December 26. 1895] 



NATURE 



185 



who have entered on that subject how much science owes to 

 Huxley. But Huxley was not a man who was only a specialist, 

 simply content to investigate his special subject in the complete 

 and thorough manner which characterised all his work. From 

 the very beginning he had a mind that must extend into philo- 

 sophic thought. His moral lessons from his biological work 

 extended even into the field of politics, and his contributions 

 to thought in respect of theology, in themselves are such 

 as to put Huxley's name and fame in a very high 

 position indeed, as a man thoroughly determined to give all the 

 benefit he could to mankind. As a worker who gives his life, 

 who sacrifices his health, who sacrifices his time, who gives up 

 everything for the advancement of science ; but, as he tells us 

 himself, with an object which he felt to be even greater than the 

 advancement of science, the promotion of the welfare, moral 

 and material, of mankind : who deserves a memorial or a 

 monument better than Huxley? 



The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., in seconding the 

 resolution, said : — 



I gladly welcome the opportunity which the managers of 

 this meeting have given me of lending such support as I can to 

 the proposals that have been laid before you, for Prof. Huxley 

 was a man who had many titles to our gratitude. I need not 

 dwell upon what your Chairman has said with regard to Prof. 

 Huxley s services as a teacher, or to the services he constantly 

 gave to the Government of the day in lending his great 

 talents to any investigations that were required of him. 

 But putting all these relatively subordinate matters out of 

 mind, Prof. Huxley, as a man of letters, and as a man of 

 science, surely deserves from his fellow countrymen some 

 permanent memorial. Every one whom I am addressing is 

 probably well acquainted with those works which, quite apart 

 from the matter which they contained, have earned for their 

 author the reputation of being a master of clear, lucid, and 

 vigorous exposition, not easily to be matched in the whole 

 gallery of our literature. Lord Kelvin, in the observations 

 which he has just made to you, and others far more qualified 

 than I am to speak on such subjects, who will address you 

 before the meeting closes, will give some indications of the great 

 extent of the scientific labours and discoveries which will always 

 be associated with Prof. Huxley's name. For my own part, 

 however, if I were to try to choose among the many titles to our 

 gratitude which he possesses, I am not sure that I should seek 

 for it either in his literarj' performances, distinguished though 

 they were, or in the series of scientific discoveries which 

 have given him so distinguished a place among English 

 biologists. It appears to me that Prof. Huxley has another 

 claim, at least as great upon the gratitude of those who were 

 born in the generation subsequent to that of Darwin. I take it 

 that the great scientific fact of the latter half of the nineteenth 

 century is the establishment of the doctrine of Evolution upon a 

 scientific basis. I do not pretend to say for a moment, that in 

 his labours in that direction. Prof. Huxley could be put upon a 

 level with the great scientific originator of the doctrine of the 

 Origin of Species, or with a very different and very eminent 

 man — Mr. Herbert Spencer, who occupies so remarkable a 

 position upon the borderland between science and philosophy. 

 But this, I think, may truly be said, that in the critical period 

 i)f scientific history which followed the publication of the 

 "Origin of Species" in 1857, the man who did, perhaps, 

 more than any other to stimulate public interest in the 

 subject, to bring into line all the younger scientific thinkers of 

 the day, to inspire them with his ardour, and with his con- 

 victions, was, probably, Prof. Huxley. That is no small title to 

 fame. If it be the fact, that it is now the common privilege 

 of all educated men to look at this material world in which we 

 live, from the evolutionary standpoint, we owe it not merely to 

 the great original investigators who started the theory, but to 

 those who, like Prof. Huxley, did so much by their scientific 

 di.scoveries to support it, or even more by their scientific 

 preaching and their example, to spread it among all classes of 

 their fellow countrymen. There were other questions never far 

 absent from the mind of Prof. Huxley, as any one who knows 

 his work will admit, as to which he has left few positive results, 

 and concerning which differences of opinion exist ; but there is, 

 or there ought to be, no difference of opinion as to that great 

 claim on our consideration which I have mentioned, and this, 

 even if it stood alone, dissociated from his literary and strictly 

 scientific work, it would, in my judgment, be quite sufficient 



ground for our using every exertion to carry into effect the 

 resolution which it is my honour now to second. 



