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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 282. 



the loser, mankind was certainlj' the gainer ; 

 and, indeed, it was a gain to science itself 

 to be taught that her interests were not hers 

 alone, and that not by one tie or by two, 

 but by many, was her welfare bound up 

 with the common good of all. To many, 

 perhaps, the great man whose memory 

 we are here met to honor was known 

 chiefly as the' brilliant expositor of the 

 far-reaching views of that other great 

 man who through his statue is now looking 

 down upon us. Your Royal Highness is 

 doubtless at this moment thinking of that 

 interesting occasion, fifteen years ago, when 

 you unveiled that statue of Darwin, and 

 you are calling to mind the weighty words 

 then spoken by him whose own statue 

 brings us here to-day. Huxley, it is true, 

 fought for Darwin, and, indeed, 'he was 

 ever a fighter.' But he fought not that 

 Darwin might prevail ; he fought for this 

 alone — that the views which Darwin had 

 brought forward might be examined solely 

 by the clear light of truth, untroubled by 

 the passion of party or by the prejudice of 

 preconceived opinion. As he never claimed 

 for those views the infallibility of a new 

 gospel, so he always demanded that they 

 should not be peremptorily set aside as al- 

 ready proved to be wrong. Huxley worked 

 for his fellow-men in many ways other than 

 the way of quiet scientific research. Had 

 we not known this we should have thought 

 that his whole life had been given up to 

 original scientific investigation, so much 

 has the progress of biological science, since 

 he put his hand to it, been due to his labors. 

 On the sands of many a track of biologic 

 inquiry he has left his footprints, and his 

 footprint has ever been to those coming 

 after him a token to press on with courage 

 and with hope. The truths with which he 

 enriched science are made known in his 

 written works ; but that is a part onlj' of 

 what he did for science. No younger man, 

 coming to him for help and guidance, ever 



went empty away ; and we all — anato- 

 mists, zoologists, geologists, physiologists, 

 botanists, and anthropologists — came to 

 him. The biologists of to-day, all of us, 

 not of this country alone, but of the 

 whole world of science, forming, as it were, 

 a scattered fleeting monument of this great 

 man, are proud at the unveiling of this 

 visible lasting statue here. May I crave 

 your Royal Highness's permission to seize 

 this opportunity to assure you incidentally, 

 but none the less from the bottom of our 

 hearts, on the part of men of science, that 

 we in common with all her Majesty's sub- 

 jects are rejoicing that you escaped the 

 dreadful peril to which a few days back you 

 were exposed, and to express to you our 

 continued esteem and respect. 



The Duke of Devonshire said : I had 

 the honor nearly five years ago of presiding 

 over a meeting of the committee which had 

 been formed for the purpose of establishing 

 a memorial to Professor Huxley. I have now 

 to report to your Royal Highness that the 

 labors of that committee are completed, and 

 that they desire to present the statue to your 

 Royal Highness on behalf of the Trustees of 

 the British Museum. The subscriptions to 

 this memorial, as Professor Ray Lankester 

 has already observed, have come not only 

 from, this country, but from evei-y other civil- 

 ized country in the world. This beautiful 

 statue, the work of Mr. Onslow Ford) 

 has been completed under the superin- 

 tendence of the committee, but the real 

 memorial of the man is to be found in his 

 writings and in the influence which he 

 exercised and is still exercising upon the 

 minds of j'ounger men, many of whom, we 

 may hope, will in the future emulate his 

 noble example. 



The Prince of Wales then, amid cheers, 

 withdrew the covering from the statue, and 

 said : I consider it a very high compli- 

 ment that I have been asked to-day by the 

 Huxley Memorial Committee to unveil this 



