box-
ful in Tavistock Street on his way to the theatre. His box is a
curiosity from India. He calls favorite young ladies by their
Christian names, however slightly acquainted with them; and has
a privilege of saluting all brides, mothers, and indeed every
species of lady, on the least holiday occasion. If the husband, for
instance, has met with a piece of luck, he instantly moves for-
ward and gravely kisses the wife on the cheek. The wife then
says, "My niece, sir, from the country;" and he kisses the niece.
The niece, seeing her cousin biting her lips at the joke, says,
«< My cousin Harriet, sir;" and he kisses the cousin. He "never
recollects such weather," except during the "Great Frost," or
when he rode down with "Jack Skrimshire to Newmarket. " He
grows young again in his little grandchildren, especially the one
which he thinks most like himself, which is the handsomest. Yet


## p. 7804 (#626) ###########################################

7804
LEIGH HUNT
he likes best perhaps the one most resembling his wife; and will
sit with him on his lap, holding his hand in silence for a quarter
of an hour together. He plays most tricks with the former, and
makes him sneeze. He asks little boys in general who was the
father of Zebedee's children. If his grandsons are at school he
often goes to see them, and makes them blush by telling the
master of the upper scholars that they are fine boys, and of a
precocious genius. He is much struck when an old acquaintance
dies, but adds that he lived too fast, and that poor Bob was a
sad dog in his youth; "a very sad dog, sir; mightily set upon a
short life and a merry one. "
When he gets very old indeed, he will sit for whole evenings
and say little or nothing; but informs you that there is Mrs.
Jones (the housekeeper) - "She'll talk. "


## p. 7804 (#627) ###########################################



## p. 7804 (#628) ###########################################


THOMAS H. HUXLEY.
Grosch


## p. 7804 (#629) ###########################################

4
1. A
Mede
?
Pi
ཅ ཏ པ 1:|:
Tatt
under the
Joni,
"')
ha csen


## p. 7804 (#630) ###########################################

MUXLEY
THOMAS H
Máy đo ni m nằm lên
4


## p. 7805 (#631) ###########################################

7805
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
(1825-1895)
BY E. RAY LANKESTER
HE Right Honorable Thomas Henry Huxley was the seventh
child of George Huxley, himself a seventh child, and was
born on the 4th of May, 1825, at Ealing, near London. His
father was one of the masters in a large semi-public school at that
place, kept by a Dr. Nicholson. We know very little of this father,
and Huxley himself in a brief autobiographical sketch has nothing to
tell of him except that he passed on to his son "an inborn faculty
for drawing, a hot temper, and a tenacity of purpose which unfriendly
observers sometimes called obstinacy. " Of hi mother he tells us
somewhat more. He inherited from her his extremely black hair
and eyes, his sallow complexion, and (as he thinks) rapidity of thought
and mother wit. His school days (passed presumably in the school
at which his father was a master) left on Huxley only a painful
impression. He speaks of those who were over the boys "caring
about as much for their moral and intellectual welfare as if they
were baby-farmers. " When he was twelve or thirteen, he wished
to become a mechanical engineer; but a medical brother-in-law (Dr.
Salt) took him in hand, and he commenced at this early age the study
of medicine. Eventually he went to Charing Cross Hospital, and
passed the first M. B. examination of the University of London. He
read hard all kinds of literature,-novels, philosophy, history. The
one of his teachers who really interested him, and for whom he cher-
ished ever after a warm regard, was Mr. Wharton Jones, lecturer on
physiology, and surgeon-oculist.
Stern necessity compelled young Huxley, as soon as his medical
course was over, to seek at once, even before he was one-and-twenty,
some post or employment. We know nothing of his relatives at this
time, nor to what extent they assisted him. Apparently he stood
alone and decided for himself. At the suggestion of a fellow-student,
now Sir Joseph Fayrer.
Huxley in 1846 applied for admission to the
Medical Service of the Navy. In two months more he was examined
and admitted, and was in attendance at the naval hospital at Haslar
under the care of that fine old naturalist and Arctic voyager, Sir
John Richardson.


