462 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XXIII 



and, though my engagements in Cambridge did not allow 

 me to attend regularly, I retain a very distinct recollection 

 of the part taken by your father in the debates at which 

 we were present together. There were several members 

 of the Society with whose philosophical views I had, on 

 the whole, more sympathy ; but there was certainly no 

 one to whom I found it more pleasant and more instruc- 

 tive to listen. Indeed I soon came to the conclusion that 

 there was only one other member of our Society who 

 could be placed on a par with him as a debater, on the 

 subjects discussed at our meetings ; and that was, curiously 

 enough, a man of the most diametrically opposite opinion 

 W. G. Ward, the well-known advocate of Ultra- 

 montanism. Ward was by training, and perhaps by 

 nature, more of a dialectician ; but your father was un- 

 rivalled in the clearness, precision, succinctness, and point 

 of his statements, in his complete and ready grasp of his 

 own system of philosophical thought, and the quickness 

 and versatility with which his thought at once assumed 

 the right attitude of defence against any argument coming 

 from any quarter. I used to think that while others of 

 us could perhaps find, on the spur of the moment, an 

 answer more or less effective to some unexpected attack, 

 your father seemed always able to find the answer I 

 mean the answer that it was reasonable to give, con- 

 sistently with his general view, and much the same 

 answer that he would have given if he had been allowed 

 the fullest time for deliberation. 



The general tone of the Metaphysical Society was one 

 of extreme consideration for the feelings of opponents, 

 and your father's speaking formed no exception to the 

 general harmony. At the same time I seem to remember 

 him as the most combative of all the speakers who took 

 a leading part in the debates. His habit of never wast- 

 ing words, and the edge naturally given to his remarks by 

 his genius for clear and effective statement, partly account 

 for this impression ; still I used to think that he liked 



