40 PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



him he was triumphantly acquitted. In the afternoon he called 

 upon his advocate, and pathetically explained that he was too 

 poor to pay any fee, unless the gentleman would accept the silver 

 cup. After listening to all that the President has so skilfully 

 urged in my defence, I almost feel as if I ought to ofer him the 

 medal back again, to show that I too know how to be grateful. 



This is an occasion when pride and humility go hand in hand. 

 The most modest of men could not help feeling elated at so signal 

 an honour as the bestowal of this medal confers. Most of you 

 are already well aware that I am (or was) the most modest of 

 men, but you have spoiled all that and ruined my character by 

 making me the proudest. At any rate the circumstances may 

 excuse my being a little egotistical, not to praise, or appraise, but 

 simply to explain myself. The education of my boyhood some 

 sixty years ago, according to the custom of the time, included no 

 tincture of science. It was nothing accounted of in those days. 

 All the attractions and rewards wei'e in other directions. When, 

 a few years later, I went up to Oxford, it happened that 

 Dr. Acland offered a prize for the best essay on the Fauna of 

 Christ Church Meadow. To myself and other undergraduates, 

 on reading the notice posted in the College Hall, the scope of the 

 subject was a rather comical mystery. In the year 1858, a year 

 which this Society considers memorable, it chanced that my time 

 came to take orders, and I was examined and ordained by a 

 memorable man, Samuel Wilberforce, then Bishop of Oxford. 

 For some years before and after that date I was engaged in 

 learning and teaching a miscellaneous mass of ancient classics and 

 modern history, English law and general theology. During this 

 period there broke out, as you well know, a furious controversy 

 between the champions of science and the champions of orthodox 

 religion. Had the ecclesiastical party not lifted their voices so 

 loudly, I might long have remained in a state of ingenuous 

 innocence. But the clamour was shrill and in due course 

 penetrated to my ears. Being an enthusiastic young clergyman, 

 and also in those days passionately fond of arguing, I felt it my 

 bounden duty to join in the fray. 



You see, I had at my command a weapon of keen temper, long 

 tested, and guaranteed to be invincible, if rightly used, against 

 every other that could be wielded against it. Accoi'dingly I 

 approached the reading of Charles Darwin's ' Origin of Species ' 

 with an easy confidence that I should be able to smash up his 

 heresy and others like it. Instead of which I became an ardent 

 convert, and very soon went on to deliver lectures and preach 

 sermons, harpiiig continually on the new views. These expres- 

 sions of opinion were, it appeared, very agreeable to those who 

 agreed with them, but very annoying and distasteful to the 

 others. 



After a while it occurred to me that I knew scarcely anything 

 at first hand of those facts of nature upon which the issue of the 

 contest really rested. This reflection led me to those zoological 



