No parts of the Life and Letters are more enjoyable than those
concerning the "Happy Family," as a friend of Huxley's names his
household. His family of seven children found their father a most
engaging friend and companion. He could tell them wonderful sea stories
and animal stories and could draw fascinating pictures. His son writes
of how when he was ill with scarlet fever he used to look forward to his
father's home-coming. "The solitary days--for I was the first victim in
the family--were very long, and I looked forward with intense interest
to one half-hour after dinner, when he would come up and draw scenes
from the history of a remarkable bull-terrier and his family that went
to the seaside in a most human and child-delighting manner. I have
seldom suffered a greater disappointment than when, one evening, I fell
asleep just before this fairy half-hour, and lost it out of my life."

The account of the comradeship between Huxley and his wife reads like
a good old-time romance. He was attracted to her at first by
her "simplicity and directness united with an unusual degree of
cultivation," Huxley's son writes. On her he depended for advice in his
work, and for companionship at home and abroad when wandering in search
of health in Italy and Switzerland. When he had been separated from her
for some time, he wrote, "Nobody, children or anyone else, can be to me
what you are. Ulysses preferred his old woman to immortality, and
this absence has led me to see that he was as wise in that as in other
things." Again he writes, "Against all trouble (and I have had my share)
I weigh a wife-comrade 'trew and fest' in all emergencies."

The letters also give one a clear idea of the breadth of Huxley's
interests, particularly of his appreciation of the various forms of art.
Huxley believed strongly in the arts as a refining and helpful influence
in education. He keenly enjoyed good music. Professor Hewes writes of