i86 



NATURE 



[December 26, 1895 



am afraid yon will not feel satisfied in another. In a notice put 

 into my hands by the Secretary, I find the Committee includes 

 over 700 names ; a special feature of it is the high percentage of 

 acceptances from foreigners, which exceeds that from home 

 sources, but I hope this state of things will be speedily remedied. 

 Many of the foreign acceptances have been accompanied by 

 letters expressing the highest admiration for Mr. Huxley, and 

 good wishes for the success of the memorial. 



With regard to the duties of the Provi§ional Committee, I 

 need not say there were a great many proposals laid before 

 them. It is unnecessary to go through these proposals, but they 

 received the greatest attention. They may be grouped under 

 four heads : 



( 1 ) A statue to occupy a public position. 



(2) The founding of Exhibitions, Scholarships, and Medals for 

 Biological Research, &c. 



(3) The founding of Lectureships, &c. 



(4) The republication of Prof. Huxley's Scientific Publica- 

 tions, in a collective form. 



This last proposal has, I am glad to say, been partly met by 

 a most liberal offer made by Messrs. Macmillan, who are 

 prepared to publish, at their own risk, in a collective memorial 

 form, the scientific papers of the late Mr. Huxley, now scattered 

 over the publications of various learned societies and periodicals, 

 provided that the size does not exceed two or three volumes of 

 royal 8vo. ; all we have to do being to appoint some one to 

 supervise this invaluable series of papers. With regard to the 

 memorial, the Committee decided to recommend that it should 

 take the form of a statue and a medal, as now set forth in the 

 resolution proposed. 



Mr. Leslie Stephen, in seconding the resolution, said : — 

 I must preface the few words which I have to address to 

 you, by saying that I had to overcome a certain degree of 

 reluctance in addressing myself to you to-day — I did, however, 

 overcome that feeling— because I feel that I am under the stress 

 of a strong sense of personal gratitude to Prof. Huxley. I knew 

 him for, I think, nearer forty than thirty years, and during our 

 intercourse it happened, more than once, that he was able to 

 show kindness to me on occasions in which kindness is doubly 

 valuable, and on which one acquires a considerable degree of 

 power of discriminating between merely conventional courtesy, 

 and the outpourings of a warm, cordial heart. One of these 

 occasions happened only recently ; and I have so keen a 

 recollection of Huxley's kindness and cordial sympathy, that I 

 could not refuse to come here to say a few words to-day. I 

 know that I am only saying what is felt by all who knew him, 

 that he was a man who was not only to be honoured for his 

 intellectual power, but to be loved for his masculine and affec- 

 tionate nature. But qualities of that kind are happily not so 

 rare as to demand any public testimonial. Only when they are 

 combined with others, it is not merely a duty, but a privilege to 

 seize any occasion of paying what honour we can to their pos- 

 sessor. I will not, however, dwell upon them ; and, still less, 

 upon those claims of Huxley as an advancer of science, of which 

 there are other incomparably superior witnesses present. There 

 is one point on which I, perhaps, may say a word or two without 

 presumption. I have had the misfortune to be compelled to devote 

 the greatest part of my energies to books, and only to see facts 

 through the distorting medium of literature. It fell to my lot 

 lately to read through the collected works of Prof. Huxley, and 

 when I came to the end I felt a conviction — which Mr. Balfour 

 has already expressed — that when the history of his time comes 

 to be written, Prof. Huxley will find a place not only among the 

 leaders in the most characteristic movement of the time, but also 

 as one of the very first writers of English. There are certain 

 reasons, perhaps, vvhy his claims in that capacity may not be 

 acknowledged so quickly as they ought to be by the ordinary 

 critic. Nobody, of course, can read his lectures without ad- 

 miring the force and vigour of the great intellectual gladiator. 

