PROFESSOR POULTON. 17 



arisen in the one have been strengthened by resonance in the 

 other, to call to mind the dependence of the greatest of men 

 upon appreciation and sympathy. 



Professor Turner has recently shown that the shy and 

 sensitive genius of Newton, irritated by the correspondence 

 with Hooke, might perhaps have been altogether lost to 

 Science, were it not for the " immortal journey " made by 

 Halley from Oxford to Cambridge in August, 1684. 



Through the relationship and mutual interdependence 

 between great minds we can also trace the influence of 

 Oxford upon Darwin. Sir Ray Lankester spoke this morning 

 of the debt which Lyell owed to the teaching of Buckland 

 at Oxford, and how similar it was to the debt which Darwin 

 owed to Henslow at Cambridge. But there is the strongest 

 evidence, given in Darwin's own words, that he also owed a 

 deep debt to Lyell, and therefore indirectly to Buckland and 

 Oxford. 



The first volume of the first edition of Lyell's "Principles 

 of Geology " came out in 1830, just before Darwin started on 

 the voyage of the " Beagle." He was advised by Henslow to 

 read it, but on no account to believe the views therein con- 

 tained ; but Darwin was proud to remember that, at the very 

 first opportunity of testing Lyell's reasoning, he recognised 

 the infinite superiority of his teachings over those of all others. 

 Many years later he wrote to L. Horner : " I always feel as 



if my books came half out of Lyell's brain I have 



always thought that the great merit of the Principles was that 

 it altered the whole tone of one's mind, and therefore that, 

 when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it 

 partially through his eyes." 



When did Darwin acknowledge his debt in this way ? It 

 was in August, 1844. In 1842 he had written the first brief 

 account of his theory of evolution that sketch which will 

 now be for the first time in the hands of the public that 

 sketch of which, thanks to your generosity, a gift has been 

 made to every guest whom you are welcoming to Cambridge, 

 a work which I for my part look forward to reading with 

 greater pleasure and greater interest than any book I have 



possessed. In 1844 Darwin had further elaborated this 