## p. 7806 (#632) ###########################################

7806
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
Sir John Richardson took note of young Huxley, and instead of
sending him off to the fevers of the Gold Coast, procured him the
post of assistant surgeon on the surveying ship Rattlesnake, under
Captain Owen Stanley, who had expressed a wish to have a surgeon
who took some interest in science. The four years spent by Huxley
on the Rattlesnake, chiefly off the coast of Australia, were fine train-
ing for him, not only as a naturalist but as a man. He had ample
time to read, and laid in the foundations of that vast store of lit-
erary knowledge which so often astonished his scientific colleagues
in later years.
He also studied the anatomy and physiology of the
transparent oceanic forms-jelly-fish, salpæ, pelagic mollusks, and
worms - with irrepressible ardor and determination; not so much with
the expectation of opening a career in science for himself, as with
the desire of satisfying his own curiosity and exercising his intel-
lectual faculties. One of his most interesting studies (still quoted
with respect)—namely, that on the reproduction of Pyrosoma, the
transparent phosphorescent Ascidian-was carried out in his cabin.
at night, with only a tallow dip to illumine his microscope, whilst a
lively sea caused the ship to roll freely.
The Rattlesnake returned to England at the end of the year 1850.
Huxley found that the scientific papers he had sent home had already
made him famous. By the aid of those who valued the promise given
by his published work, he was allowed by the Admiralty for three.
years to draw pay as a navy surgeon whilst devoting himself to the
working up of the results of his observations when at sea.
In 1851
he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1852 received
one of the Royal medals of the society. In 1853, however, he was
ordered to proceed again to active service, and boldly took the alter-
native course of retiring from the naval service. He found himself
without professional employment or other resource, but trusted to his
pen. For a year or so he worked as a journalist, treating scientific
and literary themes in the weeklies and quarterlies, and still finding
energy to carry on scientific investigations in histology and in the
anatomy of microscopic organisms. His opportunity came in 1854.
through the appointment of his friend Edward Forbes to the chair of
natural history in Edinburgh. Thus was set free the post of lecturer
on natural history at the Royal School of Mines, which, together
with a special post of "naturalist to the Survey," was offered to
Huxley by the director of the Geological Survey and Royal School
of Mines, Sir Henry de la Bèche.
Huxley accepted this post, worth £800 a year, with the intention
of resigning it for one related to physiology whenever such should
offer. He declared he had no interest in "fossils," and in later years
said: "I am afraid there is very little of the genuine naturalist in me.


## p. 7807 (#633) ###########################################

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
7807
I never collected anything, and species-work was always a burden
to me. What I cared for was the architectural and engineering part
of the business, the working out the wonderful unity of plan in the
thousands and thousands of diverse living constructions, and the
modifications of similar apparatus to serve diverse ends. ” However,
Huxley held this post for thirty-one years, and soon turned his
attention to the fossils he had at first despised. Amongst his most
valuable scientific writings are those which embody his discoveries as
regards fossil animals, fishes, reptiles, and mammals.
There is no doubt that Huxley was fortunate to obtain at the age
of twenty-seven a first-rate post, worth nearly a thousand a year, in
London, and unburdened with any excessive duties. He had to give
during winter (October to end of February) a course of lectures on
five days of the week, and he had to attend in his study at the
Museum in Jermyn Street; but he had not the cares of a laboratory
nor of a collection to fritter away his time. Though he had devoted
disciples, he produced no pupils in the sense in which the German
professor produces them. He carried out his researches alone, with
his own hands, as he had done when at sea; and no younger men
were the objects of his care, or were inspired and directed in his
workshop. Consequently he was able to arrange the employment of
his day in his own way. He wrote largely for the press upon such
topics as belonged to his branch of science; he lectured frequently
in other places besides Jermyn Street; he took an active and im-
portant part in various government commissions, to which his official
position rendered it proper that he should be appointed. A favorite
audience for him to address was that of the Royal Institution, where
the members and their friends, ladies as well as gentlemen, are accus-
tomed to have the latest discoveries in science expounded to them
both by afternoon and evening lectures. Though it is incontestably
established by his own and others' testimony that Huxley was at
first an unattractive lecturer, he gradually developed a marvelous
power of lucid exposition and firm biting eloquence. I should say
that this had not attained its full development until he was about
forty years of age (in 1865), and that his written style developed
pari passu with that of his oral discourse.
As soon as he was appointed to his post in Jermyn Street, Huxley
married the lady to whom he had become engaged in 1847 at Sydney,
Miss Henrietta O. Heathorn, who survives him.
Soon after he returned from the voyage of the Rattlesnake he
made the acquaintance of Charles Darwin in London, and became a
firm friend of his, and of the botanist Hooker. Tyndall he met first
in a railway carriage en route for the meeting of the British Associa-
tion at Ipswich in 1851, and there and then commenced a warm and


