1879 A RETRACTATION 269 



has attained middle life, has been so fortunate as to reach 

 that age without being 'obliged, now and then, to look 

 back upon some acquaintance, or, it may be, intimate ally 

 of his youth, who has not quite verified the promises of 

 that youth. Nay, let us suppose he has done quite the 

 reverse, and has become a very questionable sort of 

 character, and a person whose acquaintance does not seem 

 quite so desirable as it was in those young days ; his way 

 and yours have separated ; you have not heard much 

 about him ; but eminently trustworthy persons have 

 assured you he has done this, that, or the other ; and is 

 more or less of a black sheep, in fact The President, in 

 an early part of his address, alluded to a certain thing 

 I hardly know whether I ought to call it a thing or not 

 of which he gave you the name Bathybius, and he 

 stated, with perfect justice, that I had brought that thing 

 into notice ; at any rate, indeed, I christened it, and I 

 am, in a certain sense, its earliest friend. For some time 

 after that interesting Bathybius was launched into the 

 world, a number of admirable persons took the little thing 

 by the hand, and made very much of it, and as the 

 President was good enough to tell you, I am glad to be 

 able to repeat and verify all the statements, as a matter 

 of fact, which I had ventured to make about it. And so 

 things went on, and I thought my young friend Bathybius 

 would turn out a credit to me. But I am sorry to say, 

 as time has gone on, he has not altogether verified the 

 promise of his youth. 



In the first place, as the President told you, he could 

 not be found when he was wanted ; and in the second 

 place, when he was found, all sorts of things were said 

 about him. Indeed, I regret to be obliged to tell you 

 that some persons of severe minds went so far as to say 

 that he was nothing but simply a gelatinous precipitate 

 of slime, which had carried down organic matter. If that 

 is so, I am very sorry for it, for whoever may have joined 

 in this error, I am undoubtedly primarily responsible for 





