1864.] COPLEY MEDAL. 213 



ever, from the same letter, that the proposal to give the Cop- 

 ley Medal to my father in the previous year failed owing to 

 a similar want of courage to Lyell's great indignation. 



In the Reader, December 3, 1864, General Sabine's presi- 

 dential address at the Anniversary Meeting is reported at 

 some length. Special weight was laid on my father's work 

 in Geology, Zoology, and Botany, but the 'Origin of Species' 

 is praised chiefly as containing "a mass of observations," &c. 

 It is curious that as in the case of his election to the French 

 Institute, so in this case, he was honored not for the great 

 work of his life, but for his less important work in special 

 lines. The paragraph in General Sabine's address which re- 

 fers to the * Origin of Species/ is as follows : 



" In his most recent work ' On the Origin of Species/ al- 

 though opinions may be divided or undecided with respect to 

 its merits in some respects, all will allow that, it contains a 

 mass of observations bearing upon the habits, structure, af- 

 finities, and distribution of animals, perhaps unrivalled for 

 interest, minuteness, and patience of observation. Some 

 amongst us may perhaps incline to accept the theory indi- 

 cated by the title of this work, while others may perhaps in- 

 cline to refuse, or at least to remit it to a future time, when 

 increased knowledge shall afford stronger grounds for its ulti- 

 mate acceptance or rejection. Speaking generally and col- 

 lectively, we have expressly omitted it from the grounds of 

 our award." 



I believe I am right in saying that no little dissatisfaction 

 at the President's manner of allusion to the ' Origin * was felt 

 by some Fellows of the Society. 



The presentation of the Copley Medal is of interest in 

 another way, inasmuch as it led to Sir C. Lyell making, in 

 his after-dinner speech, a " confession of faith as to the 

 ' Origin.' " He wrote to my father (' Life/ vol. ii. p. 384), " I 

 said I had been forced to give up my old faith without thor-- 

 oughly seeing my way to a new one. But I think you would 

 have been satisfied with the length I went."] 



