1894 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT OXFORD 325 



without the "few words" which he now found so 

 tiring; but he took the part which assured him 

 greatest freedom, as seconder of the vote of thanks 

 to the president for his address. The study of an 

 advance copy of the address raised an " ahnost over- 

 whelming temptation " to criticise certain statements 

 contained in it; but this would have been out of 

 place in seconding a vote of thanks ; and resisting 

 the temptation, he only " conveyed criticism," as he 

 writes to Professor Lewis Campbell, "in the form 

 of praise " : going so far as to suggest " it might be 

 that, in listening to the deeply interesting address 

 of the President, a thought had occasionally entered 

 his mind how rich and profitable might be the 

 discussion of that paper in Section D " (Biology). 

 It was not exactly an offhand speech. Writing to 

 Sir M. Foster for any good report which might 

 appear in an Oxford paper, he says : — 



I have no notes of it. I wrote something on Tuesday 

 night, but this draft is no good, as it was metamorphosed 

 two or three times over on Wednesday. 



One who was present and aware of the whole 

 situation once described how he marked the eyes of 

 another interested member of the audience, who knew 

 that Huxley was to speak, but not what he meant 

 to say, turning anxiously whenever the president 

 reached a critical phrase in the address, to see how 

 he would take it. But the expression of his face 

 told nothing ; only those who knew him well could 