## p. 7808 (#634) ###########################################

7808
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
lasting friendship. Huxley, Hooker, and Tyndall became a trium-
virate directing and determining the official side of scientific life in
London, operating through the Royal Society, the Royal Institution,
the Athenæum Club, and the press; influencing and guiding not only
popular opinion, but also such scanty patronage and employment of
scientific men as the British government permits itself.
For the purposes of a brief review, Huxley's life, after his return
from his voyage in 1850 at the age of twenty-five, may be divided
into the four decennia 1850-60, 1860–70, 1870-80, 1880-90, followed by
the five years 1890-95 which bring us to his death. In the first of
these Huxley established his reputation as a comparative anatomist,
and its close found him thoroughly in harness as a palæontologist no
less than a microscopist, the determined exponent of new views in
zoological science, and with the ambition clearly before him of dis-
placing both the personal influence and the loose philosophic teach-
ings of Richard Owen, twenty years his senior and enjoying great
popular and social authority. At the close of this decade appeared
the Origin of Species' by Darwin, and a new activity developed in
Huxley as the defender and exponent of Darwin's views. On the
very day after its publication, in November 1859, owing to a fortu-
nate chance Huxley's was the pen which reviewed the Origin of
Species in the Times. In 1860 he gave a Friday evening lecture on
'Species Races and their Origin' at the Royal Institution; and at the
Oxford meeting of the British Association had his famous encoun-
ter with Samuel Wilberforce, then Bishop of Oxford, who made a
gross and foolish attack upon Huxley individually in reference to his
contention, in opposition to Owen, that there was less difference in
structure between man and the higher apes than there is between
the higher apes and the lower monkeys.
Huxley was up to this date but little known outside scientific cir-
cles. Henceforward he was recognized in London society as a leader
of men in science, and a dangerous swordsman to challenge in a
public arena. In the winter of the same year he gave six evening
lectures to workingmen on The Relation of Man to the Lower
Animals' which appeared later, in 1863, as an illustrated volume
entitled 'Man's Place in Nature. ' In the same year, 1863, he again
addressed six lectures to workingmen, on 'Our Knowledge of the
Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature,' which were subse-
quently published from a short-hand reporter's transcript.
This sec-
ond course, like those which had preceded them, were attended by a
densely packed audience of workingmen, who paid the nominal fee
of sixpence only, for admission to the course. Never was there a
more rapt and enthusiastic audience, and never were greater skill and
power in the exposition of scientific methods and results to such an


