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."[80]
"Harmony in grey": cf. with l. 34 in Browning's Andrea del Sarto.
[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."[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.
[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.
[84]
Locke (1632-1704): an English philosopher of great influence. His chief work is An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
[85]
Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit: thus Francis Bacon thought.
THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863)[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.
[87]
these terrible apparatus: apparatus is the form for both the singular and plural; apparatuses is another form for the plural.
[88]
Incident in one of Moliere's plays: the allusion is to the hero, M. Jourdain in the play, "La Bourgeois Gentilbomme."[89]
these kind: modern writers regard kind as singular. Shakespeare treated it as a plural noun, as "These kind of knaves I knew."[90]
Newton: cf. [30].
[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)
[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 Ihave, 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.
[93]
Finner whale: a name given to a whale which has a dorsal fin. AFinner whale commonly measures from 60 to 90 feet in length.
[94]
A fortiori: with stronger reason: still more conclusively.
[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.
[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.
[97]
Milne-Edwards (1800-1885): a French naturalist. His Elements de Zoologie won him a great reputation.
[98]
with such qualifications as arises: a typographical error.
[99]
De Bary (1831-1888): a German botanist noted especially for his researches in cryptogamic botany.
[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.
[101]
Kuhne (1837-1900): a German physiologist and professor of science at Amsterdam and Heidelberg.
[102]
Debemur morti nos nostraque: Horace--Ars Poetica, line 63.
As forests change their foliage year by year, Leaves, that come first, first tall 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.
[103]
peau de chagrin: skin of a wild ass.
[104]
Balzac (1799-1850): a celebrated French novelist of the realistic school of fiction.
[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.
[106]
modus operandi: method of working.
[107]
