Hence he regarded it of
vital importance, from the mere point of view of the prosperity of the
country, that there should be a sufficiently large number of
scientific men provided with the means for research in the shape of
income and appliances. The most immediately utilitarian fashion for
the nation to encourage science, was to encourage science in its
highest and most advanced aspects. This meant the endowment of
research and the support of universities and other institutions in
which research might be conducted, and Huxley strove unceasingly for
the benefit of all such great organisations. One of the last public
occasions of his life was his appearance as leader of a deputation to
urge upon the government the formation of a real university in London
which should unite the scattered institutions of that great city and
promote the highest spheres of the pursuit of knowledge. He held the
view, strongly, that a useful combination was to be made by uniting
the functions of teaching and investigation. A teacher taught better
when his mind was kept fresh by the advances he himself was making,
and an investigator, by having a moderate amount of teaching to do,
gained from the need of forcing his mind from time to time to take
broad surveys of the whole field a part of which he was engaged in
tilling.
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