## p. 7809 (#635) ###########################################

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
7809
audience exhibited. It was in these lectures that Huxley fully real-
ized the great power with which he was gifted.
So till the close of his second London decade he was busy on the
one hand with scientific research in palæontology,-introducing new
and most important views as to the structure of fishes' fins, of rep-
tilia and amphibia and of the vertebrate skull, teaching his regular
students in Jermyn Street, and giving Hunterian lectures on compara-
tive anatomy at the College of Surgeons, and on the other hand
expounding by occasional lectures, brief courses, or weighty essays,
the principles of Darwinism and the new doctrine of organic evolu-
tion, to a wider public.
In 1870 his growing conviction that it lay in his power not merely
to discover new scientific truth, but to put the methods and results
of science before his fellow-men, other than those who were special
students, in such a way as to influence their intellectual life, led
him to accept an invitation to become a candidate for the London
School Board, then first established. He was elected, and made him-
self felt in that assembly as a man not only acute and learned but
wise and just. In 1871 he became Secretary of the Royal Society, a
post which he retained until 1880; and devoted no small portion of
his time and energy to the maintenance of the high position and
influence which he conceived to be the just and historic attribute of
that society.
The enormous amount of varied intellectual work which now occu-
pied his brain, together with the strain of so many duties of such
various kinds, at last resulted in over-fatigue. He took a long holi-
day in Egypt in the winter of 1872, and returned refreshed. Now he
had to organize his laboratory and practical class in the new build-
ings at South Kensington to which the School of Mines was removed,
and where it eventually became known as the Royal College of Sci-
ence. Addresses, magazine articles, Royal Commissions, occupied him
as fully as before his illness: and his visit in 1876 to the United States,
where he gave an address on University Education at the opening of
the Johns Hopkins University and three lectures on Evolution in
New York, was a sort of royal progress; for everywhere his fame
had spread as one who united profound scientific knowledge with an
incisive power of speech, sparkling with wit such as few men of any
kind of career possessed.
Though during this decade (1870-80) Huxley gave more abundantly
of his strength to the delivery of scientific addresses, and to the
writing of essays on subjects so varied as Descartes, Joseph Priest-
ley, the Positive Philosophy, and Administrative Nihilism, yet in it
some of his most brilliant scientific work was accomplished. His full
memoir on the Triassic Crocodile Stagonolepis was published in 1877,
XII-489


## p. 7810 (#636) ###########################################

7810
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
and his memoir on Ceratodus in 1876; but most remarkable of all, his
book on the crayfish, which embodied in popular style an important
study of the crayfishes of all countries, and an important analysis of
the structure of the gill plumes as evidence of affinity and separation,
which formed simultaneously the subject of a memoir presented by
him to the Zoological Society.
About this time (1870-80) Huxley became a member of a very re-
markable society which called itself the Metaphysical Club. This club
met at irregular intervals to dine and discuss the higher philosophy.
It was organized by Mr. James Knowles, the editor of the Nineteenth
Century review, and included amongst its constant frequenters Lord
Tennyson, Froude, Cardinal Manning, Martineau, Bishop MacGee, and
"others of the weightier leaders of English thought. "
Huxley rarely met Mr. Gladstone, for whose mode of thought he
had a great dislike, although he admired the vivacity and irrepress-
ible loquacity of the veteran statesman. I remember his telling me
of a dinner where he had met Gladstone (towards the close of the
«< eighties"), and how he complained that he had not been able to
get a word in edgeways on account of the incessant discourse of
Mr. Gladstone.
Of Ruskin, Huxley's judgment was very severe. His invariable
courtesy would not have allowed him to use such terms in speaking
of Ruskin to a larger circle; but talking to me as we were walking
from Naples to Baiæ in 1872, he referred to the author of Modern
Painters' as "a pernicious idiot. " On the same occasion he spoke
with great kindliness of his old antagonist Owen, and expressed warm
admiration for the continued devotion of Sir Richard, even in his old
age, to original scientific work.
The decennium 1880-90 witnessed Huxley's appointment to the
post of Inspector of Fisheries in addition to his other official work.
This was the first time (and remains the last) that the British govern-
ment had endeavored to secure the services of a competent scientific
man for the post, and credit is due to Sir William Harcourt for his
selection.
In 1883 Huxley received the crowning honor of his life, being
elected President of the Royal Society. But the ill health which had
threatened him in 1870 now returned, with serious complications.
Symptoms of cardiac mischief, together with disturbance both in the
kidneys and lungs, compelled him to give up all his official work. In
1885 he retired from his professorship, from his fishery post, and from
the presidency of the Royal Society, and confined himself to such
work as he could perform in his study at Eastbourne (where in 1890
he built himself a house), or in the Engadine, where he usually spent
the summer. Though he suffered from an unaccountable exhaustion


