1885 SUPPORT OF SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 431 



truth of the fable, which demoralises them in seekiilg for 

 all sorts of sophistical shifts to bolster up the fable, and 

 which finally is discredited and repudiated when the 

 fable is finally proved to be a fable ? If Satan had 

 wished to devise the best means of discrediting " Revela- 

 tion " he could not have done better. 



Have you not forgotten to mention the leg of 

 Archaeopteryx as a characteristically bird-like structure ? 

 It is so, and it is to be recollected that at present we 

 know nothing of the greater part of the skeletons of the 

 older mesozoic mammals only teeth and jaws. What 

 the shoulder -girdle of Stereognathus might be like is 

 uncertain. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



The following letters have a curious interest as 

 showing what, in the eyes of a supporter of educa- 

 tional progress, might and might not be done at 

 Oxford to help on scientific education : 



To THE MASTER OF BALLIOL 



4 MARLBO ROUGH PLACE, 

 Dec. 21, 1885. 



MY DEAK MASTER l I have been talking to some of 

 my friends about stimulating the Royal Society to address 

 the Universities on the subject of giving greater weight 

 to scientific acquirements, and I find that there is a 

 better prospect than I had hoped for of getting President 

 and Council to move. But I am not quite sure about 

 the course which it will be wisest for us to adopt, and I 

 beg a little counsel on that matter. 



I presume that we had better state our wishes in the 



1 This is from the first draft of the letter. Huxley's letters to 

 Jowett were destroyed by Jowett's orders, together with the rest 

 of his correspondence. . 



