REMINISCENCES OF HUXLEY 201 
published in 1863. Not long afterward, in reading 
the lay sermon on “ The Advisableness of Improving 
Natural Knowledge,” I felt that here was a poetic soul 
whom one could not help loving. In those days I fell 
in with Youmans, who had come back from England 
bubbling and brimming over with racy anecdotes 
about the philosophers and men of science. Of course 
the Soapy Sam incident was not forgotten, and You- 
mans’ version of it, which was purely from hearsay, 
could make no pretension to verbal accuracy; never- 
theless it may be worth citing. Mr. Leonard Huxley 
‘has-carefully compared several versions from eye and 
ear witnesses, together with his father’s own com- 
ments, and I do not know where one could find a more 
‘striking illustration of the difficulty of attaining absolute 
accuracy in writing even contemporary history. 
As I heard the anecdote from Youmans: It was at 
the meeting of the British Association at Oxford in 
1860, soon after the publication of Darwin’s epoch- 
making book, and while people in general were wag- 
ging their heads at it, that the subject came up for 
discussion before a fashionable and hostile audience. 
Samuel Wilberforce, the plausible and self-complacent 
Bishop of Oxford, commonly known as “ Soapy Sam,” 
launched out in a rash speech, conspicuous for its 
ignorant misstatements, and highly seasoned with ap- 
peals to the prejudices of the audience, upon whose 
lack of intelligence the speaker relied. Near him sat 
Huxley, already eminent as a man of science, and 
known to look favourably upon Darwinism, but more 
or less youthful withal, only five-and-thirty, so that the 
bishop anticipated sport in badgering him. At the 
close of his speech he suddenly turned upon Huxley 
