16 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. 1 



man not to attack a seemingly well-established theory 

 without making sure of his ground.^ 



As for the Bathybius myth, Huxley pointed out 

 that his announcement of the discovery had been 

 simply a statement of the actual facts, and that so 

 far from seeing in it a confirmation of Darwinian 

 hypotheses, he was careful to warn his readers "to 

 keep the questions of fact and the questions of 

 interpretation well apart." "That which interested 

 me in the matter," he says, "was the apparent 

 analogy of Bathybius with other well-known forms of 

 lower life," ... "if Bathybius were brought up alive 

 from the bottom of the Atlantic to-morrow, the fact 

 would not have the slightest bearing, that I can 

 discern, upon Mr. Darwin's speculations, or upon any 

 of the disputed problems of biology." And as for 

 his " eating the leek " afterwards, his ironical account 

 of it is an instance of how the adoption of a plain, 

 straightforward course can be described without 

 egotism. 



The most considerable difference I note among men 

 (he concludes) is not in their readiness to fall into error, 

 but in their readiness to acknowledge these ine\'itable 

 lapses. 



As the Duke in a subsequent article did not 

 unequivocally withdraw his statements, Huxley de- 

 clined to continue public controversy with him. 



Three years later, writing (October 10, 1890) to 



* Letter in Nature. 



