Editing Julian Huxley (section)

== Life ==
{{See also|Huxley family}}

=== Personal life ===
Huxley came from the [[Huxley family]] on his father's side and the Arnold family on his mother's.<ref name="Clark-1968">{{Cite book|title=The Huxleys|last=Clark|first=Ronald W.|publisher=Heinemann|year=1968}}</ref> His great-grandfather was [[Thomas Arnold]] of [[Rugby School]], his great-uncle [[Matthew Arnold]], and his aunt, [[Mary Augusta Ward|Mrs Humphry Ward]]. His grandfather [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] was raised Anglican but eventually became an advocate of [[Agnosticism]], a word he coined.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Henry-Huxley|title = Thomas Henry Huxley &#124; Biography & Facts|website=britannica.com|accessdate=30 December 2022}}</ref> Thomas was also a biologist, forceful supporter of [[Charles Darwin]] and proponent of evolution.

Huxley's father was writer and editor [[Leonard Huxley (writer)|Leonard Huxley]] and his mother was [[Julia Huxley|Julia Arnold]], a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, who had gained a First in English Literature there in 1882. Julia and Leonard married in 1885 and they had four children: Margaret (1899–1981), the novelist [[Aldous Huxley|Aldous]], Trevenen and Julian.<ref name="Clark-1968"/>
[[File:LEONARD HUXLEY 1860-1933 JULIAN HUXLEY 1887-1975 ALDOUS HUXLEY 1894-1963 Men of Science and Letters lived here.jpg|thumb|upright|[[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] at 16 Bracknell Gardens, Hampstead, London, commemorating Julian, his younger brother Aldous, and father Leonard]]
Huxley was born on 22 June 1887, at the London house of his aunt. His mother opened a school<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ann |first=Andrews |title=Priors Field School |url=https://www.andrewsgen.com/photo/godalming/priorsfieldschool-compton.htm |access-date=21 January 2024 |website=andrewsgen.com}}</ref> in Compton, Guildford in 1902 and died in 1908, when he was 21. In 1912, his father married Rosalind Bruce, who was the same age as Julian, and he later acquired half-brothers Andrew Huxley and David Huxley.<ref name="Clark-1968"/>

In 1911, Huxley became informally engaged to Kathleen Fordham, whom he had met some years earlier when she was a pupil at Prior's Field, Compton, the school his mother had founded and run. During 1913 the relationship broke down<ref name="Clark-1968"/> and Huxley had a [[nervous breakdown]] which a biographer described as caused by 'conflict between desire and guilt'.<ref>Dronamraju K. R. 1993. ''If I am to be remembered: the life & work of Julian Huxley''. World Scientific, Singapore, pp&nbsp;9–10).</ref>

In the first months of 1914 Huxley had severe depression and lived for some weeks at The Hermitage, a small private nursing home. In August 1914 while Huxley was in Scotland, his brother Trevenen also had a nervous breakdown and stayed in the same nursing home. Trevenen was worried about how he had treated one of his women friends and committed suicide whilst there.<ref name="Clark-1968"/>

In 1919, Huxley married [[Juliette Huxley|Juliette Baillot]] (1896–1994) a French Swiss woman whom he had met while she was employed as a governess at [[Garsington Manor]], the country house of [[Lady Ottoline Morrell]]. Huxley was later unfaithful to Baillot and told her that he wanted an open marriage.<ref name="theamericanreader.com">{{Cite web|url=http://theamericanreader.com/7-may-1948-may-sarton-to-juliette-huxley/|title=7 May (1948): May Sarton to Juliette Huxley {{!}} The American Reader|website=theamericanreader.com|language=en-US|access-date=13 January 2020}}</ref> One of his affairs was with the poet [[May Sarton]] who in turn fell in love with Baillot and had a brief affair with her as well.<ref name="theamericanreader.com"/>

Huxley described himself in print as suffering from manic depression, and his wife's autobiography suggests that Julian Huxley suffered from a [[bipolar disorder]].<ref name="frs"/><ref name="Huxley"/> He relied on his wife to provide moral and practical support throughout his life.<ref name="frs"/>

Sir Julian and Lady Juliette Huxley had two sons: [[Anthony Huxley]] (1920–1992) and [[Francis Huxley]] (1923–2016), who both became scientists.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

His ashes are buried with his wife, son Anthony, parents and brother at the Huxley family grave in [[Watts Cemetery Chapel|Watts]] Cemetery, Compton.