## p. 7811 (#637) ###########################################

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
7811
whenever he was persuaded during these later years to give a public
address, yet he still retained great power of work in the way of writ-
ing. He produced between 1885 and his death in 1895 a large series
of brilliant and interesting essays, especially on the relation of science
to Hebrew and Christian tradition, and on the evolution of theology
and of ethics; and not unfrequently endeavored to fulfill his duty by
addressing the public in « a letter to the Times. " During this period
he was president of the Marine Biological Association, in the found-
ing of which he took an active part, and in 1892 was made by her
Majesty a member of the Privy Council.
It is interesting to note-indeed important, in view of the history
of the activity of one of the greatest intellects of our times-that in
these later years Huxley entirely ceased to make anatomical inves-
tigations, or to deal with those problems of morphological science in
which he was for so long so active. This appears to have been due
not to any purposed change of work, but to an actual inability any
longer to fix his attention on or to derive intellectual interest from
the old problems. New topics, such as the gentians of the Alps, he
could study with some of his old fervor; but where he chiefly found
intellectual pleasure was in the leisurely following out of lines of
thought in regard to the relations of science, philosophy, and religion,
which had been visible to him indeed during his hard-worked years
of public life, but along which he had not before been able to travel
to any extent, owing to lack of time and need of detachment from
other occupations.
In 1888 Huxley received the Copley medal of the Royal Society,
and in 1894 the Darwin medal. His speech at the society's dinner
in 1894 was remarkable for the exhibition of those fine qualities
of gayety, humor, and wisdom which had always characterized his
after-dinner speaking. He occupied himself that winter in assisting,
at considerable personal sacrifice and exertion in the form of writing
and attendance at committees, the movement for a Teaching Univer-
sity in London. But in the early spring of 1895 he suffered badly
from influenza, and he aggravated his condition by attempting to
complete a review of Mr. Arthur J. Balfour's book on The Founda-
tions of Belief. ' His old symptoms reappeared; heart, kidneys, and
lungs were all involved, and after a distressing illness of some weeks
he expired at Eastbourne on June 29th, 1895. He was buried in the
Marylebone Cemetery at Finchley, to the north of London.
Huxley left a large family of grown-up children,- two sons and
four daughters, all married. He had lost his eldest son in early
childhood, and his second daughter after her marriage. His home
life was of the happiest and best kind. "Pater" was the centre of a
remarkable group on Sunday afternoons and evenings, consisting of


## p. 7812 (#638) ###########################################

7812
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
I
young people, the friends of his sons and daughters, and of learned
and eminent persons who had dropped into the pleasant house or
garden in St. John's Wood to enjoy a few moments of the great
man's company during his leisure. After 1868, when he was already
forty-three years of age, but not before, he took to smoking.
well remember him at the "Red Lion's" dinner at Norwich, puffing
a cigarette. In a year he had advanced to a grimy little brier-root,
and kept a very good box of cigars, with which he was always very
generous. My own recollections of him extend to my earliest child-
hood, for he carried me over the rocks on the low-tide shore at
Felixtow in Suffolk, under his arm, in 1851, when I was four years
old, and he a young fellow of six-and-twenty, just returned from the
voyage of the Rattlesnake. Ten years later, when I was a school-
boy, a fortunate find on my part of a rare fossil oölitic mammalian
jaw brought me into association with him; and he encouraged the
profound attachment which I formed for him by providing me with
admission cards to attend as many of his afternoon and evening lect-
ures as I could get to without playing truant from school (happily
a day school-St. Paul's). I drank in his words and steeped myself
in his thoughts. I was present from this date onwards, at all his
great addresses, his battles-royal, his triumphs, his new enterprises, his
illnesses; and I was there, with many other dear friends, at the last,
when the sand of Finchley was thrown down to cover forever that
which had borne the noblest spirit, the keenest intellect, the brightest
wit, and the truest, kindliest heart known to us.
It is eminently true of Huxley that "the style is the man. " His
writings are marked by his individuality,- clear, graceful, humorous,
and incisive. He had a very large share of the artistic temperament,
as was apparent both in his skill in the use of the pencil and in his
extraordinary aptitude in the use of language. He had a fine innate
taste, which demanded excellence in form of expression; and this
was gradually cultivated by his efforts to expound scientific thought
and methods to popular audiences, to a degree which gave him an
unrivaled position as a speaker and writer. His grace and artistic
finish of expression were the more noticeable from the rigid adher-
ence to truth and moderation in statement which characterized all his
utterances; as well as the vast acquaintance with the best literature,
whether English, French, German, or Italian, which could serve to
illustrate his theme. He has been accused, by too ready and super-
ficial critics, of venturing into controversy upon subjects which he
had not really mastered, and also of neglecting scientific research in
order to seek popular approval and reputation. Both suggestions are
absolutely without foundation. He never delivered an attack without
keeping "shot in his locker. » His reply to Mr. Congreve, who had


