1862 ADDRESS TO THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 297 



Huxley delivered a brilliant critical discourse on what 

 palaeontology has and has not done, and proved the value 

 of negative evidence, how much the progressive develop- 

 ment system has been pushed too far, how little can be 

 said in favour of Owen's more generalised types when we 

 go back to the vertebrata and invertebrata of remote ages, 

 the persistency of many forms high and low throughout 

 time, how little we know of the beginning of life upon 

 the earth, how often events called contemporaneous in 

 Geology are applied to things which, instead of coincid- 

 ing in time, may have happened ten millions of years 

 apart, etc. ; and a masterly sketch comparing the past and 

 present in almost every class in zoology, and sometimes of 

 botany cited from Hooker, which he said he had done 

 because it was useful to look into the cellars and see how 

 much gold there was there, and whether the quantity of 

 bullion justified such an enormous circulation of paper. 

 I never remember an address listened to with such applause, 

 though there were many private protests against some of 

 his bold opinions. 



The dinner at Willis's was well attended ; I should 

 think eighty or more present . . . and late in the even- 

 ing Huxley made them merry by a sort of mock-modest 

 speech. 



JEUMYN STREET, May 6, 1862. 



MY DEAR DARWIN I was very glad to get your note 

 about my address. I profess to be a great stoic, you 

 know, but there are some people from whom I am glad to 

 get a pat on the back. Still I am not quite content with 

 that, and I want to know what you think of the argu- 

 ment whether you agree with what I say about con- 

 temporaneity or not, and whether you are prepared to 

 admit as I think your views compel you to do that the 

 whole Geological Record is only the skimmings of the pot 

 of life. 



Furthermore, I want you to chuckle with me over the 



