THE INTERPRETER 99 



precis of Darwin's manuscript should be read at a 

 meeting of the Linnean Society, which was held on 

 1st July, 1858. l Hooker says that the interest excited 

 was intense, but no discussion, only desultory talk, 

 " with bated breath," followed the reading, and the 

 matter caused no commotion outside a limited circle. 

 Huxley does not appear to have been present, and 

 it is doubtful if he knew aught of the proceedings 

 save by hearsay. For, writing to Hooker on 5th 

 September, 1858, he says, "Wallace's impetus seems 

 to have set Darwin going in earnest, and I am re- 

 joiced to hear we shall learn his views in full, at last. 

 I look forward to a great revolution being effected." 2 

 And, in his lecture " On the Persistent Types of 

 Animal Life," delivered at the Royal Institution on 

 3d June, 1859, tnere is no reference to the Darwin- 

 Wallace theory, only allusion to the 



hypothesis which supposes the species of living beings 

 living at any time to be the result of the gradual modi- 

 fication of preexisting species — a hypothesis which, 

 though unproven and sadly damaged by some of its 

 supporters, is yet the only one to which physiology 

 lends any countenance. 3 



He was not a convert till the book appeared. 

 " What will Huxley say ? " is the burden of Darwin's 



1 An excellent abstract of the joint Memoir is given by Professor 

 E. B. Poulton in his Charles Darwin, pp. 65-78. 



2 1. 159. 3 Scient. Memoirs, ii. p. 90. 



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