A STUDENT'S REMINISCENCES OF HUXLEY. 41 



astronomy, chemistry, and physics, he came to biology. With 

 delicate irony he spoke of the " comforting word, evolution," and 

 passing to the Weismannian controversy, implied that the dia- 

 metrically opposed views so frequently expressed nowadays 

 threw the whole process of evolution into doubt. It was only 

 too evident that the Marquis himself found no comfort in 

 evolution, and even entertained a suspicion as to its proba- 

 bility. It was well worth the whole journey to Oxford to 

 watch Huxley during this portion of the address. In his red 

 doctor-of-laws gown, placed upon his shoulders by the very 

 body of men who had once referred to him as "a Mr. Huxley," 

 he sank deeper into his chair upon the very front of the plat- 

 form and restlessly tapped his foot. His situation was an 

 unenviable one. He had to thank an ex-Prime Minister of 

 England, and present Lord-Chancellor of Oxford University, 

 for an address the sentiments of which were directly against 

 those he himself had been maintaining for twenty-five years. 

 He said afterward that when the proofs of the Marquis' 

 address were put into his hands the day before, he realized that 

 he had before him a most delicate and difficult task. Lord 

 Kelvin (Sir William Thompson), one of the most distinguished 

 living physicists, first moved the vote of thanks ; but his recep- 

 tion was nothing to the tremendous applause which greeted 

 Huxley in the heart of that university whose cardinal princi- 

 ples he had so long been opposing. Considerable anxiety had 

 been felt by his friends lest his voice would fail to fill the 

 theatre, for it had signally failed during his Romanes Lecture 

 delivered in Oxford the year before ; but when Huxley arose he 

 reminded you of a venerable gladiator returning to the arena 

 after years of absence. He raised his figure and his voice to 

 its full height, and with one foot turned over the edge of the 

 step, veiled an unmistakable and vigorous protest in the most 

 gracious and dignified speech of thanks. 



Throughout the subsequent special sessions of this meeting 

 Huxley could not appear. He gave the impression of being 

 aged but not infirm, and no one realized that he had spoken 

 his last word as champion of the law of Evolution. He soon 

 returned to Eastbourne. Early in the winter he contracted 



