422 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xvii 



and he said, forgetting I was a member of the latter : 

 " Oh ! we don't want any of those wire-pullers ! " Poor 

 dear innocent dull-as -ditch water PhiL Club ! 



Mention has already been made of the unveiling 

 of the Darwin statue at South Kensington on June 

 9, when, as President of the Eoyal Society, Huxley 

 delivered an address in the name of the Memorial 

 Committee, on handing over the statue of Darwin to 

 H.RH. the Prince of Wales, as representative of the 

 Trustees of the British Museum. The concluding 

 words of the speech deserve quotation : 



We do not make this request \i.e. to accept the statue] 

 for the mere sake of perpetuating a memory ; for so long 

 as men occupy themselves with the pursuit of truth, the 

 name of Darwin runs no more risk of oblivion than does 

 that of Copernicus, or that of Harvey. 



Nor, most assuredly, do we ask you to preserve the 

 statue in its cynosural position in this entrance hall of 

 our National Museum of Natural History as evidence that 

 Mr. Darwin's views have received your official sanction ; 

 for science does not recognise such sanctions, and commits 

 suicide when it adopts a creed. 



No, we beg you to cherish this memorial as a symbol 

 by which, as generation after generation of students enter 

 yonder door, they shall be reminded of the ideal according 

 to which they must shape their lives, if they would turn 

 to the best account the opportunities offered by the great 

 institution under your charge. 



Nor was this his only word about Darwin. Some- 

 what later, Professor Mivart sent him the proofs 

 of an article on Darwin, asking for his criticism, 

 and received the following reply, which describes 