=== Early career ===
[[File:Tom&julien-72.jpg|thumb|left|200px|T.&nbsp;H. Huxley with Julian in 1893]]

Huxley grew up at the family home in [[Shackleford]], [[Surrey]], England, where he showed an early interest in nature, as he was given lessons by his grandfather, [[Thomas Henry Huxley]]. When he heard his grandfather talking at dinner about the lack of parental care in fish, Julian piped up with "What about the [[stickleback]], Gran'pater?". His grandfather also took him to visit [[Joseph Dalton Hooker]] at Kew.<ref>Personal communication, Julian Huxley to Ronald Clark, the biographer of the Huxley family.</ref> At the age of thirteen Huxley attended [[Eton College]] as a [[King's Scholar]], and continued to develop scientific interests; his grandfather had influenced the school to build science laboratories much earlier. At Eton he developed an interest in ornithology, guided by science master W. D. "Piggy" Hill. "Piggy was a genius as a teacher&nbsp;... I have always been grateful to him."<ref>Huxley J. 1970. ''Memories''. George Allen & Unwin, London, p. 50.</ref> In 1905 Huxley won a scholarship in [[Zoology]] to [[Balliol College, Oxford]] and took up the place in 1906 after spending the summer in Germany. He developed a particular interest in [[embryology]] and [[protozoa]] and developed a friendship with the ornithologist [[William Warde Fowler]].<ref name="WWF">{{cite journal|last=Huxley|first=Julian|title=Obituary. W. Warde-Fowler|url=http://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V15/V15_N06/V15_N06_P143_144_OB031.pdf|journal=[[British Birds (magazine)|British Birds]]|volume=15|issue=66|pages=143–144}}</ref> In the autumn term of his final year, 1908, his mother died from cancer at the age of 46. In his final year he won the [[Newdigate Prize]] for his poem "Holyrood". In 1909 he graduated with first-class honours, and spent that July at the international gathering for the centenary of Darwin's birth, held at the [[University of Cambridge]].

Huxley was awarded a scholarship to spend a year at the Naples Marine Biological Station, where he developed his interest in developmental biology by investigating [[sea squirts]] and [[sea urchins]]. In 1910 he was appointed as Demonstrator in the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the [[University of Oxford]], and started on the systematic observation of the courtship habits of water birds, such as the [[common redshank]] (a wader) and [[grebes]] (which are divers). [[Bird watching]] in childhood had given Huxley his interest in [[ornithology]], and he helped devise systems for the surveying and conservation of birds. His particular interest was bird behaviour, especially the courtship of water birds. His 1914 paper on the [[great crested grebe]], later published as a book, was a landmark in avian [[ethology]]; his invention of vivid labels for the rituals (such as 'penguin dance', 'plesiosaurus race' etc.) made the ideas memorable and interesting to the general reader.<ref>For an assessment of Huxley's ethology see Burkhardt, Richard W. 1993. Huxley and the rise of ethology. In Waters C.&nbsp;K. and Van Helden A. (eds) ''Julian Huxley: biologist and statesman of science''. Rice University Press, Houston.</ref>

[[File:GreatCrestedGrebes.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Great crested grebes]]

In 1912 Huxley was asked by [[Edgar Odell Lovett]] to set up the Department of Biology at the newly created Rice Institute (now [[Rice University]]) in [[Houston]], Texas, which he accepted, planning to start the following year. Huxley made an exploratory trip to the United States in September 1912, visiting a number of leading universities as well as the Rice Institute. At [[T. H. Morgan]]'s fly lab ([[Columbia University]]) he invited [[H.&nbsp;J. Muller]] to join him at Rice. Muller agreed to be his deputy, hurried to complete his PhD and moved to Houston for the beginning of the 1915–1916 academic year. At Rice, Muller taught biology and continued ''Drosophila'' lab work.

