Scientific Writings as Literature

Abstract

WE should, in fact, be inclined to lay the greater stress on Huxley's native taste and effort and on the favourable circumstances of his writings, and less on the detailed features which Mr. Aldous Huxley discoversthe balance of phrases, the caesura ending, the Biblical allusions, and so forth. These are by the way. The main thing was having clear ideas and trying always to say them in the fewest and most appropriate words. The true man of science has in this respect an initial advantage over other writers, because he starts with a definite statement about something observed which he wishes to convey to his readers in the most direct and effective way. German writers do not conform to the rule owing to the complication of their tongue; but recently some professors of English in an American university compiled an anthology of extracts from the writings of men of science as a textbook for students in English. Plenty of names will occur to one at once of scientific writers who might be named in the same class as Huxley, though none perhaps so racy and pointed. His own contemporary Tyndall was one of the best. It should also be remembered that these men were living and writing at a time when a great new idea was in the air and inspiring both those who promoted it and those who were on the defensive to special mental gymnastics. No one can read Huxley without enjoying the bracing atmosphere of controversy in which he worked. He was always stript and putting the last ounce into his fencing. For this both he and we have largely to thank the doctrine of evolution. We are not so controversial at the present day, or at any rate our controversies have not the same all-pervading and stimulating effect.