MEMOKIES OF THE OXFORD MEETING 303 

 To F. Darwin 



1887. 



Unfortunately we have not got the best point in Huxley's 

 answer to the Bishop. It was to this effect ' The Bishop 

 asks how would I like it if my Mother had been an ape. I 

 answer, putting aside the bad taste of the allusion to a 

 relationship which I have in my own case regarded as calling 

 up the tenderest memories, and having regard to that argu- 

 ment from the ' Godlike gift ' of language which the Bishop 

 has put forward as paramount against Mr. Darwin's theory, 

 that I would rather I had a parent wanting that " God- 

 like gift," than a parent who devoted that great and godlike 

 gift to the perversion of truth or to diverting the minds of 

 an audience from the facts that support a great scientific 

 hypothesis by ridicule,' &c. 



This was the sense of it the words I cannot recall. 

 The telling point was that Huxley showed how keenly 

 wounded he was by an allusion to a relationship which he 

 regarded so tenderly [having] been driven home in so in- 

 delicate a manner. 



I shall see Huxley to-morrow and if I can get him to 

 attend to me will endeavour to obtain from him a more 

 definite account, for use or not, and will let you know. 



Hooker's own letter to Darwin on the Oxford meeting (see 

 i. 525) did not appear in the * Life ' ; he feared it was ' far too 

 much of a braggart epistle.' But he added : 



Have you any account of the Oxford meeting ? If not, 

 I will, if you like, see what I can do towards vivifying it 

 (and vivisecting the Bishop) for you. I had utterly for- 

 gotten that letter of mine, and am amused to find that it 

 recalls the scene so clearly. (Oct. 30, 1886.) 



His account was printed in the ' Life,' vol. ii. pp. 320-323, 

 November 21 : 



Here is my screed. I do not like it altogether, but can 

 do no better. I should like Huxley to see it if you put it 

 in print. Pray Anglicize it where necessary. ... I have 

 been driven wild formulating it from memory. 



Later the question was raised whether the Bishop's taunt 

 to Huxley dragged in the name of his mother or his grand- 