[[File:Hux1918-72.jpg|thumb|left|200px|{{center|Julian Huxley<br/>[[British Army Intelligence Corps]] 1918}}]]

Before taking up the post of assistant professor at the [[Rice University|Rice Institute]], Huxley spent a year in Germany preparing for his demanding new job. Working in a laboratory just months before the outbreak of [[World War I]], Huxley overheard fellow academics comment on a passing aircraft, "It will not be long before those planes are flying over England."

One pleasure of Huxley's life in Texas was the sight of his first [[hummingbird]], though his visit to [[Edward Avery McIlhenny]]'s estate on [[Avery Island]] in Louisiana was more significant. The McIlhennys and their Avery cousins owned the entire island, and the McIlhenny branch used it to produce their famous [[Tabasco sauce]]. Birds were one of McIlhenny's passions, however, and around 1895 he had set up a private sanctuary on the island, called Bird City. There Huxley found [[egrets]], [[herons]] and [[bitterns]]. These water birds, like the grebes, exhibit mutual courtship, with the pairs displaying to each other, and with secondary sexual characteristics equally developed in both sexes.<ref>Huxley, Julian 1970. ''Memories'', chapters 7 and 8.</ref>

In September 1916 Huxley returned to England from Texas to assist in the war effort. He was commissioned a temporary [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Royal Army Service Corps]] on 25 May 1917,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30134 |date=15 June 1917 |page=5966 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> and was transferred to the General List, working in the [[British Army Intelligence Corps]] from 26 January 1918, first in [[Sussex]], and then in northern Italy.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30938 |date=4 October 1918 |page=11799 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> He was advanced in grade within the Intelligence Corps on 3 May 1918,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31059 |date=10 December 1918 |page=14631 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> relinquished his intelligence appointment on 10 January 1919 and was demobilised five days later, retaining his rank.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31285 |date=8 April 1919 |page=4720 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32377 |date=1 July 1921 |page=5308 |supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref> After the war he became a [[University of Oxford|Fellow]] at [[New College, Oxford]], and was made Senior Demonstrator in the University Department of Zoology. In fact, Huxley took the place of his old tutor Geoffrey Smith, who had been killed in the [[battle of the Somme]] on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]. The ecological geneticist [[E. B. Ford]] always remembered his openness and encouragement at the start of his career.<ref name="Huxley">Huxley, Juliette. 1986. ''Leaves of the tulip tree: autobiography''. Murray, London. Chapter 4.</ref><ref>Ford E. B. 1989. Scientific work by Sir Julian Huxley FRS. In Keynes M. & Harrison G. A. ''Evolutionary studies: a centenary celebration of the life of Julian Huxley''. Macmillan, London.</ref>

[[File:Julian Huxley and 2 sons.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Huxley with his two sons, [[Anthony Huxley|Anthony]] and [[Francis Huxley|Francis]]]]

He participated in the [[1921 Oxford University Spitsbergen expedition]] as one of the main scientists, together with [[Alexander Carr-Saunders]]. In 1925 Huxley moved to [[King's College London]] as Professor of [[Zoology]], but in 1927, to the amazement of his colleagues and on the prodding of [[H. G. Wells]] whom he had promised 1,000 words a day,<ref>
{{cite ODNB|title=Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell|first=Robert |last=Olby |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31271 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31271}}
</ref> he resigned his chair to work full-time with Wells and his son [[G. P. Wells]] on ''[[The Science of Life]]'' ([[#Public life and popularisation|see below]]). For some time Huxley retained his room at King's College, continuing as Honorary Lecturer in the Zoology Department, and from 1927 to 1931 he was also [[Royal Institution|Fullerian Professor of Physiology]] at the [[Royal Institution]], where he gave an annual lectures series, but this marked the end of his life as a university academic.

