344 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XIII 



do nothing of the kind ; but he said that he had no 

 objection to stand and wait at the gangway. He did stand 

 and wait with the pike in his hands, and when the pirates 

 mounted and showed themselves coming on board he 

 thrust liis pike with the sharp end forward into the persons 

 who were mounting, and he said, " Friend, keep on board 

 thine own shii)." It is in that sense tliat I venture to 

 interpret the principle of standing and waiting to which 

 I have referred. I was convinced as firmly as I have ever 

 been convinced of anything in my life, that the Origin of 

 Species was a ship laden with a cargo of rich value, and 

 which, if she were permitted to pursue her course, would 

 reach a veritable scientific Golconda, and I thought it my 

 duty, however naturally averse I might be to fighting, to 

 bid those who would disturb her beneficent operations to 

 keep on board their own ship. If it has pleased the 

 Eoyal Society to recognise such poor services as I may 

 have rendered in that capacity, I am very glad, because I 

 am as much convinced now as I was 34 years ago that the 

 theory propounded by Mr. Darwin — I mean that which 

 he propounded, not that which has been reported to be 

 his by too many iU-instructed, both friends and foes — has 

 never yet been shown to be inconsistent with any positive 

 observations, and if I may use a phrase which I know has 

 been objected to, and which I use in a totally difl'erent 

 sense from that in which it was first proposed by its first 

 propounder, I do believe that on all grounds of pure 

 science it "holds the field," as the only hypothesis at 

 present before us which has a sound scientific foundation. 

 It is quite possible that you will apply to me the remark 

 that has often been applied to persons in such a position 

 as mine, that we are apt to exaggerate the importance of 

 that to v/hich our lives have been more or less devoted. 

 But I am sincerely of opinion that the views which were 

 propounded by Mr. Darwin 34 years ago may be under- 

 stood hereafter as constituting an epoch in the intellectual 

 history of the human race. They will modify the whole 



