304 RETIREMENT, TO 1897 : DARWINIANA, ETC. 



mother, as Hooker's memory had it ; and on March 10, 1887, 

 being twice disappointed of meeting Huxley, whom he wished 

 to consult on the point, he writes : 



I find, however, on enquiry of others, that they did not 

 understand the Bishop to allude to Huxley's Mother, but 

 his Grandmother, so pray make no alteration in what you 

 have written as to the Oxford meeting except Huxley 

 approves. It is impossible to be sure of what one heard, 

 or of impressions formed, after nearly 30 years of active 

 life. 1 



The following letters refer to the Darwin Obituary (Proc. 

 Eoy. Soc., 1888), afterwards republished in Huxley's Collected 

 Essays, vol. ii. His memory of what had happened thirty 

 and forty years before was rarely at fault, despite his depre- 

 ciation of it ; yet looking back, it was in such a far away 

 vista of the past that he was moved to exclaim ' Darwinism 

 is all a dream to me now.' (November 3, 1890.) 



To T. H. Huxley 



March 25, 1888. 



I have not seen Dana's obit, notice of Gray. I suppose 

 it is in Silliman I will send for it and tell you what I think. 



I never attached much importance to Gray's philosophy 

 of Darwinism. He ' illuminated ' the text, but did not 

 advance the subject in a scientific point of view ; only in a 

 general and popular one. 



Darwin has nowhere that I can think of dealt with the 

 causes of variation. My impression is that he regarded them 

 as inscrutable, and I doubt his assenting to the view that 

 they were in any scientific sense limited or directed by ex- 

 ternal conditions except in so far as that conditions which 

 kill an organism limit its powers of variation ! 



Organisms vary from whatever you please to call type, 

 . under no known fashion ; and this whether the conditions 

 are. favorable or unfavorable to life : if they are favorable 

 so much the better for them. 



I very much hope that you will carry out your Primer 

 idea. I feel myself ever apt to go astray on the subject, 



1 See the unveiling of the Darwin statue at Oxford, 1899, p. 432. 



