I 



THE OXFOED MEETING 521 



encounter at Oxford, where the British Association met in 

 1860. Here the Bishop, a facile and persuasive speaker, 

 primed he knew not how uncandidly on a subject outside his 

 range, was put up to bring the meeting to a brilUant conclusion 

 by ' smashing Darwin ' before a popular assembly, mainly 

 recruited from those who would have held themselves, in later 

 phrase, to be on the side of the angels. The result was decisive, 

 because it proved that men of high standing were ready to 

 speak out, to prevent reasoned conclusions from being over- 

 whelmed by impassioned prejudice and tasteless ridicule, to 

 carry the war into the enemy's country, if need be, and 

 demand that argument should be met by argument based on 

 equal knowledge. 



The scene has already been described at some length both 

 in the ' Life of Darwin,' ii. 320, and in the * Life of T. H. 

 Huxley,' i. 179. The ' eye-witness ' quoted in the former, 

 will easily be identified from one of the letters which follow, 

 as Hooker himself, who has minimised, after his manner, his 

 own share in the contest. But I may be permitted to re-tell 

 it briefly, in order to lead up to Hooker's own letter which tells 

 the story of the day to Darwin.^ 



Feehng was already in a state of tension. A sharp passage 

 of arms had taken place on the Thursday (June 28) as a sequel 

 to a paper by Dr. Daubeny ^ of Oxford ' On the Final Causes of 

 the Sexuahty of Plants, with particular reference to Mr. Darwin's 

 Work on the Origin of Species.' Huxley was called upon to 

 speak by the President of the section, but tried to avoid a 

 discussion : ' a general audience, in which sentiment would 

 unduly interfere with intellect, was not the public before which 

 such a discussion should be carried on.' 



^ My thanks have been already given elsewhere to Sir Francis Darwin for 

 his friendly help in the telling of this episode ; and they are warmly repeated 

 here. But this is one small point only ; the whole Life of his father and the 

 •More Letters ' (with Prof. Seward's collaboration) which he has given to the 

 world, to me are a continual pleasure to read and an endless storehouse of 

 information. 



^ Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny, M.D. (1795-1867), was successively Professor 

 of Chemistry, 1822-55, of Botany from 1834, and Rural Economics, 1840, at 

 Oxford ; especially dealing with the chemical side of his botanical and earlier geo- 

 logical work (on volcanoes)i his paper ' On the Sexuality of Plants,' read at the 

 Oxford meeting of the British Association in 1860, gave strong support to Darwin. 



