The Public and Darwinism 119 



by authoritativel}^ denouncing a man whose character 

 he was incapable of realising, and on whose work he 

 was incompetent to pronounce an opinion. Against 

 an enemy of this kind, Huxley was implacable and re- 

 lentless. He was constitutionally incapable of tolerat- 

 ing pretentious ignorance, and he had realised from the 

 first that there could be no question of giving and 

 taking quarter from persons who were more concerned 

 to suppress doctrines they conceived to be dangerous 

 than to examine into their truth. On the other hand, 

 much as Huxlej^ disliked Owen's devious ways, and 

 although in after life there occurred many and severe 

 differences of opinion between Huxley and Owen, 

 Huxley had a sincere respect for much of Owen's 

 anatomical and palaeontological work, and when, in 

 1894, Owen's Life was published, one of the most inter- 

 esting parts of it was a long, fair, and appreciative re- 

 view by Huxley of Owen's contributions to knowledge. 

 The middle of i860, however, was not a time for 

 Huxley, in his capacity as Darwin's chief defender, to 

 make truce with the enemy. In England a certain 

 number of well-known scientific men had given a gen- 

 eral support to Darwinism. From France, Germany, 

 and America there had come some support and a good 

 deal of cold criticism, but most people were simmering 

 with disturbed emotions. The newspapers and the 

 reviews were full of the new subject; political speeches 

 and sermons were filled with allusions to it. Wherever 

 educated people talked the c onve rsation came round to 

 the question of evolution. ^Vere animals and plants 

 the results of special creations, or were they, including 

 man, the result of the gradual transformations of a few 

 simple primitive types evolving under the stress of some 

 such force as Darwin's natural selection ?| To many 





