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HUXLEY
AND EDUCATION
HUXLEY
AND EDUCATION
ADDRESS AT
THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE YEAR
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
September 28, 1910
BY
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
LL.D., Hon. D.Sc, Camb.
DA COSTA PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1910
Copyright, 1910
By Henry Fairfield Osborn
THE DE VINNE PRESS
HUXLEY AND EDUCATION
The most sanguine day of the college year is the opening one: thestudent has not yet faced the impossible task annually presented ofembracing the modern world of knowledge; his errors and failures ofearlier years are forgotten; he faces the coming months full of newhope.
How would my old master, Huxley, address you if he were to find you inthis felicitous frame of mind, sharpening your wits and your pencils forthe contest which will begin to-morrow morning in every hall and[Pg 6]laboratory of this great University? May I speak for him as I heard himduring the winter of 1879-80 from his lecture desk and as he kindly inconversation gave me of his stores of wisdom and experience? May I addfrom his truly brilliant essays entitled "Science and Education,"delivered between 1874 and 1887? May I contribute also from my ownthirty-seven years of life as a student and teacher, beginning in 1873and reaching a turning point in 1910 when Columbia enrolled me among itsresearch professors? It was Huxley's life, his example, the tone of hiswritings, rather than his actual precepts which most influenced me, forin 1879 he was so intensely absorbed in public work and administration,as well as in research and teaching, that little opportunity remainedfor ...