Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895; Naturalists -- England -- Biography
[In paleontology he published this year papers on the "Vertebrate
Remains from the Jarrow Colliery, Kilkenny;" on a new "Telerpeton from
Elgin," and on some "Dinosaurs from South Africa." The latter, and many
more afterwards, were sent over by a young man named Alfred Brown, who
had a curious history. A Quaker gentleman came across him when employed
in cleaning tools in Cirencester College, found that he was a good Greek
and Latin scholar, and got him a tutorship in a clergyman's family at
the Cape. He afterwards entered the postal service, and being inspired
with a vivid interest in geology, spent all the leave he could obtain
from his office on the Orange River in getting fossils from the
Stormberg Rocks. These, as often as he could afford to send such weighty
packages, he sent to Sir R. Murchison, to whom he had received a letter
of introduction from his official superior. Sir Roderick, writing to
Huxley, says "that he was proud of his new recruit," to whom he sent not
only welcome words of encouragement, but the no less welcome news that
the brother of his "discoverer," hearing of the facts from Professor
Woodward, offered to defray his expenses so that he could collect
regularly.
On April 2 Huxley was in Edinburgh to receive the first academic
distinction conferred upon him in Britain. He received the honorary
degree of the University in company with Tyndall and Carlyle. It was
part of the fitness of things that he should be associated in this
honour with his close friend Tyndall; but though he frequently
acknowledged his debt to Carlyle as the teacher who in his youth had
inspired him with his undying hatred of shams and humbugs of every kind,
and whom he had gratefully come to know in after days, Carlyle did not
forgive the publication of "Man's Place in Nature." Years after, near
the end of his life, my father saw him walking slowly and alone down the
opposite side of the street, and touched by his solitary appearance,
crossed over and spoke to him. The old man looked at him, and merely
remarking, "You're Huxley, aren't you? the man that says we are all
descended from monkeys," went on his way.
On July 6 he writes to tell Darwin that he has lodged a memorial of his
about the fossils at the Gallegos river, which was to be visited by the
"Nassau" [Chapter 22] exploring ship, with the hydrographer direct,
instead of sending it in to the Lords of the Admiralty, who would only
have sent it on to the hydrographer. This letter he heads "Country
orders executed with accuracy and despatch."
The following letter to Charles Kingsley explains itself:--]
Jermyn Street, April 12, 1866.
My dear Kingsley,
I shall certainly do myself the pleasure of listening to you when you
preach at the Royal Institution. I wonder if you are going to take the
line of showing up the superstitions of men of science. Their name is
legion, and the exploit would be a telling one. I would do it myself
only I think I am already sufficiently isolated and unpopular.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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