To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall.

Huxley contrasts mere exposure to nature with educated perception. Without some grounding in natural history, a walk in the countryside or along the shore remains aesthetically pleasant but intellectually impoverished: the “gallery” is full of masterpieces, yet most are effectively hidden because the observer lacks the knowledge to recognize what is being seen. The image of pictures “turned to the wall” suggests that ignorance is not an absence of beauty in the world but a failure of access—an inability to read nature’s forms, relationships, and histories. The remark also reflects Huxley’s broader Victorian project of popularizing science as a form of cultural literacy that deepens everyday experience.