204 LIFE OF PKOFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. viii 



I send you by this post a volume of the French 

 translation of a collection of my essays about Darwinism 

 and Evolution, 1860-76, for which I have written a brief 

 preface. I was really proud of myself when I discovered 

 on re-reading them that I had nothing to alter. 



What times those days were ! Fuimus ! — Ever youiB 

 affectionately, T. H. Huxley. 



The same subject of experimental evolution re- 

 appears in a letter to Professor Romanes of April 29. 

 A project was on foot for founding an institution 

 in which experiments bearing upon the Darwinian 

 theory could be carried out. After congratulating 

 Professor Romanes upon his recent election to the 

 Athenaeum Club, he proceeds : — 



In a review of Darwin's Origin published in the West- 

 minster for 1860 {Lay Sermons, pp. 323-24), you will see 

 that I insisted on the logical incompleteness of the theory 

 so long as it was not backed by experimental proof that 

 the cause assumed was competent to produce all the effects 

 required. (See also Lectures to Working Men, 1863, pp. 

 146, 147.) In fact, Darwin used to reproach me some- 

 times for my pertinacious insistence on the need of 

 experimental verification. 



But I hope you are going to choose some other title 

 than " Institut transformiste," which implies that the 

 Institute is pledged to a foregone conclusion, that it is a 

 workshop devoted to the production of a particular kind 

 of article. Moreover, I should say that as a matter of 

 prudence, you had better keep clear of the word " experi- 

 mental" Would not " Biological Observatory " serve the 

 turn ? Of course it does not exclude experiment any 

 more than " Astronomical Observatory " excludes spectrum 

 analysis. 



