DABWIN'S COPLEY MEDAL 75 



Hastings note, my dear old fellow, was a Copley Medal to me 

 and more than a Copley Medal.' But in 1864, at Falconer's 

 proposal, the Copley was awarded to him, and Hooker writes 

 in ironical delight on November 23 (?) : 



I have not got over the shock of your getting the Copley. 

 I had so made up my mind that you were too far ahead 

 of your day to be appreciated, that I was [flabbergasted ?]. 

 I thought it took [word illegible] like me and Huxley and 

 Lubbock to see so far ahead as you are of the ruck of candi- 

 dates whom the Council bring forward for (Copley) medals. 

 However it is best as it is ! ! ! and I am resigned to the feeling 

 that if they could not appreciate you. they could appreciate 

 (or fear) the opinions of those who brought you forward. 

 I am curious to see the President's address. 1 



General Sabine, the President of the Royal Society, was 

 notoriously anti- Darwinian and willing to deliver a left-handed 

 blow at the medallist. The sequel, which is referred to in 

 C.D. iii. 28, and fully told in M.L. ii. 255, including the quota- 

 tion from the 'Life of T. H. Huxley,' is sufficiently described 

 in the following to Darwin, December 2, 1864 : 



Have you heard of the small breeze at R.S. apropos of 

 your award ? Busk told me thus : Sabine said, in his 

 address, that in awarding you the Copley ' all consideration 

 of your " Origin " was expressly excluded.' After the address, 

 Huxley gets up and asks how this is, and being assured it 

 is so, he insists on the Minutes of the Council being produced 

 and read, in which of course there was no such exclusion 

 or indeed any allusion to the ' Origin.' Busk and Sabine 

 afterwards were discussing the point, Sabine saying that 

 no allusion = express exclusion, and shuffling as usual, 

 when up comes Falconer, and to Busk's horror compliments 

 Sabine's address unreservedly. Busk, thinking that F. 

 had overheard the discussion, said nothing at the time, but 



1 The same spirit of happy banter occurs in a note of 1865, when Darwin 

 had been, as it were, reading the Origin for the first time, as he was collecting 

 material for a second French edition, and laughingly declared ' Upon my life, 

 my dear fellow, it is a very good book, but oh my goodness, it is tough reading.' 

 Thereupon Hooker retorted : ' I am egregiously delighted with your calm 

 judgment on the Origin. Do you know I have re-read some of my papers 

 with the same result, and NEVER WAS WRONG ONCB IN MY OPINION.' 



