102 HUXLEY 



less infertile breeds from a common stock in a com- 

 paratively few years. But still, as the case stands at 

 present, this " little rift within the lute " is not to be 

 disguised or overlooked. 1 



Twenty-seven years afterwards, Huxley referred to 

 the insecurity of the logical foundation as remaining 

 in the absence of experiments with the results de- 

 manded; nevertheless, in the last speech which he 

 delivered in public, a few months before his death, he 

 expressed his unshaken belief in the theory 



propounded by Mr. Darwin thirty-four years ago as 

 the only hypothesis at present put before us which 

 has a sound scientific foundation. 2 



It may not be out of place to quote some suggestive 

 observations on Huxley's contention from an article 

 on the Life and Letters in a recent number of his 

 whilom antagonist, but now appreciative, if not 

 whole-hearted, disciple, the Quarterly Review : — 



It is not difficult to understand the mutual sterility 

 of natural species as an incidental result of their 

 separation for an immense period of time. In the 

 process of fertilisation a portion of a single cell- 

 nucleus from one individual fuses with a portion from 

 another individual, the two combining to form the 

 complete nucleus of the first cell of the offspring, 

 from which all the countless cells of the future in- 

 dividual will arise by division. Each part-nucleus 

 contains the whole of the hereditary qualities re- 



1 Coll. Essays, ii. p. 75. 2 jj t 389. 



