16 PROFESSOR POULTON. 



the Committee and the Secretaries, for the devotion with 

 which they have carried out the arrangements for this 

 celebration. I think no one who is not partly behind the 

 scene can have any idea of the immense labour it has been, 

 and I think that one and all we owe them a deep debt of 

 gratitude. I desire once again to thank respectfully the 

 gentlemen who have come in such numbers to pay this 

 supreme tribute to my father's memory. 



Professor E. B. POULTON said : Chancellor, your 

 Excellencies, my Lords and Gentlemen, it is a proud position 

 to be asked, as the representative of the University of Oxford, 

 to propose, on this memorable occasion, the toast of " The 

 University of Cambridge." It is with considerable diffidence 

 that I attempt to fill it. 



The greatness of a University may be most truly 

 measured by the greatness of its sons, and by the force of the 

 intellectual movements to which it has given rise. Mr. Balfour 

 has spoken of the mighty names borne by sons of Cambridge. 

 I trust that I shall enlist your sympathy in dwelling for a few 

 moments on the University life of one of the greatest of these,, 

 the illustrous man whom we commemorate to-day, and also 

 in attempting very briefly to show how his mature thoughts 

 were received in both the ancient Universities of this country. 

 It was in Cambridge, as you know well, that Charles Darwin 

 came under the influence of Professor Henslow, and received 

 his first inspiration in science. To Henslow he owed the 

 possibility of sailing in the " Beagle," the greatest event, as 

 he believed, in his whole scientific career the one event 

 which made all the rest possible. We must also remember 

 how Darwin's interest in geology was aroused by Professor 

 Sedgwick. It was on his return from a geological tour in 

 North Wales with Sedgwick that Darwin found the letter 

 from Henslow, offering him the post on the " Beagle." How- 

 ever lightly it was regarded by Darwin himself, there can be 

 no doubt of the great depth of his debt to Cambridge. 



In thinking over the names of the great men who have 

 sprung from Cambridge University I have been led to reflect 

 on the long harmonious years of sisterhood between our two 

 ancient Universities, to remember how the thoughts that have 



