Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/361

Rh clerical, and have for all time rendered classical that which he has chosen to put in print.

Contrary to what is generally supposed, Huxley was not a ready speaker, or perhaps it would be more true to say that his deliverances were not unaccompanied by stage fright, or a nervous uneasiness which frequently required for its subjugation a strong mental eif ort. It was this that told heavily on his health, and more than once the quiet resolve had been made to forever abandon the public platform. I was present on one occasion at a rather extensive gathering where, following a few after-dinner remarks by Sir Joseph Hooker, Prof. Tyndall, and Sir Wyville Thomson, Huxley, contrary to previous agreement, was also called upon for a few words, and with the pleasing introduction (as nearly as I can now recall the passage), "There is one among us who, by reason of his witty tongue and ever-readiness, it is a pleasure to call upon."

Following the applause which greeted his name—the mention of which was unmistakably a disagreeable surprise to the one more particularly concerned, Huxley took occasion to explain in emphatic language that were it only generally known how much of an effort it cost him to speak, his friends would willingly allow him more peace, and save the lingering wreck of his bodily frame. This admission—which was followed by a short but most happy ex-tempore utterance—appeared to me so strange that I was determined on the first proper occasion to obtain at first hand its true meaning. The opportunity presented itself a few days later, immediately after the conclusion of a stirring public address (read from manuscript) on "Sunday Opening," if by this name we may designate the liberty of displaying and using on the Sabbath-day collections of books and paintings, museum and other treasures, and of listening to scientific discourses. Dean Stanley and one or two other speakers had preceded him, but manifestly the audience was waiting for the speaker of the occasion. A more brilliant and incisive arraignment of those who by legal process attempted to forever remove from the workingman his one day of self-improvement could hardly have been formulated, and the speaker was greeted with vociferous applause. Meeting him on the way homeward from the lecture hall, I asked for a significance of the explanation made a few evenings before at the dinner table, for it did not seem possible to me that one gifted with such fluent powers of speech, and backed by an almost unfathomable fund of knowledge, could feel any fear or hesitancy in speaking, no matter what the occasion. In his answer. Prof. Huxley repeated in substance what he had before said, only more clearly emphasizing the nervous fear with which he mounted the platform. He then assured me that he might have saved himself an African journey,