46 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



And finally : — 



" Mr. Darwin abhors mere speculation as nature abhors a 

 vacuum. He is as greedy of cases and precedents as any con- 

 stitutional lawyer, and all the principles he lays down are 

 capable of being brought to the test of observation and experi- 

 ment. The path he bids us follow professes to be not a mere 

 airy track, fabricated of ideal cobwebs, but a solid and broad 

 bridge of facts. If it be so, it will carry us safely over many a 

 chasm in our knowledge, and lead us to a region free from the 

 snares of those fascinating but barren virgins, the Final Causes, 

 against whom a high authority has so justly warned us " (Coll. 

 Essays, ii, p. i). 



This year he was appointed Secretary to the Geological 

 Society, a new kind of activity in which he rendered 

 eminent service till 1885, when he resigned his Pre- 

 sidency of the Royal Society. During the summer he 

 also took part in a movement initiated by Dr. Carpenter, 

 to which in part may be traced the origin of the marine 

 biological stations that now play such an important 

 role in science. For he spent some time trawling off 

 Arran, where Carpenter some years before had found 

 suitable head-quarters in a cottage on Holy Island (in 

 Lamlash Bay), and in the following winter carried out 

 investigations on the spawning of herrings in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bute, this being the commencement of his 

 fishery work. At Huxley's request, Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, then head of the Geological Survey, con- 

 sented to subsidize this pioneer scheme for a term of 

 years. 



Mention must also be made of the fact that Tyndall 

 was at this time appointed Professor of Physics in the 

 Royal School of Mines, a post which he retained till 

 1868, and this intimate association meant much to 

 Huxley in a variety of ways, and cemented what was 

 already a friendship of no common order. One aspect 



