WOMAN'S INFLUENCE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2118, 8 April 1914, Page 6

WOMAN'S INFLUENCE

The cablegram which .ippeared in Ike Dominion yesterday announcing the death of Hue. HuxlEy ( relict' o : f the late Professor HuxWsV, naturally calls to mind tho personality and work of the distinguished ■scientist who threw himself so whQ.le-bea.ric.diy into the defense of tho Darwinian theory that he on oiic occasion described himself as bulldog." But Mks. Muxley had a personality vi her own, and has a clai.fn to be remerabered apart from the fact that sho was the wife, of one of tte most illustrious mejj.ef the Bine* tecritli ccfltury. Her liio is an impressivo reminder of th& fact that fi woman can exereise a great influcaee in her day and generation 'though she may new address a public meeting, or walk in a procession with banners flying, or put a voting pap.er ia a ba'ilot'Uox. In his biofrapliy of his father, Mil. [irsLEY tolls Us that his..mother was the great scientist's "help and stay for forty years—in , his struggles ready to counsel, in iidvers.% to comfort; the critic whose judgment he valued above almost any, and whose praise he ea-red fnosfc to win; his first cai;e and his latest thought, the- other self whose union with him was a supreme example el HMjtaal sincerity and devotion." The woilij gratefully acknowledges the great debt it owes to Huxley for , his work iii extending huiaan knowledge, but if tie world' knew everything jt would probably find that it also owed a very real debt of gratHude to the gracious lady whose advice, sympathy, and oncouragemeat were always at her. jmsbaiid's Sho was aof culture and inteHigcncej and wab : aWo to follow the stirring controversies in which HcxtSY took su-sh a brilliant part with the closest interest. When his splendid career was terminated by death, three lines from one of her own poems were inscribed oil his tombstoac: —

Be not afraid yo waiUag liearls that

■n-eep; for still fte giveth H?5 belorcd sleep, And if endless s!«p Ho wiUs, to Ijest. The life of Mns. Suxiki- is « striking example of how some people will persist in' living in spite of tho doctors. She first met her future husband ia Sydney) a.nd when she arrived in England to be married in 1855 her health had broken down completely, and she Was thought to bo at deaths doof. HuxtEV took her to ono of the most famous doctors of the day as though she were jftoroiy a patient in whose case he was interested. "I give her six months to live," said the physician. "Well, sis months or not," said Huxley, "she is going to be my vriio." Their married lite lasted _ forty _ years, and Mrs. HuxLiiY lived nineteen: years after her husband's death, which took place in 1895. In .quiet defiance of tliO doctor's verdict of "'sis months to live,' fitov EeUied down like "I)arby and Jean," to «so Hcxiev's own wei-d-s, nnd he began to regard matrimony jis the normal state of man. Her Mfe was Wrapped up in his, a»d her simplicity find chi-Betßfess of character, combined with quiet strength unci tenjlemjiss, were an uiiiftiling sauwo of inspiration to liirn throughout his whole ear-enr. it all shows what (i-far-reach-ing influence foi good a tnifi-beairW cultured woman cjin exorcise without, tafcinfj any nvomiitent part in public affairs. lit qiriotu&ss and confidence sliaH be- your strength" might well fee inscribed on Uμ grave of "the late Mus. HpxLfey.

Th& lippw Hutti iimuivj, adjowrnecl from Friday last, will be resuined-at l%ct Hutt it 11 o'ebek this meniiug.