io8 Thomas Henry Huxley 



disproved to-morrow, the book would still he the best of its 

 kiud — the most compendious statement of well-sifted facts 

 bearing on the doctrine of species that has ever appeared. 

 The chapters on variation, on the struggle for existence, on 

 instinct, on hybridism, on the imperfection of the geological 

 record, on geographical distribution, have not only no equals, 

 but, so far as our knowledge goes, no competitors, within the 

 range of biological literature. And viewed as a whole, we do 

 not believe that, since the publication of Von Baer's Researches 

 on Development, thirty years ago, any work has appeared 

 calculated to exert so large an influence, not only on the future 

 of biologv, but in extending the domination of science over 

 regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly pene- 

 trated."— (7/^/t/.) 



" Those who take the trouble to read the essays published in 

 1859 and i860, will, I think, do me the justice to admit that my 

 zeal to secure fair play for Mr. Darwin did not drive me into 

 the position of a mere advocate ; and that, while doing justice 

 to the greatness of the argument, 1 did not fail to indicate its 

 weak points. I have never seen any reason for departing from 

 the position which I took up in these two essays ; and the 

 assertion which I sometimes meet with nowadays that I have 

 'recanted' or changed my opinions about- Mr. Darwin's views 

 is quite unintelligible to me. 



" As I have said in the seventh essay, the fact of evolution is 

 to my mind sufRciently evidenced by palaeontology ; and I 

 remain of the opinion expressed in the second, that until select- 

 ive breeding is definitely proved to give rise to varieties infer- 

 tile with one another, the logical foundation of the theory of 

 natural selection is quite incomplete. We still remain very 

 much in the dark about the causes of variation ; the apparent 

 inheritance of acquired characters in some cases ; and the 

 struggle for existence within the organism, which probably lies 

 at the bottom of both these phenomena."— (1893, Preface.) 



Final!}', when lie was awarded the Darwin Medal of 

 the Royal Societ3% on November 30, 1S94, in the course 

 of an address at the anniversary dinner of the Society, 

 he said, as reported in the Times next day : 



