(32/1. The story of Huxley's life has been fully given in the interesting
biography edited by Mr. Leonard Huxley. (32/2. "Life and Letters of
Thomas Henry Huxley." London 1900.) Readers of this book and of the "Life
and Letters of Charles Darwin" gain an insight into the relationship
between this pair of friends to which any words of ours can add but little.
Darwin realised to the full the essential strength of Mr. Huxley's nature;
he knew, as all the world now knows, the delicate sense of honour of his
friend, and he was ever inclined to lean on his guidance in practical
matters, as on an elder brother. Of Mr. Huxley's dialectical and literary
skill he was an enthusiastic admirer, and he never forgot what his theories
owed to the fighting powers of his "general agent." (32/3. Ibid., I.,
page 171.) Huxley's estimate of Darwin is very interesting: he valued him
most highly for what was so strikingly characteristic of himself--the love
of truth. He spoke of finding in him "something bigger than ordinary
humanity--an unequalled simplicity and directness of purpose--a sublime
unselfishness." (32/4. Ibid., II., page 94. Huxley is speaking of
Gordon's death, and goes on: "Of all the people whom I have met with in my
life, he and Darwin are the two in whom I have found," etc.) The same
point of view comes out in Huxley's estimate of Darwin's mental power.
(32/5. Ibid., II., page 39.) "He had a clear, rapid intelligence, a great
memory, a vivid imagination, and what made his greatness was the strict
subordination of all these to his love of truth." This, as an analysis of
Darwin's mental equipment, seems to us incomplete, though we do not pretend
to mend it. We do not think it is possible to dissect and label the
complex qualities which go to make up that which we all recognise as
genius. But, if we may venture to criticise, we would say that Mr.
Huxley's words do not seem to cover that supreme power of seeing and
thinking what the rest of the world had overlooked, which was one of
Darwin's most striking characteristics. As throwing light on the quality