122 CHARLES DARWIN. 



better or defended it more vigorously and successfully, 

 but Huxley's own researches never lay in directions 

 which would have made them available as a test 

 of the theory. Of natural selection he might have 

 used the words of Mercutio it may not be " so deep 

 as a well, nor so wide as a church door," to contain 

 the whole explanation of evolution, " but 'tis enough 

 'twill serve " ; it will, at any rate, prevent him from 

 feeling the second ground on which he had main- 

 tained an agnostic position. 



I believe that he maintained these views with 

 inflexible consistency throughout his life, the only 

 indications of change being in the last year, when 

 the contrast between his certainty of evolution 

 and his uncertainty of natural selection, as ex- 

 pressed in the two speeches quoted on pp. 140, 141, 

 was, perhaps, more sharply marked than at any 

 other period. 



It is now proposed to support this conclusion by 

 many extracts from Huxley's writings, as well as 

 from his speeches, which have been alluded to above. 

 The deep interest of the subject, and the wide dif- 

 ferences of opinion with regard to it, justify, and 

 indeed demand, copious quotations selected from 

 works and speeches, written and spoken at many 

 different times during the years between 1858 and 

 1894. 



It may not be out of place to emphasise the fact 

 that the sole responsibility for the conclusions here 

 drawn rests with the author of this volume, and that 