## p. 7813 (#639) ###########################################

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
7813
ventured to challenge some disparaging remarks of his relative to
Comte and the Positive Philosophy, is a delightful instance of the
disappointment of an assailant who thought that Huxley was talk-
ing large about what he had not really studied. His equipment in
regard to Christian and Hebrew tradition was as ample and thorough
as that of his ecclesiastical antagonists. As to his having in any
unwise way neglected the minutiae of scientific research in later
years, it is surely most ungrateful to reproach on this ground one
who did so much detailed research of the best quality in earlier life,
and even when his great strength was failing under the huge weight
of public responsibilities accepted by him, yet showed by such papers
as that on Crayfishes his delight and splendid dexterity in the well-
loved work of morphological research. As Michael Foster has said of
him, "one guiding principle in Huxley's life was the deep conviction
that science was meant not for men of science alone, but for all the
world; and that not in respect to its material benefits only, but also
and even more for its intellectual good. " It was thus by conviction
that Huxley gave a large part of his time and vast power to writings
and addresses which are designed to bring the methods and results
of science home to the mind of the ordinary man. Like Darwin,—
I might indeed say like all men who have been great, and almost in
proportion as they were great,- Huxley was impelled to do what
he did by a sense of duty. In all his philosophical and ethical dis-
cussions, his sensibility to this supreme command is apparent; and
yet (perhaps it is significant of his unquestioning obedience to that
command) he has left no discussion of the origin of that command,
nor any analysis of the grounds upon which it may be considered rea-
sonable or unreasonable for a man to obey or disobey that word. In
his last public lecture (the Romanes lecture delivered at Oxford in
1893) he says: "Finally, to my knowledge, nobody professes to doubt
that so far as we possess a power of bettering things, it is our para-
mount duty to use it, and to train all our intellect and energy to
this supreme service of our kind. " In his autobiographical sketch
written in 1894, he says that the objects which he has had in view
in life
"are briefly these: To promote the application of scientific methods of inves-
tigation to all the problems of life to the best of my ability; in the conviction,
which has grown with my growth and strengthened with my strength, that
there is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind except veracity of thought
and of action, and the resolute facing of the world as it is when the garment
of make-believe by which pious hands have hidden its uglier features is
stripped off. It is with this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable or
unreasonable ambition for scientific fame which I may have permitted myself
to entertain, to other ends: to the popularization of science; to the develop-
ment and organization of scientific education; to the endless series of battles


## p. 7814 (#640) ###########################################

7814
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
and skirmishes over evolution; and to the untiring opposition to that ecclesi-
astical spirit, that clericalism, which in England, as everywhere else and to
whatever denomination it may belong, is the deadly enemy of science. In
striving for the attainment of these objects, I have been but one among many;
and I shall be well content to be remembered, or even not remembered, as
such. »
In a letter to me written in 1890 he says that he has never val-
ued the individual discoveries of science, great as they are, so much
as her methods; and that he shall be well content if by his efforts
those who come after him will be, in some degree in consequence
of them, less hindered by organized authority in thinking truly and
freely than men were in his younger days.
In 1894 Huxley superintended the arrangement and publication of
his various essays in nine volumes. Many of these had appeared in
earlier collections, such as 'Lay Sermons' and 'American Addresses';
others had never been republished. These volumes, together with his
volume on the Crayfish (International Scientific Series), and his edu-
cational works, Anatomy of Invertebrate Animals, Anatomy of
Vertebrated Animals,' 'Lessons in Physiology,' and 'Physiography,'—
comprise almost the whole of Huxley's writings not addressed to a
special audience of scientific experts. Since his death, whilst a statue
of him is being prepared for erection in the great hall of the British
Museum of Natural History, and medals are to be founded at the
Royal College of Science and at the Royal Society in commemoration
of him and stamped with his features, the grandest memorial of his
scientific fame and achievements is rapidly approaching completion;
namely, a reissue in four royal octavo volumes of all his contribu-
tions to the scientific journals and transactions of scientific societies,
-commencing with his paper published in the Medical Times and
Gazette of 1845 on The Root Sheath of Hairs,' and ending a long
list of two hundred or more memoirs with that on the Alpine species
of Gentian.
E. Ray Lankested
-