 One feels of his style what I remember Hosea Biglow says, 

 in a different connection, that — "for putting in a downright 

 lick betwixt the eyes of humbug, none could match it." But 

 then the critic of the present day is apt to take account only of 

 what he calls "form," and not to attend and to dwell upon 

 the more evanescent and indirect, intangible facts of literature ; 

 he is apt to think that the facts state themselves, that the 

 thing is so clear it does not want any particular skill to work it 

 out. The argument, when it is set going, seems to evolve of its 

 own accord, and then he criticises in the style of the famous 

 gentleman, who said, of some great work, " I could have written 



NO. 1365, VOL. 53] 



it myself, if I had only had a mind to." The obvious retort 

 was — " it was just jnind that was wanted." And what a style 

 like Prof. Huxley's — which calls no attention to itself, but just 

 sets the argument plainly before it — what that shows is certainly 

 the possession, in the first place, of a clear, logical under- 

 standing, which always goes to the heart of matter ; but it 

 shows also, I think, some other great qualities. One can- 

 not help observing the love of fair-play, which prevents him 

 from ever striking a foul blow, and his loyalty to his friends, 

 which gives a glow and warmth to his style, in standing up for 

 such a man as Darwin for example ; and besides that, the un- 

 flinching love of truth, the hatred of throwing dust in other 

 people's eyes or letting it obscure his own, and, finally, what 

 has been most truly noticed already, his strong preoccupation 

 with the greatest and deepest problems of the time which, how- 

 ever they may be solved, whether in his sense or any other, 

 require to be approached in a manly, serious spirit, as he always 

 approached them. These, as I take it to be, very shortly are 

 the mental and moral qualities which will give to Huxley's 

 writings a place not only in science, but in the best kind of 

 English literature, and in that faith it gives me the greatest 

 pleasure to be allowed to have the honour of seconding this 

 motion. 



The resolution was then put and carried. 

 Mr. Alma Tadema moved the third resolution : — 

 "That the persons named in the list which has been circulated 

 do form a General Committee, and that the following twenty 

 persons be selected to form an Executive, with power to elect 

 its own Chairman, and to add to the number of the General 

 Committee : — 



Sir W. Besant. 

 Sir J. Donnelly, K.C.B. 

 Sir T. Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S. 

 Sir" J. Fayrer, K.C.S.I., 



F.R.S. 

 Sir W. H. Flower, K.C.B., 



F.R.S. 

 Prok. M. Foster, F.R.S. 

 Prof. E. Frankland,F.R.S. 

 Sir a. Geikie, F.R.S. 

 Sir T. Hooker, K.C.S.L, 



F.R.S. 

 Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 



F.R.S. 



Sir J. Lister, Bart., P.R.S. 



Prof. J. N. Lockyer, C.B., 

 F.R.S. 



Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. 



Mr. Briton Riviere, R.A. 



Dr. p. L. Sclater, F.R.S. 



Lord Shand. 



Sir H. Thompson. 



Mr. Spencer Walpole. 



The Right Hon. Sir J. Lub- 

 bock, Bart., M. P., K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., Hon. Treasurer. 



Prof. G. B. Howes, Hon. 

 Secretary." 



He said : — It would be presumptuous in me, a painter, after 

 all you have heard and all you know about the departed friend, 

 to say any more to you as to why humanity owes so much to that 

 giant of science. But you know that, in England, science and 

 art are merged together. We have our department, and so I 

 have a certain right to say a few words. As it has been already 

 so rightly remarked. Prof. Huxley was a man of innate worth 

 and energy : when you were in his presence you felt as if you 

 were sitting in the sunshine, and sunshine is the life of an artist. 

 Besides that, he loved art, and art flowed in his blood, as you 

 know so well, because one of his daughters was a first-class 

 artist. 



Sir Andrew Noble seconded the resolution, which was carried 

 unanimously. 



Prof. Ci. B. Howes (Joint Honorary Secretary of the Pro- 

 visional Committee) announced that the sum alieady received 

 in donations to the memorial was ;^2i3, and that £ZAA rnore 

 was promised, making a total of ^557. The donations included 

 ^100 from Andrew Carnegie, Esq. ; ;f 100 from J. AUsop, 

 Esq. ; and ;^5o from the Marquis of Salisbury. 



Sir John Evans proposed that a hearty vote of thanks be 

 given to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire for his kindness in 

 presiding at the meeting. 



Sir J. Fayrer seconded the resolution, which was carried 

 unanimously. 



The Duke of Devonshire, in reply, said :— I can only say I 

 am very much indebted to you for the cordial vote of thanks 

 you have been so good as to pass to me. I need not repeat what I 

 said in opening these proceedings — that I feel as fully as any one 

 present can possibly do how entirely deficient I am in any claims of 

 a personal character to occupy the distinguished position for which 

 I have been selected. I think, however, it is perfectly right that 

 some member of the present Government of the country should 

 be associated with a movement of such national interest and im- 

 portance as the present one, and I am aware that, as the Minister 



