52 'Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 



in every Society in this country and abroad where natural 

 science is cultivated. With regard to Charles Darwin's 

 connection with scientific Societies, we have heard that he 

 had a very great respect for the Royal Society, but that he 

 found perhaps an even more congenial home in the Linnean 

 and the Geological. I can speak for the Geological. We 

 treasure amongst our great classics in the volumes of our 

 ' Transactions ' and ' Proceedings 3 some of the early papers 

 of Darwin which mark an epoch both in his scientific 

 researches and in the development of geological science. 

 In treasuring these memoirs, we look back with peculiar 

 gratification on the surroundings in which their author was 

 then placed. He was for some time our Secretary, and we 

 have references, in his own handwriting, to the active part 

 he took in our work. With regard to Dr. Wallace, the 

 Geological Society has less to say because he has lived most 

 of his life as a working naturalist, and his suggestive contri- 

 butions to geological science have been published elsewhere. 

 But we admire his genius and not less his chivalrous, 

 modest disinterestedness, and after the revelation he has 

 given us of his character to-day we shall not only admire 

 but love him. The time of appraising the relative merits 

 of these two men has long since passed. We rejoice that 

 they were both connected together in the launching of the 

 great doctrine of natural selection on the same day, and 

 we rejoice still more that one of them is present with us 

 here to be a witness of the enthusiasm and veneration with 

 which his name is received. I remember well when the 

 two conjoint papers first came out. I can recall the 

 shiver that ran through the frames of the orthodox geologists 

 and biologists of the time. I remember the heart-searchings 

 and misgivings with which the new doctrine was received, 

 and the long time that elapsed before many of us under- 

 took to investigate and apply the new doctrine. There was 

 plenty of carping and fault-finding, but very little serious 

 reflection or study. Travelling in Germany some years after 

 the appearance of the ' Origin of Species ' I was astonished 

 to find there that, while men in this country were discussing 