## p. 7815 (#641) ###########################################

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
7815
ON A PIECE OF CHALK
From Collected Essays,' Vol. viii. ; authorized edition, D. Appleton & Co. ,
New York
A
GREAT chapter of the history of the world is written in the
chalk. Few passages in the history of man can be sup-
ported by such an overwhelming mass of direct and indi-
rect evidence as that which testifies to the truth of the fragment
of the history of the globe which I hope to enable you to read
with your own eyes to-night. Let me add that few chapters of
human history have a more profound significance for ourselves.
I weigh my words well when I assert that the man who should
know the true history of the bit of chalk which every carpenter
carries about in his breeches pocket, though ignorant of all other .
history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its ulti-
mate results, to have a truer and therefore a better conception of
this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to it, than the
most learned student who is deep-read in the records of humanity
and ignorant of those of Nature.
The language of the chalk is not hard to learn; not nearly so
hard as Latin, if you only want to get at the broad features of
the story it has to tell: and I propose that we now set to work
to spell that story out together.
We all know that if we "burn" chalk, the result is quicklime.
Chalk in fact is a compound of carbonic-acid gas and lime; and
when you make it very hot, the carbonic acid flies away and the
lime is left. By this method of procedure we see the lime, but
we do not see the carbonic acid. If on the other hand you were
to powder a little chalk and drop it into a good deal of strong
vinegar, there would be a great bubbling and fizzing, and finally
a clear liquid in which no sign of chalk would appear. Here
you see the carbonic acid in the bubbles; the lime dissolved in
the vinegar vanishes from sight. There are a great many other
ways of showing that chalk is essentially nothing but carbonic
acid and quicklime. Chemists enunciate the result of all the
experiments which prove this, by stating that chalk is almost
wholly composed of "carbonate of lime. "
It is desirable for us to start from the knowledge of this fact,
though it may not seem to help us very far towards what we
seek. For carbonate of lime is a widely spread substance, and is
met with under very various conditions. All sorts of limestones


## p. 7816 (#642) ###########################################

7816
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
are composed of more or less pure carbonate of lime. The crust
which is often deposited by waters which have drained through
limestone rocks, in the form of what are called stalagmites and
stalactites, is carbonate of lime. Or to take a more familiar
example, the fur on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of
lime; and for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the
chalk might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the
earth-kettle, which is kept pretty hot below.
But the slice of chalk presents a totally different appearance
when placed under the microscope. The general mass of it is
made up of very minute granules; but imbedded in this matrix
are innumerable bodies, some smaller and some larger, but on a
rough average not more than a hundredth of an inch in diame-
ter, having a well-defined shape and structure. A cubic inch of
some specimens of chalk may contain hundreds of thousands of
these bodies, compacted together with incalculable millions of the
granules.
The examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of
the manner in which the components of the chalk are arranged,
and of their relative proportions. But by rubbing up some chalk
with a brush in water and then pouring off the milky fluid, so as
to obtain sediments of different degrees of fineness, the granules
and the minute rounded bodies may be pretty well separated from
one another, and submitted to microscopic examination, either
as opaque or as transparent objects. By combining the views
obtained in these various methods, each of the rounded bodies
may be proved to be a beautifully constructed calcareous fabric,
made up of a number of chambers communicating freely with one
another. The chambered bodies are of various forms. One of
the commonest is something like a badly grown raspberry, being
formed of a number of nearly globular chambers of different
sizes congregated together. It is called Globigerina, and some
specimens of chalk consist of little else than Globigerinæ and
granules. Let us fix our attention upon the Globigerina. It is
the spoor of the game we are tracking. If we can learn what it
is and what are the conditions of its existence, we shall see our
way to the origin and past history of the chalk.
The history of the discovery of these living Globigerinæ, and
of the part which they play in rock-building, is singular enough.
It is a discovery which, like others of no less scientific import-
ance, has arisen incidentally out of work devoted to very different


