Thomas Henry Huxley was born on 4 May 1825 in Ealing, the seventh of eight children of the schoolmaster George Huxley and Rachel Withers Huxley. Only for two years did he attend the school at which his father temporarily taught (1833-5). The family was poor, because George was rather unstable and unsuccessfully tried his hand at various jobs, finally dying in an asylum. As a result, Huxley was largely self-taught. Since his Anglican parents showed sympathy with the town’s Nonconformist weavers, the boy read Unitarian works of theology which – due to their tendency to explain metaphysics as the working of cause and effect – challenged traditional theology and probably whetted his appetite for scientific explanations. Huxley was also teaching himself some German and conducting simple…
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Citation: Spies, Marion. "T. H. Huxley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2284, accessed 22 November 2024.]
