62 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, iv 



if I had felt that so doing debarred me from reiterating them 

 whenever it may be necessary to do so. 



But that is a different matter from taking a step which would, 

 in the eyes of the public, commit the Royal Society, through its 

 President, to one side of the controversy in which you are 

 engaged, and in which I, personally, hope you may succeed as 

 warmly as ever I did. 



One other piece of work during the first half of the year 

 remains to be mentioned, namely, the Rede Lecture, de- 

 livered at Cambridge on June 12. This was a discourse 

 on Evolution, based upon the consideration of the Pearly 

 Nautilus. 



He first traced the evolution of the individual from the 

 ovum, and replied to the three usual objections raised to 1 

 evolution, that it is impossible, immoral, and contrary to the 

 argument of design, by replying to the first, that it does 

 occur in every individual ; to the second, that the morality 

 which opposes itself to truth commits suicide ; and to the 

 third that Paley the most interesting Sunday reading 

 allowed him when a boy had long since answered this 

 objection. 



Then he proceeded to discuss the evolution of the 100 

 species, all extinct but two, of Nautilus. The alternative 

 theory of new construction, a hundred times over, is opposed 

 alike to tradition and to sane science. On the other hand, 

 evolution, tested by paleontology, proves a sound hypothe- 

 sis. The great difficulty of science is in tracing every event 

 to those causes which are in present operation ; the hy- 

 pothesis of evolution is analogous to what is going on now. 



The summer was passed at Milford, near Godalming, in 

 a house at the very edge of the heather country which 

 from there stretches unbroken past Hindhead and into 

 Wolmer Forest. So well did he like the place that he 

 took it again the following year. But his holiday was like 

 to have been spoilt at the beginning by the strain of an 

 absurd misadventure which involved much fatigue and 

 more anxiety. 



I came back only last night (he writes to Sir M. Foster on 

 August i ) from Paris, where I sped on Sunday night, in a horrid 



