THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 9 



applause. The Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Mackarness, was in the chair 

 when the paper received this unanimous welcome- — only twenty- 

 three years after the Oxford meeting at which another Bishop of 

 Oxford put his rude and foolish question to Huxley. It is pleasant 

 to know that their celebrated encounter left no bitterness, for 

 Huxley wrote in 1891 to Francis Darwin — ' In justice to the Bishop, 

 I am bound to say that he bore no malice, but was always courtesy 

 itself when we occasionally met in after years.' 



I remember as a youth receiving a gentle parental warning against 

 committing myself too entirely to a belief in evolution^ — a very 

 different experience from that of our President at Hull in 1922, my 

 friend Sir Charles Sherrington, who in 1873 was persuaded by his 

 mother to take the Origin with him on his summer holiday, with the 

 inspiring words- — ' It sets the door of the Universe ajar ! ' 



I have already recalled Dr. Wright's indignation at York in iSSi 

 as my only experience of opposition to a belief in Organic Evolution 

 at any of our meetings, and the published Proceedings confirm this 

 impression of unanimity. Thus, R. H. Traquair, addressing the 

 biologists at Bradford in 1900, said, ' I hardly think that we should 

 now find a single scientific worker who continues to hold on to the 

 old special creation idea ' ; and Lord Salisbury at Oxford in 1894, 

 referring to Darwin, said, ' He has, as a matter of fact, disposed of 

 the doctrine of the immutability of species. It has been mainly 

 associated in recent days with the honoured name of Agassiz, but 

 with him has disappeared the last defender of it who could claim 

 the attention of the world.' The mention of this great American 

 naturalist recalls Tyndall's fine address at Belfast in 1874 ^^"^ ^^^ 

 memories of Agassiz's words, ' I was not prepared to see this theory 

 received as it has been by the best intellects of our time. Its success 

 is greater than I could have thought possible.' 



Huxley, who had seconded the vote of thanks to Lord Salisbury, 

 wrote to Hooker a few days later : ' It was very queer to sit there 

 and hear the doctrines you and I were damned for advocating 

 thirty-four years ago at Oxford, enunciated as matters of course — 

 disputed by no reasonable man ! — in the Sheldonian Theatre by 

 the Chancellor. . . .' ^ 



A letter written two days earlier to Boyd Dawkins records Huxley's 

 opinion of another part of the address. * Lord Salisbury gave him- 

 self away wonderfully, but he was so good about Darwin himself 

 that I shut my eyes to all the nonsense he talked about Natural 

 Selection.' ® 



* Life and Letters, 1900, vol. ii, p. 379. 



• From a letter of August 10, 1894, printed in the Jesus College {Oxford) 

 Magazine, for Lent Term, 1928 ; and reprinted in Hope Reports, vol. xvi, 1929, 

 No. 3, p. 6. (Privately circulated to many scientific libraries.) Huxley's letter 

 of August 18, 1894, to Lewis Campbell {Life and Letters, vol. ii, p. 379) refers to 

 the same subject. 



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