[[File:Juliette Huxley.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Juliette Huxley, {{Circa|1929}}]]

In 1929, after finishing work on ''The Science of Life'', Huxley visited East Africa to advise the [[Colonial Office]] on education in [[British East Africa]] (for the most part [[Kenya]], [[Uganda]] and [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]]). He discovered that the wildlife on the [[Serengeti]] plain was almost undisturbed because the [[tsetse fly]] (the vector for the [[Trypanosoma brucei|trypanosome]] parasite which causes [[African trypanosomiasis|sleeping sickness]] in humans) prevented human settlement there. He tells about these experiences in ''Africa view'' (1931), and so does his wife.<ref>Huxley, Juliette 1986. ''Leaves of the tulip tree''. Murray, London, p. 130 ff.</ref> She reveals that he fell in love with an 18-year-old American girl on board ship (when Juliette was not present), and then presented Juliette with his ideas for an open marriage: "What Julian really wanted was ... a definite freedom from the conventional bonds of marriage." The couple separated for a while; Julian travelled to the US, hoping to land a suitable appointment and, in due course, to marry Miss Weldmeier. He left no account of what transpired, but he was evidently not successful, and returned to England to resume his marriage in 1931. For the next couple of years Huxley still angled for an appointment in the US, without success.<ref>Waters C. K. & Van Helden A. (eds) 1993. ''Julian Huxley: biologist and statesman of science''. Houston. p. 285, notes 50 and 51.</ref>

=== Mid career ===
As the 1930s started, Huxley travelled widely and took part in a variety of activities which were partly scientific and partly political. In 1931 Huxley visited the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] at the invitation of [[Intourist]], where initially he admired the results of social and economic planning on a large scale. Later, back in the United Kingdom, he became a founding member of the think tank [[Political and Economic Planning]].

In the 1930s Huxley visited [[Kenya]] and other East African countries to see the conservation work, including the creation of [[national parks]].

In 1933, he was one of eleven people{{efn|The letter was signed: {{Flatlist|
* [[William Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough|Desborough]]
* [[Hugh Steuart Gladstone|Hugh S. Gladstone]]
* [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Grey of Fallodon]]
* Julian S. Huxley (Chancellor of Oxford University)
* [[Tom Longstaff|T. G Longstaff]]
* [[Percy Lowe|Percy R. Lowe]]
* [[Peter Chalmers Mitchell|P. Chalmers Mitchell]]
* [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild|Rothschild]]
* [[Mungo Murray, 7th Earl of Mansfield|Scone]] M.P. (Chairman, British Trust for Ornithology)
* [[Emma Louisa Turner|E. L. Turner]]
* [[Harry Forbes Witherby|H. F. Witherby]] (President, British Ornithologists' Union)
}}}} involved in the appeal that led to the foundation of the [[British Trust for Ornithology]] (BTO), an organisation for the study of [[birds]] in the British Isles.<ref>{{cite news |title=Observers of Birds |url=https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/u38/downloads/home-news/2013-06/bto-letter-the-times-July-1-1933.pdf |work=[[The Times]] |date=1 July 1933}}</ref> From 1933 to 1938 he was a member of the committee for Lord Hailey's African Survey.

[[File:Hux-cig-72.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Huxley lights a cigarette under his grandfather's portrait, {{Circa|1935}}.]]

In 1935 Huxley was appointed secretary to the [[Zoological Society of London]], and spent much of the next seven years running the society and its zoological gardens, the [[London Zoo]] and [[Whipsnade Park]], alongside his writing and research. The previous Director, [[Peter Chalmers Mitchell]], had been in post for many years, and had skillfully avoided conflict with the Fellows and Council. Things were rather different when Huxley arrived. Huxley was not a skilled administrator; his wife said "He was impatient... and lacked tact".<ref>Huxley, Juliette 1986. ''Leaves of the Tulip Tree''. Murray, London, p. 170.</ref> He instituted a number of changes and innovations, more than some approved of. For example, Huxley introduced a whole range of ideas designed to make the Zoo child-friendly. Today, this would pass without comment; but then it was more controversial. He fenced off the Fellows' Lawn to establish Pets Corner; he appointed new assistant curators, encouraging them to talk to children; he initiated the Zoo Magazine.<ref>Kevles D. J. 1993. Huxley and the popularization of science. In Waters C. K. and Van Helden A. (eds) ''Julian Huxley: Biologist and Statesman of Science''. Houston.</ref> Fellows and their guests had the privilege of free entry on Sundays, a closed day to the general public. Today, that would be unthinkable, and Sundays are now open to the public. Huxley's mild suggestion (that the guests should pay) encroached on territory the Fellows thought was theirs by right.

