i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



To sum up, I think I have proved that State interference is 

 necessary for the protection of the natural oyster beds on the At- 

 lantic coast ; that the artificial propagation of spat would ma- 

 terially assist in providing an abundant supply of food oysters ; 

 that private ownerships in certain plots of marginal waters should 

 be induced by protective State legislation, thus encouraging oys- 

 ter planters and cultivators to invest their time and money in the 

 industry; and that, unless speedy measures are taken in these 

 directions and for a more general "planting" of seed oysters, 

 something akin to an oyster famine is not measurably far away. 



EVOLUTION AND ETHICS.* 



BY PROF. THOMAS H. HUXLEY, F. E. S. 

 I. 



Soleo enim et in aliena castra transire, non tanquam transfuga, sed tanquam explorator. 

 (L. ANN.SI SENECA EPIST. II, 4.) [For you must know I sometimes make an excursion into 

 the enemy's camp, not by way of deserter, but as a spy.] 



is a delightful child's story, known by the title of 

 -L Jack and the Bean-stalk, with which my contemporaries 

 who are present will be familiar. But so many of our grave and 

 reverend juniors have been brought up on severer intellectual 

 diet, and perhaps have become acquainted with fairyland only 

 through primers of comparative mythology, that it may be need- 

 ful to give an outline of the tale. It is a legend of a bean-plant, 

 which grows and grows until it reaches the high heavens, and 

 there spreads out into a vast canopy of foliage. The hero, being 

 moved to climb the stalk, discovers that the leafy expanse sup- 

 ports a world, composed of the same elements as that below, but 

 yet strangely new ; and his adventures there, on which I may not 

 dwell, must have completely changed his views of the nature of 

 things, though the story, not having been composed by or for 

 philosophers, has nothing to say about views. 



My present enterprise has a certain analogy to that of the 

 daring adventurer. I beg you to accompany me in an attempt to 

 reach a world which, to many, is probably strange, by the help of 

 a bean. It is, as you know, a simple, inert-looking thing. Yet, 

 if planted under proper conditions, of which sufficient warmth is 

 one of the most important, it manifests active powers of a very 

 remarkable kind. A small green seedling emerges, rises to the 



* The Romanes Lecture, delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, May 18, 1893. 

 Reprinted by the kind permission of Macmillan & Co. 



