HUXLEY AND NATURAL SELECTION. 137 



Then follows a brief but epigrammatic description, 

 such as only Huxley could have written, of the 

 theory, and some of the chief arguments which have 

 revolved round it. Occasionally he speaks as if he 

 were stating his own opinion as well as Darwin's, 

 but throughout .it seems to me that his object is 

 not to give his own views but to write a fair and 

 clear account of Darwin's theory, and to defend 

 it from a number of criticisms and modifications 

 which have been, from time to time, brought 

 forward. 



" Darwiniana " was published in 1893, and this 

 is the date of the Preface, in which Huxley speaks 

 of 



"... the ancient doctrine of Evolution, rehabilitated and 

 placed upon a sound scientific foundation, since, and in conse- 

 quence of, the publication of the ' Origin of Species . . .'" 



He thinks that readers will admit that in the 

 first two essays (see pages 124-128 of the present 

 volume) 



"... my zeal to secure fair play for Mr. Darwin, did 

 riot drive me into the position of a mere advocate ; and that, 

 while doing justice to the greatness of the argument, 1 did not 

 fail to indicate its weak points. I have never seen any reason 

 for departing from the position which I took up in these two 

 essays ; and the assertion which I sometimes meet with nowa- 

 days, that I have ' recanted ' or changed my opinions about 

 Mr. Darwin's views, is quite unintelligible to me." 



"As 1 have said in the seventh essay, [see pages 131, 132 

 of the present volume] the fact of evolution is to my mind 