In 1941 Huxley was invited to the United States on a lecturing tour, and generated some controversy by saying that he thought the United States should join [[World War II]]: a few weeks later came the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]]. When the US joined the war, he found it difficult to get a passage back to the UK, and his lecture tour was extended. The Council of the Zoological Society—"a curious assemblage... of wealthy amateurs, self-perpetuating and autocratic"<ref>Huxley, Julian. 1970. ''Memories''. George Allen & Unwin, London, p. 231.</ref>—uneasy with their secretary, used this as an opportunity to remove him. This they did by abolishing his post "to save expenses". Since Huxley had taken a half-salary cut at the start of the war, and no salary at all whilst he was in America, the council's action was widely read as a personal attack on Huxley. A public controversy ensued, but eventually the Council got its way.

In 1943 he was asked by the British government to join the Colonial Commission on Higher Education. The commission's remit was to survey the West African [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries for suitable locations for the creation of universities. There he acquired a disease, went down with [[hepatitis]], and had a serious mental breakdown. He was completely disabled, treated with [[Electroconvulsive therapy|ECT]], and took a full year to recover. He was 55.

In 1945, Huxley proposed to melt the polar ice caps by igniting atomic bombs to moderate the world climate in the northern hemisphere, and permit shipping across the top of the world.<ref>Center for Science, Technology, and Engineering. Timothy M. Persons. , [https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-11-71.pdf Climate engineering, Technical status, future directions, and potential responses], United States Government Accountability Office, 2011-07.</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Graff |first=Garrett M. |title=America's Decades-Old Obsession With Nuking Hurricanes (and More) |language=en-US |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/story/nuking-hurricanes-polar-ice-caps-climate-change/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

=== Later career ===

Huxley, a lifelong internationalist with a concern for education, got involved in the creation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ([[UNESCO]]), and became the organization's first director-general in 1946. His term of office, six years in the Charter, was cut down to two years at the behest of the American delegation.<ref>Armytage W. H. G. 1989. The first Director-General of UNESCO. In Keynes M. and Harrison G. A. (eds) 1989. ''Evolutionary studies: a centenary celebration of the life of Julian Huxley.'' Macmillan, London, p. 188.</ref> The reasons are not known for sure, but his left-wing tendencies and humanism were likely factors. In a fortnight he dashed off a 60-page booklet on the purpose and philosophy of UNESCO, eventually printed and issued as an official document. There were, however, many conservative opponents of his scientific humanism. His idea of restraining population growth with birth control was anathema to both the [[Catholic Church]] and the [[Comintern]]/[[Cominform]]. In its first few years UNESCO was dynamic and broke new ground; since Huxley it has become larger, more bureaucratic and stable.<ref>Huxley J. 1947. ''UNESCO: its purpose and its philosophy''. UNESCO C/6 15 September 1947. Public Affairs Press, Washington.</ref><ref>Armytage W. H. G. 1989. The first Director-General of UNESCO. In Keynes M. and Harrison G. A. (eds) 1989. ''Evolutionary studies: a centenary celebration of the life of Julian Huxley.'' Macmillan, London.</ref> The personal and social side of the years in Paris are well described by his wife.<ref name="Huxley 1986">Huxley, Juliette 1986. ''Leaves of the tulip tree''. Murray, London.</ref>

Huxley's internationalist and conservation interests also led him, with [[Victor Stolan]], [[Peter Scott|Sir Peter Scott]], [[Max Nicholson]] and [[Guy Mountfort]], to set up the WWF ([[World Wide Fund for Nature]] under its former name of the [[World Wildlife Fund]]).

