except an inborn
capacity for drawing, "a hot temper, and that amount of tenacity of
purpose which unfriendly observers sometimes call obstinacy." As it
happened, this natural gift for drawing proved of the greatest service
to him throughout his career. It is imperative that every investigator
of the anatomy of plants and animals should be able to sketch his
observations, and there is no greater aid to seeing things as they are
than the continuous attempt to reproduce them by pencil or brush.

Huxley was christened Thomas Henry, and he was unaware why these names
were chosen, but he humorously records the curious chance that his
parents should have chosen for him the "name of that particular
apostle with whom he had always felt most sympathy."

Of his childhood little is recorded. He remembers being vain of his
curls, and his mother's expressed regret that he soon lost the beauty
of early childhood. He attended for some time the school at Ealing
with which his father was associated, but he has little to say for the
training he received there. He writes:

"My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps
fortunately: for, though my way of life has made me acquainted
with all sorts and conditions of men, from the highest to the
lowest, I deliberately affirm that the society I fell into at
school was the worst I have ever known. We boys were average lads
with much the same inherent capacity for good and evil as any
others; but the people who were set over us cared about as much
for our intellectual and moral welfare as if they were
baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of the struggle for
existence among ourselves, and bullying was the least of the ill
practices current among us. Almost the only cheerful reminiscence
in connection with the place which arises in my mind is that of a
battle which I had with one of my class-mates, who had bullied me
until I could stand it no longer. I was a very slight lad, but
there was a wild-cat element in me which, when roused, made up
for my lack of weight, and I licked my adversary effectually.
However, one of my first experiences of the extremely rough and
ready nature of justice, as exhibited by the course of things in
general, arose out of the fact that _I_--the victor--had a black
eye, while he--the vanquished--had none, so that I got into
disgrace and he did not.