306 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVI 



"though entitled a Preliminary Essay, threw an 

 entirely new light on the affinities of these creatures, 

 and, with the continuation published later, in 1866, 

 still remains a standard work." 



The question of the admission of ladies to the 

 learned societies was already being mooted, and a 

 letter to Sir C. Lyell gives his ideas thus early not 

 only on this point, but on the general question of 

 women's education. 



March 17, 1860. 



MY DEAR SIR CHARLES To use the only forcible 

 expression, I "twig" your meaning perfectly, but I 

 venture to think the parable does not apply. For the 

 Geological Society is not, to my mind, a place of educa- 

 tion for students, but a place of discussion for adepts ; 

 and the more it is applied to the former purpose the less 

 competent it must become to fulfil the latter its primary 

 and most important object. 



I am far from wishing to place any obstacle in the 

 way of the intellectual advancement and development of 

 women. On the contrary, I don't see how we are to 

 make any permanent advancement while one-half of the 

 race is sunk, as nine-tenths of women are, in mere 

 ignorant parsonese superstitions ; and to show you that 

 my ideas are practical, I have fully made up my mind, if 

 I can carry out my own plans, to give my daughters the 

 same training in physical science as their brother will 

 get, so long as he is a boy. They, at any rate, shall not 

 be got up as man-traps for the matrimonial market. If 

 other people would do the like, the next generation would 

 see women fit to be the companions of men in all their 

 pursuits though I don't think that men have anything 

 to fear from their competition. But you know as well 

 as I do that other people won't do the like, and five-sixths 