Another post-war activity was Huxley's attack on the Soviet politico-scientist [[Trofim Lysenko]], who had espoused a [[Lamarck]]ian heredity, made unscientific pronouncements on agriculture, used his influence to destroy classical genetics in Russia and to move genuine scientists from their posts. In 1940, the leading botanical geneticist [[Nikolai Vavilov]] was arrested, and Lysenko replaced him as director of the Institute of Genetics. In 1941, Vavilov was tried, found guilty of 'sabotage' and sentenced to death. Reprieved, he died in jail of malnutrition in 1943. Lysenko's machinations were the cause of his arrest. Worse still, [[Lysenkoism]] not only denied proven genetic facts, it stopped the [[artificial selection]] of crops on Darwinian principles. This may have contributed to the regular shortage of food from the Soviet agricultural system ([[Famines in Russia and USSR|Soviet famines]]). Huxley, who had twice visited the Soviet Union, was originally not anti-communist, but the ruthless adoption of Lysenkoism by [[Joseph Stalin]] ended his tolerant attitude.<ref>Huxley J. 1949. ''Soviet genetics and World science: Lysenko and the meaning of heredity''. Chatto & Windus, London. In the US as ''Heredity, East and West''. Schuman, N.Y.</ref> Lysenko ended his days in a Soviet mental hospital, and Vavilov's reputation was posthumously restored in 1955.

In the 1950s Huxley played a role in bringing to the [[English-speaking]] public the work of the French [[Jesuit]]-[[palaeontologist]] [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]], who he believed had been unfairly treated by the Catholic and Jesuit hierarchy. Both men believed in evolution, but differed in its interpretation as Teilhard de Chardin was a Christian, whilst Huxley was an atheist. Huxley wrote the foreword to ''[[The Phenomenon of Man]]'' (1959) and was bitterly attacked by his rationalist friends for doing so.<ref>Huxley, Julian. 1972. ''Memories II''. George Allen & Unwin, London, p. 28.</ref>

On Huxley's death at 87 on 14 February 1975, John Owen (Director of National Parks for [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]]) wrote, "Julian Huxley was one of the world's great men ... he played a seminal role in wild life conservation in [East] Africa in the early days... [and in] the far-reaching influence he exerted [on] the international community."<ref>Huxley, Juliette 1986. ''Leaves of the tulip tree''. Murray, London. p. 204</ref>

In addition to his international and humanist concerns, his research interests covered evolution in all its aspects, [[ethology]], [[embryology]], [[genetics]], [[anthropology]] and to some extent the infant field of [[cell biology]]. Julian's eminence as an advocate for evolution, and especially his contribution to the modern evolutionary synthesis, led to his awards of the [[Darwin Medal]] of the [[Royal Society]] in 1956,<ref name="frs"/> and the Darwin–Wallace Medal of the [[Linnaean Society]] in 1958. 1958 was the centenary anniversary of the joint presentation ''On the tendency of species to form varieties; and the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection'' by Darwin and Wallace.<ref>[[Bowler, Peter J.]] 2003. ''Evolution: The History of an Idea'', 3rd ed. University of California Press. pp. 256–273 {{ISBN|0-520-23693-9}}.</ref>

Huxley was a friend and mentor of the biologists and [[Nobel Prize|Nobel]] laureates [[Konrad Lorenz]] and [[Niko Tinbergen]],<ref>Waters C. K. & Van Helden A. (eds) 1992. ''Julian Huxley: biologist and statesman of science''. Rice, Houston TX. p. 144</ref> and taught and encouraged many others. In general, he was more of an all-round naturalist than his famous grandfather,<ref>Ruse, Michael 1997. Thomas Henry Huxley and the status of evolution as science, in Barr, Alan P. (ed) ''Thomas Henry Huxley's place in science and letters: centenary essays''. Athens, Georgia.</ref> and contributed much to the acceptance of natural selection. His outlook was international, and somewhat idealistic: his interest in progress and evolutionary humanism runs through much of his published work.<ref>Duvall C. 1992. From a Victorian to a modern: Julian Huxley and the English intellectual climate. In Waters C. K. and Van Helden A. (eds) ''Julian Huxley: biologist and statesman of science''. Rice University Press, Houston.</ref> He was one of the signers of the [[Humanist Manifesto II|Humanist Manifesto]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |title=Humanist Manifesto II |publisher=[[American Humanist Association]] |access-date=4 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |archive-date=20 October 2012 }}</ref>