American Addresses, with a Lecture on the Study of BiologyHuxley, Thomas Henry
Science
American Addresses, with a Lecture on the Study of Biology
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Biology -- Study and teaching; Evolution; Johns Hopkins University
intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot give
these, but it may cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever
station of society they are to be found; and the universities ought to
be, and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation.
May the university which commences its practical activity to-morrow
abundantly fulfil its high purpose; may its renown as a seat of true
learning, a centre of free inquiry, a focus of intellectual light,
increase year by year, until men wander hither from all parts of the
earth, as of old they sought Bologna, or Paris, or Oxford.
And it is pleasant to me to fancy that, among the English students who
are drawn to you at that time, there may linger a dim tradition that a
countryman of theirs was permitted to address you as he has done to-day,
and to feel as if your hopes were his hopes and your success his joy.
[1] Delivered at the formal opening of the Johns Hopkins University
at Baltimore, U.S., September 12. The total amount bequeathed by
Johns Hopkins is more than 7,000,000 dollars. The sum of
3,500,000 dollars is appropriated to a university, a like sum to
a hospital, and the rest to local institutions of education and
charity.
LONDON.
LECTURE ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY.
It is my duty to-night to speak about the study of Biology, and while it
may be that there are many of my audience who are quite familiar with
that study, yet as a lecturer of some standing, it would, I know by
experience, be very bad policy on my part to suppose such to be
extensively the case. On the contrary, I must imagine that there are
many of you who would like to know what Biology is; that there are
others who have that amount of information, but would nevertheless
gladly hear why it should be worth their while to study Biology; and yet
others, again, to whom these two points are clear, but who desire to
learn how they had best study it, and, finally, when they had best study
it.
I shall, therefore, address myself to the endeavour to give you some
answer to these four questions--what Biology is; why it should be
studied; how it should be studied; and when it should be studied.
In the first place, in respect to what Biology is, there are, I believe,
some persons who imagine that the term "Biology" is simply a new-fangled
denomination, a neologism in short, for what used to be known under the
title of "Natural History;" but I shall try to show you, on the
contrary, that the word is the expression of the growth of science
during the last 200 years, and came into existence half a century ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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