Lord Playfair, in supporting the resolution, said : — 



It is scarcely necessary to say one word in regard to the 

 eminence and the scientific position of Prof Huxley, but it has 

 been my privilege to be associated with him in many of his 

 undertakings and labours as a public man. I was a Professor 

 with him in this Institution, and had the pleasure of having him 

 as a colleague in many public inquiries and on various Royal 

 Commissions for the'benefit of the public. In higher education, 

 the Scotch University Commission benefited by his wise counsel 

 and breadth of culture. The present position of technical 

 education also owes much to the advocacy and the scientific 

 lectures which Prof. Huxley gave through the country. There 

 is one labour in which to the time of his last illness, I had great 

 pleasure in being associated with him — that was in the establish- 

 ment of .scientific scholarships of £\'^Q a year in almost every 

 college and university, not only in the United Kingdom, 

 but in the Empire of India and throughout all our 

 Colonies. That was a subject very dear to Prof. Huxley's 

 heart, and although he was not much engaged in the executive 

 part of it— which fell to my share as a Commissioner for the 

 Exhibition of 1851 — Huxley was a much-valued adviser 

 in all matters relating to the establishment of these 

 scholarships. They are all Research Scholarships, and 

 are now exercising a benign and important influence over the 

 science education of our great Empire. One whole autumn I 

 had the pleasure of being in a gunboat with Prof. Huxley — 

 being both on the Royal Commission for the examination into 

 the fisheries of the British Coasts — and it is scarcely necessary 

 to say he was a most active and valuable member of that 

 Commission, both from his scientific knowledge and in 

 estimating the value of the evidence of the fishermen in 

 various parts of the fishery coasts of England. I do not, in 

 speaking of his labours as a public man, wish to overrate them 

 in comparison with his scientific work. On the contrary-, I 

 think discoveries in abstract science are of far greater import- 

 ance to humanity than any labours performed for the particular 

 generation in which the man lives. Still his public work had a 

 great effect in making the name of Huxley popular and beloved 

 by the people of this country ; and we are entitled to ask the 

 people for whom he has done so much in his generation — for 

 he has left England better than he found it — to join us in 

 making a memorial worthy of this great man whose memory is a 

 possession dear to the country. 



The resolution was then put to the meeting and carried 

 unanimously. 



Sir Joseph Hooker (Chairman of the Provisional Committee) 

 moved the second resolution : — 



" That the memorial do take the form of a statue, to be placed 

 in the Museum of Natural History, and a medal in connection 

 with the Royal College of Science, and that the surplus be 

 devoted to the furtherance of biological science in some manner 

 to be hereafter determined by the Committee, dependent upon 

 the amount collected." 



He said : As Chairman of the Provisional Committee, appointed 

 to consider the question of a fitting testimonial to the great 

 services to science and education of Mr. Huxley, I have the 

 honour of saying a few words in regard to the result of its 

 deliberations. Before doing this, you must allow me to express 

 the singular honour I felt in being appointed to that jwsition of 

 Chairman, not only because of the great and important duty, but 

 especially because of my great, long, and enduring afi"ection and re- 

 gard for Prof. Huxley. We both entered the public service as 

 assistant surgeons and volunteer naturalists in the Royal Navy. 

 Before Prof. Huxley went out in the Rattlesnake, the choice 

 lay between us for the appointment to that vessel, and, for- 

 tunately, the choice fell upon him. Immediately upon his 

 return a strong friendship sprang up between us, which has 

 lasted forty-five years, throughout which he has been one of my 

 staunchest and firmest friends. This friendship has affected me 

 through life, and I owe a great deal of my success in scientific 

 life to the advice, the stimulus, and the example which Prof. 

 Huxley set me during a long career. After what has already 

 been said by previous speakers, it would be a work of superero- 

 gation for me to go into any detail as to the great value of the 

 services of Mr. Huxley, whether to science or education. You 

 will be pleased to hear that these are appreciated, even more 

 abroad than in this country : although if pleased in one sense, I 



NO. 1365, VOL. 53] 



