COMING OF AGE OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 337 



is but little scandal, after all, if we come to think of it, in supposing 

 that action which we call moral may be a developed form of action to 

 which the name can not be applied ; but there is great edification in 

 the thought, now brought home to our understandings, that, by every 

 truly moral act, we help to build up and improve the life of the world 

 and make ourselves co-workers with the principle of life everywhere. 



THE COMING OF AGE OF THE OBIGIN OF SPECIES.* 



By Professor T. H. HUXLEY. 



MANY of you will be familiar with the aspect of this small, green- 

 covered book. It is a copy of the first edition of the " Origin 

 of Species," and bears the date of its production the 1st of October, 

 1859. Only a few months, therefore, are needed to complete the full 

 tale of twenty-one years since its birthday. 



Those whose memories carry them back to this time will remember 

 that the infant was remarkably lively, and that a great number of 

 excellent persons mistook its manifestations of a vigorous individuality 

 for mere naughtiness ; in fact, there was a very pretty turmoil about 

 its cradle. My recollections of the period are particularly vivid ; for, 

 having conceived a tender affection for a child of what appeared to me 

 to be such remarkable promise, I acted for some time in the capacity 

 of a sort of under-nurse, and thus came in for my share of the storms 

 which threatened even the very life of the young creature. For some 

 years it was undoubtedly warm work, but, considering how exceedingly 

 unpleasant the apparition of the new-comer must have been to those 

 who did not fall in love with him at first sight, I think it is to the 

 credit of our age that the war was not fiercer, and that the more bitter 

 and unscrupulous forms of opposition died away as soon as they did. 



I speak of this period as of something past and gone, possessing 

 merely an historical, I had almost said an antiquarian interest. For, 

 during the second decade of the existence of the " Origin of Species," 

 opposition, though by no means dead, assumed a different aspect. On 

 the part of all those who had any reason to respect themselves, it 

 assumed a thoroughly respectful character. By this time the dullest 

 began to perceive that the child was not likely to perish of any con- 

 genital weakness or infantile disorder, but was growing into a stalwart 

 personage, upon whom mere goody scoldings and threatenings with the 

 birch-rod were quite thrown away. 



In fact, those who have watched the progress of science within the 

 last ten years will bear me out to the full when I assert that there is 

 no field of biological inquiry in which the influence of the " Origin of 



* A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Friday, March 19, 18S0. 

 vol. xvii. 22 