## p. 7817 (#643) ###########################################

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
7817
and exceedingly practical interests. When men first took to the
sea, they speedily learned to look out for the shoals and rocks;
and the more the burthen of their ships increased, the more
imperatively necessary it became for sailors to ascertain with
precision the depth of the waters they traversed. Out of this
necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding-line; and ulti-
mately marine surveying, which is the recording of the form of
coasts and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-
lead, upon charts.
At the same time it became desirable to ascertain and to indi-
cate the nature of the sea bottom, since this circumstance greatly
affects its goodness as holding-ground for anchors. Some ingen-
ious tar, whose name deserves a better fate than the oblivion
into which it has fallen, attained this object by "arming" the
bottom of the lead with a lump of grease, to which more or less
of the sand or mud or broken shells, as the case might be, ad-
hered, and was brought to the surface. But however well adapted
such an apparatus might be for rough nautical purposes, scien-
tific accuracy could not be expected from the armed lead; and to
remedy its defects (especially when applied to sounding in great
depths), Lieutenant Brooke of the American Navy some years
ago invented a most ingenious machine, by which a considerable
portion of the superficial layer of the sea bottom can be scooped
out and brought up from any depth to which the lead descends.
In 1853 Lieutenant Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the
North Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a
depth of more than 10,000 feet. or two miles, by the help of this
sounding apparatus. The specimens were sent for examination
to Ehrenberg of Berlin and to Bailey of West Point; and those
able microscopists found that this deep-sea mud was almost en-
tirely composed of the skeletons of living organisms, the greater
proportion of those being just like the Globigerinæ already known
to occur in the chalk.
-
Thus far the work had been carried on simply in the interests
of science; but Lieutenant Brooke's method of sounding acquired
a high commercial value when the enterprise of laying down the
telegraph cable between this country and the United States was
undertaken. For it became a matter of immense importance to
know not only the depth of the sea over the whole line along
which the cable was to be laid, but the exact nature of the bot-
tom, so as to guard against chances of cutting or fraying the


## p. 7818 (#644) ###########################################

7818
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
strands of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently ordered
Captain Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascer-
tain the depth over the whole line of the cable and to bring
back specimens of the bottom. In former days, such a command
as this might have sounded very much like one of the impossible
things which the young Prince in the Fairy Tales is ordered to
do before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. However, in
the months of June and July 1857, my friend performed the task
assigned to him with great expedition and precision, without, so
far as I know, having met with any reward of that kind. The
specimens of Atlantic mud which he procured were sent to me to
be examined and reported upon.
The result of all these operations is, that we know the con-
tours and the nature of the surface soil covered by the North
Atlantic for a distance of 1,700 miles from east to west, as well
as we know that of any part of the dry land. It is a prodigious
plain,- one of the widest and most even plains in the world. If
the sea were drained off, you might drive a wagon all the way
from Valentia on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay in.
Newfoundland; and except upon one sharp incline about 200 miles
from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would even be neces-
sary to put the skid on, so gentle are the ascents and descents
upon that long route. From Valentia the road would lie down-
hill for about 200 miles, to the point at which the bottom is now
covered by 1,700 fathoms of sea-water. Then would come the
central plain, more than a thousand miles wide, the inequalities
of the surface of which would be hardly perceptible, though the
depth of water upon it now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet;
and there are places in which Mont Blanc might be sunk with-
out showing its peak above water. Beyond this the ascent on
the American side commences, and gradually leads for about 300
miles to the Newfoundland shore.